History

Introduction

Without knowledge of the past, we are, as one writer has phrased it, like victims of collective amnesia groping in the dark for our identity. History as a discipline is rooted in that fundamental human urge, curiosity. It confronts and weighs the relative significance of chance, inevitability and choice in the passage of time.

History is humanistic in its emphasis on the influence of ideas and values, its capacity to both instruct and entertain, and as interpretive literature. In its investigation of social processes, groups and institutions, and the examination of human motivation, it is a social science. It acts as a bridge among disciplines, borrowing from all and contributing a sense of context and sequence to the perception of actions and individuals.

The American historian Carl Becker wrote: “The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves — a much more important thing; it prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather than to foretell the future.”

Faculty

JOHANN N. NEEM (2004) Chair and Professor. BA, Brown University; MA, PhD, University of Virginia.
CHARLES W. ANDERSON (2014) Assistant Professor. BA, Oberlin College; MA, PhD, New York University.
DHARITRI BHATTACHARJEE (2019) Assistant Professor. BA, St. Stephen’s College; MA, University of Delhi; MA Miami University; PhD, University of Texas-Austin.
EMI BUSHELLE (2016), Assistant Professor. BA, Wesleyan University; MA, Columbia University; PhD, University of California, Los Angeles.
PEDRO CAMESELLE (2015) Assistant Professor. BA, Fairfield University; MA, Boston University; PhD, Fordham University.
JOSHUA CERRETTI (2015) Assistant Professor.  BA, Trinity College (CT); MA, UN University for Peace; PhD, University of Buffalo.
SUSAN E. COSTANZO (1993) Associate Professor. BA, MA, PhD, Northwestern University.
PETER D. DIEHL (1992) Associate Professor. BA, Yale University; MA, PhD, University of California-Los Angeles.
SUSAN AMANDA EURICH (1986) Professor. BA, Portland State University; MA, PhD, Emory University.
CHRISTOPHER C. FRIDAY (1992) Professor. BA, Lewis and Clark College; MA, PhD, University of California-Los Angeles.
STEVEN J. GARFINKLE (2001) Professor. BA, Tufts University; MA, University of London; PhD, Columbia University.
JARED R. HARDESTY (2014) Assistant Professor. BA, Ohio Northern University; MA, PhD, Boston College.
CHRISTINE JOHNSTON (2019) Assistant Professor. BCom, University of British Columbia; MA, University of British Columbia; PhD University of California-Los Angeles.
A. RICARDO LÓPEZ (2008) Associate Professor. BA, National University of Colombia; MA, PhD, University of Maryland, College Park.
PETER PIHOS (2018) Assistant Professor, AB, Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges; MA, New York University; PhD, University of Pennsylvania.
HUNTER PRICE (2014) Assistant Professor. BA, Furman University; MA, PhD, Ohio State University.
JENNIFER SELTZ (2012) Assistant Professor. BA, Brown University; MA, PhD, University of Washington.
MART A. STEWART (1992) Professor. BA, Willamette University; MA, Portland State University; PhD, Emory University.
ROGER R. THOMPSON (2003) Professor. BA, Stanford University; MA, PhD, Yale University.
SARAH ZARROW (2017) Assistant Professor. AB, Vassar College; MA, Jewish Theological Seminary; MPhil, New York University; PhD, New York University.
SARAH ZIMMERMAN (2012) Assistant Professor. BA, Ohio University; MA, PhD, University of California-Berkeley.

Affiliated Faculty

HOLLY FOLK, Associate Professor, Department of Global Humanities and Religions.
KITTY FRIESEN, Archives and Records Management.
MARK I. GREENBERG, Dean, Western Libraries.
ANTHONY KURTZ, University Archivist/Records Manager.
KIMBERLY LYNN, Professor, Department of Global Humanities and Religions.
JONATHAN MIRAN, Professor, Department of Global Humanities and Religions.
SCOTT PEARCE, Professor, Department of Global Humanities and Religions.
RUTH STEELE, Archivist. Center for the Pacific Northwest Studies. 
MIDORI TAKAGI, Associate Professor. Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Other Departmental Information

Mid-Program Checkpoint

A student seeking to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree in history within a four-year time span should have completed at least three courses from HIST 103, 104, 111, 112, 113, 121, 273, 274, 277, 278, 280, 281, 285, 286, 287 or EAST 201 or 202 by the start of the junior year. Major omissions from this list will make it difficult or impossible to complete this degree within two additional years.

Graduate Study

For concentrations leading to the Master of Arts degree and for information concerning the archival training program, see the Graduate School  section of this catalog.

Programs

• History — Elementary, BAE
• History, BA
• History/Social Studies, BA

• Latin American Studies, BA (see Modern and Classical Languages Department)

• Foreign Cultures Minor
• History Minor
• Latin American Studies Minor
• Public History Minor

• Archives and Records Management Certificate Program (In Moratorium)
• History, Archives and Records Management, Non-Thesis, MA (In Moratorium)
• History, Archives and Records Management, Thesis, MA (In Moratorium)
• History, Thesis, MA

Courses

Courses numbered X37; X97; 300, 400, 500 are described in the University Academic Policies  section of this catalog.

• HIST 411 - Latin America & World War II
• HIST 412 - Ancient Rivers and Roads
• HIST 414 - The Carolingian Era
• HIST 421 - Gender in Early Modern Europe
• HIST 447 - History of the Sciences of Nature
• HIST 450 - Climate and Culture in America
• HIST 452 - U.S. Intellectual History, 1776-1900
• HIST 453 - U.S. Intellectual History, 1900-Present
• HIST 460 - American Environmental History
• HIST 461 - US Urban History
• HIST 464 - Saturday Night Live and the United States in the 1970s
• HIST 467 - Self and Society in 19th Century America
• HIST 468 - Borderlands and Frontiers of North America
• HIST 469 - African Slavery in the Atlantic World, 1450-1804
• HIST 470 - World History of Democracy, 19th and 20th Centuries
• HIST 471 - Piracy in the Early Modern Atlantic World
• HIST 474 - U.S. Latin American Relations
• HIST 475 - 20th Century PNW Indians
• HIST 476 - World Histories of the Middle Class since the 19th century
• HIST 477 - World War I & Canadian Society
• HIST 478 - History of Nationalism in French Canada
• HIST 479 - Medieval and Early-Modern Chinese History
• HIST 480 - Modern Chinese Social History
• HIST 481 - The Chinese Revolution
• HIST 483 - Early Modern Japan
• HIST 484 - Women in Japanese History
• HIST 485 - Japanese Military History: Samurai Fact and Fiction
• HIST 486 - Religion in Japanese History
• HIST 488 - Modern Egypt, Libya and the Nile Valley
• HIST 490 - Advanced Topics in History
• HIST 494 - Public History Internship
• HIST 498 - Editing History Writings for the Profession
• HIST 499 - Historical Research
• HIST 500 - Directed Independent Study
• HIST 505 - Historical Theory and Method
• HIST 506 - Research seminar
• HIST 512 - The Ancient World
• HIST 515 - Medieval History
• HIST 520 - Renaissance and Reformation
• HIST 525 - History and Principles of Archives and Records Management
• HIST 526 - Selection and Appraisal
• HIST 528 - Reference, Access and Outreach
• HIST 530 - Arrangement and Description of Archives
• HIST 532 - Records and Information Management
• HIST 534 - Preservation of Archival Materials
• HIST 536 - Internship in Archives and Records Management
• HIST 538 - Advanced Seminar in Archives and Records Management
• HIST 539 - Research and Writing Seminar: Archives and Records Management
• HIST 540 - Modern European History
• HIST 546 - World’s Fairs and Other Spectacles
• HIST 550 - Colonial American History
• HIST 551 - Early American Republic: 1783-1840
• HIST 553 - American Environmental History
• HIST 554 - World Environmental History
• HIST 555 - US Women’s History
• HIST 556 - Topics in Latin American History
• HIST 557 - The American Revolution
• HIST 558 - 20th-Century American History
• HIST 559 - Topics in American Religious History
• HIST 560 - Readings in North American Indian History
• HIST 571 - Culture and Identity in Canadian History
• HIST 582 - Topics in East Asian History
• HIST 583 - Topics in African History
• HIST 584 - Japanese Women’s History
• HIST 585 - Japanese Military History
• HIST 586 - Japan’s Asia-Pacific War(s)
• HIST 587 - Seminar in Middle Eastern History
• HIST 690 - Thesis