History
The History Program at Centre will deepen your appreciation of the events that shaped the world around us and provide the tools to better understand human behavior and cultural differences.
Overview
As a history major, you will explore the complexities of human experience across time and cultures while developing valuable skills you will rely on throughout your professional career. While learning to think critically, analyze sources, and assess multiple perspectives, you will grow a robust understanding of the interconnected forces that shaped societies, economies, and ideas throughout the past and into the future. Armed with a contextual understanding that social change is inevitable, you will be uniquely able to connect past events to contemporary issues, helping you make informed decisions in an ever-changing world. The skills you will build in research, writing, and problem-solving are highly valued in diverse careers like law, journalism, public policy, education, and business. Except for seminars reserved for majors, all history courses are open to everyone, bringing together students from a variety of academic majors to foster robust discussion and a diversity of viewpoints.
Your Major Took You Where?
History majors have gone on to a variety of graduate programs and careers.
Employers and Professions
- U.S. Department of State
- Attorney
- Newberry Library
- Frazier History Museum
- Public Relations Professional
- Kentucky Geological Survey
Postgraduate Study
- Columbia University
- University of Chicago
- Boston University College of Communication
- University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law
- Vanderbilt University Peabody School of Education
- Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky
Curriculum
The History Program offers survey courses in world and American history, and various specialized courses in American, European, and non-Western history. History majors lay the foundation for their work by taking world and American history survey courses. Later courses include African, American, Asian, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern history. History faculty also offer several thematic courses that cross these regional boundaries. Upper-class students often complete an independent study under the guidance of a professor. All majors also take the research seminar, which allows them to write a major research paper on a topic of their choice while learning historiography (the principles of historical research) and professional historians’ tools of the trade.
