Welcome to the Carleton History Department!

The History Department is committed to providing our students with a rich and rigorous understanding of history, which includes an appreciation for the diversity of human experiences across time and place. 

Faculty expertise is central to the mission of helping students develop a critical understanding of history, and we as a department unreservedly affirm the academic freedom of our faculty. Any serious study of history requires us to engage honestly with our sources without censoring them to meet the standards of our times. Similarly, in order to address present injustices we must be willing to take an unflinching look at the injustices of the past. Beyond the quality of instruction, academic freedom is key to the diversification of history as a discipline. Subfields such as labor history, women’s history, and African American history would not have taken root without professors having the latitude to pursue new areas of inquiry and having them officially recognized as part of the curriculum. 

The backgrounds and research interests of the History faculty reflect the value that we place on diversity. In line with our commitment to exploring a wide variety of historical topics, methods and sources through our teaching and research, we welcome students from diverse backgrounds and with various perspectives. We recognize that engaging across differences can be challenging and uncomfortable at times, but the real value of a diverse community is only realized by working through these difficult moments. As a department, we embrace the messiness and joy of learning together. The History Department has an innovative public history thread within the major that helps students explore “the many and diverse ways in which history is put to work in the world.” (National Council on Public History, NCPH). Students interested in public history are encouraged to participate in community engagement and also to take advantage of our exciting off-campus studies programs.

professor morse site with 3 students at a conference table
student admiring historical work in an aisle of boxes

History Study Guides

Original guides and modifications of guides contributed by current and past History Department faculty members Kirk Jeffrey, Diethelm Prowe, Rachel Seidman, Harry Williams, Eleanor Zelliot, and others.

History Study Guides

Info for First-Years

In History, students work with written, oral, visual, and material evidence to understand the lives and thoughts of women, men, and communities of the past in their full complexity. With our faculty, students can pursue the history of places and peoples around the globe in courses dedicated to a rich variety of topics and periods.

Can I Major/Minor in it?

Yes! Both a History Major and a History Minor are offered.

Topics Explored

Students have opportunities to investigate all aspects of human life, thought, and social organization in our courses. Religion, politics, social movements, art and cultural practices, environmental change, public health, and the history of ideas are just a few of the topics available. Public History, Civic Engagement, and Digital Humanities participation opportunities are also available.

Learning Goals

  1. To develop broad and deep knowledge of other times, places, and peoples and to equip students to perceive and understand complexity, causation, and connection in human affairs.
  2. To broaden students’ awareness of human diversity and creativity, as well as enduring human problems in a comparative perspective.
  3. To develop research abilities essential to finding and analyzing primary source evidence and to engaging in an informed and critical dialogue with relevant scholarship.
  4. To develop and refine students’ ability to communicate clearly in writing, speaking, or other media (such as an exhibition), historical ideas and arguments based on careful engagement with historical evidence.
  5. To develop students’ sense of “the historian’s craft” and the meaning of history in their lives and world.

How to Get Started

The Department offers A & I seminars (History 100) each Fall, and our 100-level courses are excellent places to gain knowledge of a region or time period. More advanced 200-level courses are also open to first-year students. Please contact our faculty members if you have any questions about their course offerings. Another recommendation for first-year students is to contact our enthusiastic Senior History Major Student Departmental Advisers (SDAs). Our SDAs can tell you more about History department events, courses, and the faculty.

Quick Links for History

History Study Guides The Historian Newsletter Public History at Carleton Student Resources