Department of History Mission

The Department of History promotes excellence in teaching, scholarship, and research.

Our mission is to ensure that our students engage critically with and understand historical events. We expose students to a broad range of historical periods and geographical areas and introduce them to a wide variety of primary and secondary historical sources.

Students learn to formulate and advance arguments based upon research and, in so doing, acquire essential research, writing, and problem-solving skills. 

The department encourages and provides opportunities for students to explore their interests through a variety of elective courses, individual research projects (with the support of a faculty member), study abroad programs, and history-related internships.

Our mission also includes the development and promotion of faculty research, with an understanding that our original contributions to the discipline directly benefit classroom instruction and help advance history as a field of human inquiry.