History, B.A.

The History Program prepares students for career success in a variety of areas, including education, museum, and law, among others.  The History B.A. provides majors with relevant skills, particularly those of analysis, interpretation, and communication.  The major offers options and stresses flexibility so that students can take ownership of their learning process.  Overall, studying the past in the History Program can build the foundations of future achievement, as the skills gained in the major give students the ability to adapt to and master changing situations no matter what the future holds.

 

Learning Outcomes

Students who earn the Bachelor of Arts degree in History will be able to:

1. Demonstrate content knowledge of history

2. Analyze primary and secondary sources for their historical content and interpretations

3. Demonstrate ability to research according to historical methods

4. Demonstrate writing skills that reflect persuasive historical arguments based on evidence and proper citation

 

History faculty believe that these learning outcomes will contribute to a student’s ability to think historically, which includes: understanding the people of the past; understanding the perspectives of historical actors and to view those historical actors from a critical, scholarly perspective; recognizing that people, events, ideas, and cultures have influenced later people events, ideas, and cultures; recognizing that history involves both change and continuity over time; and explaining connections between particular people, events, ideas, or texts and their historical contexts.

 

Certification Programs

B.A. students do have the option to replace the traditional Minor field with either one of two certification programs.

Secondary Education

This program will prepare you for success as a secondary-school teacher.  You will work both with the History Program and the College of Education, taking both History and Education classes.  If you fulfill all program requirements, you will graduate with State of Georgia certification to teach at the secondary level, placing you in a competitive position within the job market.

Public History

This program prepares students for success as leaders in the broad interdisciplinary field of Public History.  Public Historians work outside of colleges and university, in such places like museums, archives, and local, regional, and national historic preservation organizations.  The UWG Public History Certificate Program will introduce you to the foundational skill sets for success in a growing and thriving field.

Interdisciplinary Minors

The History Program also supports the following Interdisciplinary Minors:

• Africana Studies: This interdisciplinary minor combines the study, research, interpretation, and the dissemination of knowledge concerning the African presence in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world from the birth of human civilization to the present.

• Classical Studies: In this interdisciplinary minor, students engage critically with such timeless topics as beauty and esthetics, the ideal relationship of the citizen and the state, the roles of men and women in society, freedom and slavery, the nature of war and peace, the purpose of literature, and the role of religion in public and private life through the study of the literature, languages, history, art, philosophy and political thought of the Greeks and Romans.

• Gender and Sexuality Studies: This interdisciplinary minor provides an academic forum for the examination of gender and sexuality in contemporary and historical global cultures.

 

For more information, see the University College section of the catalog.

 

Stand-Alone Certificate:

 

The History Program also supports the following stand-alone certificate:

 

• Certificate in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies: The Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies Certificate offers an interdisciplinary approach to learning about the diverse cultures, languages and histories of this geographic region. With increasing numbers of Georgians speaking a language other than English at home, the Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies Certificate develops the cultural and linguistic awareness students need to participate effectively in an increasingly multicultural and multilingual workplace.

 

For more information, see the University College section of the catalog.