Why History?

History explores the totality of human experience using methodologies drawn from the humanities and the social sciences. The historian uses original sources and the writings of other scholars to offer complex explanations for significant social, cultural, economic, and political developments. History helps students understand long-term transformations and appreciate the contexts of time and place. Students gain a deeper appreciation of their own and other cultures, preparing students to contribute meaningfully to the contemporary world and to understand problems rooted in cultural misunderstandings and political and economic inequities.

Through it core curriculum course offerings, its major program, and other activities, the History Department fosters the skills, knowledge, and habits of mind that will enable students to achieve success at John Carroll and in their later lives and careers. Specific course and program goals for students include:

• Developing academic skills, including analytical reasoning, research techniques, and oral and written communication.
• Integrating historical knowledge with that acquired through other liberal arts disciplines and experiential learning.
• Gaining knowledge of human experience in varied regions and times, and as shaped by social characteristics such as race, gender, religion, nation, and class.
• Providing an opportunity to engage in serious reflection on significant ethical issues and questions of social justice.
• Cultivating within majors a competence in a particular thematic, regional, or time period sufficient to undertake a significant research and writing project, incorporating original sources and the work of other historians.