History

Return to: College of Humanities and Social Sciences

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

SUSAN E. COSTANZO (1993) Chair and Associate Professor. BA, MA, PhD, Northwestern University.
CHARLES W. ANDERSON (2014) Associate Professor. BA, Oberlin College; MA, PhD, New York University.
DHARITRI BHATTACHARJEE (2019) Associate Professor. BA, St. Stephen’s College; MA, University of Delhi; MA Miami University; PhD, University of Texas-Austin.
EMI BUSHELLE (2016), Associate Professor. BA, Wesleyan University; MS, Columbia University; MA, PhD, University of California - Los Angeles.
PEDRO CAMESELLE (2015) Associate Professor. BA, Fairfield University; MA, Boston University; PhD, Fordham University.
JOSHUA CERRETTI (2015) Associate Professor.  BA, Trinity College (CT); MA, UN University for Peace; PhD, University of Buffalo.
DANIEL S. CHARD (2019) Assistant Professor. BA, University of Southern Maine; MA, PhD, University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
PETER D. DIEHL (1992) Associate Professor. BA, Yale University; MA, PhD, University of California-Los Angeles.
JARED R. HARDESTY (2014) Professor. BA, Ohio Northern University; MA, PhD, Boston College.
MADISON HESLOP (2022) Assistant Professor. BA, Purdue University; MSC, University of Edinburgh; PhD, University of Washington.
CHRISTINE JOHNSTON (2019) Associate Professor. BCom, University of British Columbia; MA, University of British Columbia; PhD University of California-Los Angeles.
A. RICARDO LÓPEZ-PEDREROS (2008) Professor. BA, National University of Colombia; MA, PhD, University of Maryland, College Park.
JOHANN N. NEEM (2004) Professor. BA, Brown University; MA, PhD, University of Virginia.
PETER PIHOS (2018) Associate Professor, AB, Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges; MA, New York University; PhD, University of Pennsylvania.
HUNTER PRICE (2014) Associate Professor. BA, Furman University; MA, PhD, Ohio State University.
JENNIFER SELTZ (2012) Associate 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 ELLEN ZARROW (2017) Associate Professor. AB, Vassar College; MA, Jewish Theological Seminary; MPhil, New York University; PhD, New York University.
SARAH ZIMMERMAN (2012) 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.
STEVEN J. GARFINKLE, Professor, Department of Economics.
MARK I. GREENBERG, Director of Faculty Global Engagement, Institute for Global Engagement.
ELIZABETH JOFFRION, Director of Heritage Resources.
ANTHONY KURTZ, University Archivist/Records Manager.
KIMBERLY LYNN, Professor and Director of the Honors College.
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 100- or 200-level history courses or EAST 201 or 202 by the start of the junior year. Otherwise, it will be difficult or impossible to complete this degree within two additional years.

Graduate Study

For the Master of Arts degree, see the Graduate School  section of this catalog.

Programs

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

• Latin American Studies with History Concentration, BA (see Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department)
• Latin American Studies with Spanish Concentration, BA (see Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department)

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

• History, Thesis, MA

Courses

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

• HIST 103 - Introduction to American Civilization: American History to 1865
• HIST 104 - Introduction to American Civilization: American History Since 1865
• HIST 111 - Introduction to Western Civilization: Prehistory to 476
• HIST 112 - Introduction to Western Civilization: 476-1713
• HIST 113 - Introduction to Western Civilization: 1713-Present
• HIST 121 - World History to 500
• HIST 123 - World History, 1500 to the Present
• HIST 131 - Going to College in America
• HIST 141 - History of the American West
• HIST 151 - Communities of the Ancient World
• HIST 158 - Race and Identity in Modern America
• HIST 220 - Introduction to South Asian History
• HIST 232 - History of the Jews before the Modern Era
• HIST 233 - Modern Jewish History
• HIST 262 - African American History to 1865
• HIST 263 - African American History since 1865
• HIST 265 - LGBTQ+ History in the United States
• HIST 268 - Introduction to Asian-American History
• HIST 273 - Latin America: 1492-1824
• HIST 274 - Latin America: 1824 to the Present
• HIST 275 - North American Indigenous History
• HIST 277 - Canada: A Historical Survey
• HIST 278 - Multiculturalism in Canada
• HIST 280 - Introduction to East Asian Civilizations
• HIST 281 - East Asian History in the Early-Modern and Modern Eras
• HIST 285 - African History to 1800
• HIST 286 - African History, 1800-present
• HIST 287 - Introduction to Islamic Civilization
• HIST 288 - History of the Modern Middle East
• HIST 289 - Islam in France
• HIST 290 - The Early Modern Atlantic World
• HIST 300 - Directed Independent Study
• HIST 301 - Doing History
• HIST 309 - Ancient Mediterranean States and Empires
• HIST 310 - History of Ancient Mesopotamia
• HIST 311 - History of Ancient Egypt
• HIST 312 - History of Ancient Greece
• HIST 313 - History of Ancient Rome
• HIST 315 - Europe in the Early Middle Ages: 300-1050
• HIST 316 - Europe in the High Middle Ages: 1050-1450
• HIST 318 - Medieval England
• HIST 320 - War in the Middle Ages
• HIST 321 - Reformation Europe and the Age of Religious Wars
• HIST 326 - Immigration and Ethnicity in the Americas
• HIST 327 - Soccer in Latin America
• HIST 330 - Germany in the 20th Century
• HIST 331 - History of the Holocaust
• HIST 333 - Imperial Russia: 1689-1917
• HIST 334 - 20th Century Russia
• HIST 335 - Women and Gender in Judaism
• HIST 341 - France 1500-1815
• HIST 342 - France 1815-1945
• HIST 347 - Topics in US Legal and Constitutional History
• HIST 348 - American Slavery
• HIST 349 - History of the U.S. South
• HIST 350 - American Colonial History
• HIST 351 - The Long Crisis: U.S. History 1865-1920
• HIST 352 - U.S. Civil War & Reconstruction
• HIST 353 - Latinas/os in the US West
• HIST 354 - Energy in American History
• HIST 355 - Health and Disease in American History
• HIST 356 - Gender and History
• HIST 357 - The United States in the Cold War
• HIST 358 - Women of Color in the U.S.
• HIST 359 - America and Vietnam
• HIST 360 - History of Religion in Early America
• HIST 361 - History of Religion in Modern America
• HIST 362 - The Civil Rights - Black Power Era in U.S. History
• HIST 363 - The American Revolution
• HIST 364 - Film As History
• HIST 365 - History of Sexuality in the United States
• HIST 366 - The Early American Republic
• HIST 367 - US Women to 1865
• HIST 368 - US Women from 1865
• HIST 369 - Women, Gender, & Sexuality in African History
• HIST 370 - Chinese History to 600 Ad
• HIST 372 - Chinese History: 1800 to Present
• HIST 373 - Yōkai: Monsters and the Monstrous in Japanese History
• HIST 374 - Premodern Japanese History
• HIST 375 - Modern Japanese History
• HIST 376 - French Colonial Canada: 1534-1763
• HIST 379 - Canadian American Relations
• HIST 380 - Food & Environment in America
• HIST 381 - Jewish Nationalisms
• HIST 382 - The U.S., Neoconservatism, and the Middle East
• HIST 383 - Modern Iraq
• HIST 384 - Palestine, Zionism, and Israel
• HIST 385 - West Africa and the Atlantic World
• HIST 386 - Southern Africa
• HIST 387 - Africa since the 1960s
• HIST 390 - Topics in History
• HIST 391 - History of the Pacific Northwest
• HIST 392 - Tribal Sovereignty and Washington History
• HIST 393 - Introduction to Public History
• HIST 400 - Directed Independent Study
• HIST 402 - Theory and History
• HIST 404 - Colonialism and the Middle East
• HIST 405 - The Traditional Middle East
• HIST 406 - Middle East, 1800 to the Present
• HIST 407 - History of the Israel/Palestinian Conflict
• HIST 408 - World War II: the European War

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