If you want to help solve the world’s pressing societal challenges, you'll first need to understand their context. As a History major or minor, you'll compare societies across time and geography to gain insight into the diversity of the human experience and your own place in the world.
In this program, you’ll hone your investigation and information literacy skills by exploring and analyzing varied sources across a range of periods and developments in the Western and non-Western worlds.
Course topics include:
- Developments in the Age of Discovery in the 15th century
- Evolving relations between the United States and the Middle East
- Life in the medieval era
- Women’s history
- Urbanism in American history
Your coursework will take place both inside and outside the classroom and will include research, collaboration with faculty, and hands-on fieldwork.
As a graduate, you'll be well prepared for graduate study or careers in government, non-profits, or the private sector, as well as for a lifetime of informed citizenship.
Departmental Policy Regarding Study Abroad Course Credits toward the History Major:
A student may count up to two courses from a one-semester study abroad program toward the History major, bearing in mind the requirement that 7 out of 10 courses for the major must have the HIST designator and be taken at Gettysburg College. In other words, a student’s ability to count study abroad credits toward the major may be limited by the number of AP credits, transfer credits, or non-HIST courses already being counted toward the major.
Of these two courses, no more than one may be counted as a 300-level, and only if the following criteria are met:
- The course’s content is similar in focus to one of our 300-level courses (i.e. it is not an introductory or survey-level course, such as World History since 1500).
- The student completes a research paper of 15pp. or more as a part of the graded work for the course (unacceptable work in this regard would include non-research assignments such as a journal or personal reflection paper or a series of shorter writing assignments).
A student who studies abroad for two semesters may count up to three study abroad courses toward the major, one of which may be a 300-level according to the criteria explained above.
Process for receiving 300-level credit for a Study Abroad course:
Within two weeks of returning to the Gettysburg campus for the following semester, the student should present the graded research paper to their adviser, along with a copy of the syllabus for the course (digital files are acceptable). If the adviser finds that the paper meets the requirements described above, they will notify the Registrar and designate which of the geographic distribution fields within the major the course fulfills.