History Department Overview
Houghton offers both a major and a minor
in history, as well as an
augmented history major for future secondary-school teachers.
The
history major consists of 36 credit hours (normally, eight
four-hour courses) plus the four-hour Senior History Seminar. This
major gives students considerable flexibility. Except for the
required seminar, students choose the history courses they want;
because the number of total required hours (36) is relatively small,
it is not difficult for students to add a second major. The history
minor consists of any 16 credit hours of history.
The augmented history major (38 hours) is designed to equip students who want to teach at the secondary level, where social studies or civics, as well as history, is also typically part of the teaching load. Students take eight hours in American history; eight hours in European history; and eight hours in non-European, non-American history. In addition to history, “augmented” students also take courses in Introduction to Microeconomics (two hours) and The American Political System (four hours). Finally, augmented history students choose between a full history track and a political science track: either a four hour history elective plus the Senior History Seminar or a four hour political science elective plus the Senior Politics Seminar.
Houghton offers a wide-ranging history curriculum. In addition to various period courses in American and European history, the course offerings include regional histories of Latin America, Africa, East Asia, and Russia. Some history students spend a semester or two studying abroad. More specialized topical courses are also available: History of Christianity; Pagans and Christians: Ancient and Medieval Texts; St. Francis and the Franciscans; American Women’s History; Salem Witchcraft: 300 Years of Conjuring Interpretations; Historiography; and a Reading Seminar (popular with students considering graduate work). Qualified students may do Independent Study, which enables students to study--even intern in--areas of special interest to them. A growing number of students do internships in “public history.”
The history faculty is composed primarily of four professors, each of whom holds the Ph.D. and is a published scholar. Additionally, other scholars from around the college offer interdisciplinary courses in history related to their major fields. The faculty has a tradition of enthusiasm for scholarship, as reflected in Houghton’s high national ranking for history majors who go on to earn the Ph.D. Many of our students have attended some of the finest graduate schools in the country.
Despite the variety of courses and instructors, the history faculty shares fundamental beliefs that lend coherence to the study of history at Houghton. We believe that, especially in lower-level courses, mastery of content is essential to a good education. We also believe, however, that students must develop skills of reading, writing, research, methodology, and analysis. We see the cultivation of these skills—honed especially in upper-level courses and put to final undergraduate test in the Senior History Seminar—as essential to our identity as a liberal arts discipline, to responsible Christian reflection, and to mature historical understanding. We believe that the study of history is facilitated by Christian faith, and that Christian faith is enhanced by historical study. In a relativistic world, history can give us a longer, larger perspective on enduring truths. Central to our mission is the use of historical lenses to investigate vital questions about who we are, what we believe, why we believe, and the meaning of human existence.
Acquiring historical knowledge and related skills also has practical value. It is no accident that employers of almost every kind have found our history graduates attractive. What employer is not looking for persons who have been carefully trained to think, research, and communicate? What employer would not appreciate employees who, because of undergraduate training in the broadest, most interdisciplinary of all academic fields, possess a “sense of the whole?”
