Course description
Overview
The Department of History at Emory & Henry College offers undergraduate and graduate programs designed to teach students to engage the past both in the classroom and through practical experience. At Emory & Henry, we believe that history is exciting because of the variety it offers, from trying to comprehend the impact of an entire civilization to gaining insights from a single individual or event.
Our department includes four full-time faculty members with expertise in U.S. history, ancient and medieval history, modern European history, and global history.
E&H history majors enjoy learning about history while gaining the skills necessary for advanced study or for a variety of careers, including archival work, government service, international studies, law, library work, the ministry and teaching.
Programs in History
The Emory & Henry history curriculum is unique because it offers an integrated and systematic course of study. That means you will not only gain a foundation in key historical events and ideas, but will also learn the methods of the historian and apply that knowledge to solving current historical questions and understanding how the past informs the present. Our program emphasizes both cognitive knowledge and skill training useful to students with a broad range of interests.
Most majors begin by taking courses in area studies, which survey major geographical regions and time periods of world history. Here you will gain fundamental experience confronting historical problems and engaging both primary and secondary texts.
Students then move to classes focusing on methods and perspectives. These courses introduce students to the principal subfields, approaches, and methods of professional historians. In each course, students investigate the sources, questions, problems and key works related to each method or approach while developing critical thinking and writing skills.
With a foundation in content and method, you will now apply what you have learned to in-depth studies of specific historical topics and themes, such as U.S. race relations, the Roman Empire and the French Revolution.
Finally, graduating seniors complete the program with a capstone project, which may include a major research paper, an honors thesis, or a professional experience such as an internship.
In addition to a B.A. in History for undergraduates, the department also offers a M.A. Ed. in American History for graduate students, as well as a Minor in History and a Minor with an Emphasis in African-American Studies. For students interested in careers in historical preservation, museums, libraries, archives and tourism, the department offers a Certificate in Public History.
Special Features
There are many opportunities for undergraduate research. You may work on a topic that interests you through independent study with a professor or as part of an honors project. You may even present your research at a professional meeting.
Students have opportunities to gain practical experience through internships in regional museums, libraries, and archival agencies, through work with the Appalachian Oral History Project and through study abroad.
The department offers courses in archaeology and invites students to participate in an ongoing project to identify and catalogue the thousands of prehistoric and Colonial-era artifacts in the College’s Worth-Young Collection.
Career Opportunities
History graduates become business leaders, teachers, coaches, ministers, lawyers, and civil servants. They work in marketing, management, and public relations in the private sector, in public schools and universities, in the ministry, law, and in civil service.
An increasing number of recent graduates have found careers in public history, which includes a range of professional historians’ services from archival work to evaluation of the historical significance of a public site.
Alumni also go on to graduate studies in history, to law school, and to seminary or divinity studies.
