History

Faculty

Roy Palmer Domenico, Ph.D., Chair
Sean Brennan, Ph.D.
Shuhua Fan, Ph.D.
Christopher P. Gillett, Ph.D.
Aiala T. Levy, Ph.D.
Susan L. Poulson, Ph.D.
Adam J. Pratt, Ph.D.
Paul E. Sampson, Ph.D.
Robert W. Shaffern, Ph.D.

Mission Statement

The History Department embraces the Catholic and Jesuit spiritual vision and tradition of intellectual excellence. Through the pursuit of the truth of humankind’s past, the Department, cultivates critical scholarly habits and answers St Ignatius’s call for his followers to “seek God in all things.” In so doing, members of the Department and their students seek a keener understanding of the human experience and their own lives.

The Department enhances the liberal arts mission of the university by providing historical perspectives on the human condition and improving students’ abilities to read perceptively, write cogently, and think logically. The Department’s scholars and students study documents and artifacts in order to reconstruct and understand the human endeavor. Students gain cultural awareness as they learn how to find, evaluate, and apply information about past human activities.

History alumni are equipped to navigate an ever-changing job market and world. The courses, research opportunities, internships, and co-curricular activities offered by the Department support the pursuit of a wide range of careers in such varied fields as education, archives and museum administration, law, medicine, and public service. By stressing the applicability of historical skills and knowledge, our faculty prepare students to be versatile, rigorous, and empathetic thinkers wherever life may take them.

Overview

The department offers two majors to University students. The major in History leads to a Bachelor of Arts degree. The major in International Studies leads to a Bachelor of Science degree. Both programs are serviced by full-time faculty who bring to their classrooms a love for their specific areas of history and an enthusiasm for classroom teaching. Their individual teaching styles provide students with a wide variety of learning experiences. Through advisement, the faculty encourages students to tailor their programs to their individual interests and career goals, thus taking advantage of the flexible courses of study built into both programs. History and International Studies majors have gone on to careers in many fields, including education, business, communications, government, and law. (See the “Pre-Law Advisory Program ” section of the catalog for details of the department’s success in preparing students for the study of law.)

For information on the CAS/MBA Five-Year Program, visit our CAS/MBA Five-Year Program page.

Course Information

Courses for History are listed under the prefixes GEOG, HIST and IS. For more information on these and all courses offered, visit our Course Descriptions page.

For more information about the History department, visit its website.