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KRISTIN BAYER, Ph.D., Chairperson

Mission:

The History Major enables students to make sense of the world that they are inheriting. In order to accomplish this task, students must be grounded in their own historical experience, which should be placed within an emerging international context. In addition, they should recognize the ongoing tensions over the nature of identity: ethnicity, sexuality, class, gender, race, and nationality. To this end, we train students to analyze issues that engage them as citizens of communities, nations, and the world. Our students should expect to confront issues of social responsibility, human rights and dignity, and their role in supporting and encouraging social justice.

The History Department systematically exposes students to a variety of areas: the United States, Europe, and those of the non-Western world. Within that framework, students have ample opportunity to pursue, in consultation with their advisors, specialized interests as career, life, or further educational goals may require. While we do not require study of a modern foreign language, we strongly recommend that path.

A study of history provides students with a wide variety of skills both for living and for work. A comprehension of the past and the dynamics of change illuminate the present and enable students not only to exercise responsible citizenship, but to enjoy autonomy in an increasingly complex world. Additionally, the study and understanding of history instills or enhances a capacity for analysis and synthesis, and these transferable skills have applicability to a wide range of careers. History opens the door to careers in adolescent and secondary education as well as graduate studies, professional schools, doctoral programs, or law school. The history curriculum also makes a particular effort to advance a central mission of Marist College, to enhance our students’ awareness of enduring values-related issues.

The discipline also offers a concentration in public history, a growing profession. This concentration introduces students to the various applications of historical research and interpretation that occur outside the classroom. Museums, libraries, archives, corporations, and cultural institutions employ public historians to manage resources. Students interested in such a concentration should contact Dr. Steven Garabedian.

Programs

• History Minor
• History, B.A.
• Recommended Program Sequence for a Bachelor of Arts in History

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