Are you considering a History major or minor that would allow you to focus on a particular set of questions or issues, and that will work well with your other interests, major, or minor? The LMU History Department is excited to announce a new option for its majors and minors that will allow students to shape their History degree around specific themes. Starting in fall 2018, students will be able to choose between the Generalist Track and the Specialist Track. The Generalist Track, structured like the current major, helps students to develop a broad understanding of historical developments and approaches with a wide range of courses across regions and time periods. The new Specialist Track will offer students the opportunity to focus on areas of particular interest, taking at least 3 courses in one of the following Concentrations:
- Public & Applied History (HPAH): Students consider how people in the present use the past. Read more
- Law, Politics, & Society (HLPS): Students explore the interaction of legal, social, and political issues. Read more
- Global Economies, Encounters, & Exchange (HGEE): Students investigate global interconnections, trade, and the evolution of the world economy. Read more
- Race, Gender, & Culture (HRGC): Students examine the historical origins of identity. Read more
- Environment, Science, and Technology (HEST): Students learn about how the natural environment, and humans’ attempts to control it, have shaped human history. Read more
Students in the Specialist track can even design their own Individual Program (in consultation with a faculty advisor and approval of the Department Chair).
The new History Concentrations allow students to connect questions across time and place, showing the kinds of vital questions that historians address. History isn’t just the study of what happened; it makes sense of the world today by interpreting what came before. Are we the stories we tell? The laws we pass? Are we what we consume? Does culture create us? Can we control nature? In taking thematically linked courses, students will begin to consider, research, and answer these questions. In pursuing their passions, students will find themselves doing more than they thought they could – telling their roommates about their research, presenting it to their peers, and producing work that will take them in unexpected directions.
