History Major

Program Director: Dr. Joseph Stuart

Degree Types: Bachelor of Arts (default) or Bachelor of Science (alternative)

Mission:

The History program at the University of Mary seeks to support the School of Arts and Sciences in its mission to pursue truth through the study of the human past. It supports the mission of the University of Mary in its service to the region and beyond in its identity as Christian, Catholic, and Benedictine, by taking religion seriously as a historical force in human cultures. 

The role of history in the liberal arts is to ground them in particular periods and cultures, specifically through the study of causation, change, context, complexity and contingency. History seeks to understand how cultures and traditions of every time and place have answered and lived out the great human questions of meaning and purpose: what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be good? What does it mean to live together in society? What is a good society? Historians also ask important socio-historical questions: how have cultures interacted with each other in the formation of civilizations? How has geography influenced economics, social organization, and politics? How has the world of ideas interacted with these concrete realities? How have oppressed and marginalized people sought justice? How have wars affected technological change and cultural mentalities? The study of history helps students bring important questions like these to their research.

Anchored in the Western tradition, the History program seeks to examine and understand many different cultures and traditions of the past. Through classroom study and discussion, debate, archival research, Work Study opportunities at the North Dakota State Archives, and the student history organization called the Dawson Society, students in History at the University of Mary will gain an excellent academic training and human formation that will benefit them far beyond their time at the university.

Program Learning Outcomes:

• Student demonstrates knowledge of historical events, actors, groups, movements, and places
• Student demonstrates historical reasoning, historiographical awareness, and understanding of different ways to approach sources from the past.
• Student demonstrates the ability to research and read different kinds of primary and secondary sources as well as communicate orally and in writing about historical findings.