Undergraduate Academic Catalog 2017 - 2018 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
Undergraduate Academic Catalog 2017 - 2018 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

History B.A.


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Program Director: W. Marshall Johnston, Ph.D.

Overview

The history major gives students a broad familiarity with human history, both Western and world, as a means of developing critical understanding and insight into how they might live now and in the future. The program engages students in deliberately rigorous intellectual development, and particularly focuses on the influence of religion in history. The exploration and discovery of lived human experience in the past (of church and world) is informed by a Christian/Anabaptist worldview. Upon completion of the major, students will be prepared to pursue advanced study in the disciplines of history, theology and philosophy, and in fields such as secondary teaching, law, library science, archival management and public history.

Students interested in majoring in history should complete their prerequisite courses during their freshman and sophomore years. Courses in their major should be selected in consultation with their major advisor. Personalized majors in specialized areas of history may be presented to the history faculty for consideration and approval.

Program Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Recognize and explicate significant ideas, people and events in a variety of historical epochs throughout human history and in a global context.
  2. Formulate, carry out and critically evaluate a focused research project, involving the use of various forms of primary historical evidence (e.g., texts, archival data, first-person accounts, archeology, etc.), and showing an understanding of relevant theoretical approaches to the problem, as well as the most significant secondary research on it.
  3. Communicate effectively and appropriately in both oral and written forms, especially through the use of critical analysis in articulation and support of historical theses.
  4. Synthesize important historical phenomena, based on the understanding of primary material, across millennia, cultures and interpretive modes.
  5. Interpret and effectively describe the contribution of Christianity, particularly the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition and the Judeo-Christian legacy, in the development of human history.

Locations Offered

Main Campus Fresno

Required Courses (32 Units Minimum)


At least one upper-division course in five of the following areas:

  • Ancient history
  • Medieval, Renaissance or Reformation history
  • Modern European history
  • World history
  • American history
  • Religious or topical history

Sufficient additional courses to complete the number of units required for the major.

A Capstone Series:


Note:


Both parts focus attention on the various ways of interpreting historical subjects, the role of Christian faith and religious experience in history and historical interpretation, the philosophical and theological implications of historical work and the development of a historical habit and practice in the student.

Notes:


Notes: It is recommended that history majors complete a minor in another field of study or a deliberately chosen set of courses to prepare for anticipated work in a particular area.

Students interested in teaching high school history should consult the requirements of the social science secondary teaching major.

One course from another discipline may be substituted for one course in the major upon approval of the major program director or one's advisor.

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