History Learning Goals

Students who complete the major in History will be able to:

• Think critically about the relationship between historical evidence and arguments.
• Challenge and revise existing narratives of the past, both to comprehend the events they describe and to shed light on society’s evolving needs and concerns.
• Question their own ideas and assumptions, and reflect on the often hidden relationships between ideas and social institutions, and between individuals and their cultures.
• Analyze texts, documents, and oral historical materials, and assess the uses made of these materials by other historians.
• Frame research questions, conduct independent research and write persuasively.

The requirements for the history major encourage students to develop these capacities by studying the history of a particular region or historical topic in-depth and by ranging more widely so as to fulfill geographical and chronological breadth requirements.