History - Macalester College

History from Macalester College is a Campus Bachelor History degree that prepares you for a Liberal Arts career. The discipline of history investigates events and cultures of the past by focusing on specific historical eras, particular geographic areas, and/or compelling thematic issues. It uses a wide range of written, visual, oral, and material evidence as the basis for constructing contemporary accounts about the past. Historical accounts suggest not only how the past has shaped the present but how any contemporary arrangement represents only one possible result of previous struggles and contingencies. In this sense, history highlights discontinuity as well as pattern, difference as well as similarity, conflict as well as consensus, trauma as well as triumph. The history department seeks to serve an array of educational goals for both majors and non-majors. Our first priority is to teach students to think historically. We recognize that our courses cannot cover every time period or geographic area. Rather, we seek to examine the interpretive problems that historians encounter while practicing their own discipline and when interacting with other fields of academic study and we encourage our students to apply the techniques of historical analysis both to their study of the past and to the problems of the contemporary world. Members of the department strive to encourage a broad interdisciplinary approach and to develop students' proficiencies in analysis, writing, and speaking. As a result, students with any academic major who wish to explore discrete eras in time, different parts of the world, or specific historical issues should find departmental offerings, particularly at the introductory and intermediate levels, appropriate for their undergraduate education. The history department participates in many interdisciplinary programs and majors including African studies, American studies, Asian studies, environmental studies, humanities and media and cultural studies, international studies, Latin American studies, legal studies, urban studies, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies. For details, consult the appropriate descriptions elsewhere in the catalog. Courses in history contribute to general education and the understanding of an individual's place in society, preparing students to be better informed, active citizens in their community, nation, and world. Although an undergraduate major at Macalester can lead to specialized graduate-level study in history, most graduates pursue non-academic careers. Skills and perspectives developed through a history major, augmented by internship opportunities when appropriate, help prepare students for positions in professions such as teaching, law, business, international relations, and library and archival work; they may also contribute broadly to building successful careers in government, business, and the nonprofit sector. The department expects its majors to: Become acquainted with the many, often competing, ways in which historians construct accounts of the past; Become conversant with different approaches to textual analysis, with diverse forms of historical representation, with a wide range of conceptual frameworks, and with varied ways of assessing and interpreting evidence from the past; Become more proficient in a) using a variety of research and informational tools, b) analyzing and evaluating historical arguments, and c) writing and speaking clearly and concisely; Come to appreciate the diversity in human experience through comparisons across time (different historical eras) and space (different geographic regions). Students who are history majors will take part in an evaluation of the department and their majors through exit interviews with faculty members. View more details on Macalester College . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related History courses.