Contact Information
(541) 346-4802
(541) 346-4895 fax
http://www.uoregon.edu/~history/
Undergraduate degrees: B.A., B.S.
Undergraduate minor
Learning How the Past Shapes the Future
Studying history shows us how societies from the past helped shape the societies in which we live today. Through analysis of witnesses’ account of past events and historical records, students come to more fully appreciate the complexity of the human experience.
But history isn’t just the study of dates, facts, and dead people. Some books on historical events read more like gossip rags, detailing the colorful disputes and scandals of the past. Students can learn about the divorce scandal that caused England to convert to Protestantism, the truth behind the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and how the Watergate scandal rocked the U.S. in the 1970s.
“We are deeply committed to the idea that everybody can benefit from knowing the past and learning to think about the past in order to really understand where we are in the present,” says Department Head Jeff Ostler.
The history department “encourages a broad understanding of different parts of the world at different time periods,” says Ostler. Students can explore a wide range of classes before choosing a specialty. “We have students who only want to study twentieth century Germany, and we have that if they want, but then we also want them to study sixteenth century Latin America or thirteenth century China as well, so that they get a broad sense of different cultures, different histories, older periods.”
All majors take a research seminar their senior year. These seminars are small, limited to 15 students, and focus on a variety of topics. “They do their own historical research,” says Ostler. “You have been learning about history, we’ve been telling you what happened, and now you get to write it.”
The study of history can lead you in a direction of your own design. As a history major at the UO, you’ll have opportunities to do internships, work closely with professors, and conduct independent research. And the skills you gain in your studies will add depth to your world view.
Points of Interest
- The UO history department is renowned for its faculty members’ expertise in Pacific Northwest social and political history and the history of indigenous peoples of North and South America.
- The department hosts an annual lecture whose guest speakers have included gender historian Joan Scott and cultural historian Roger Chartier.
- The UO history department
collaborated with the geography department to produce the Atlas of Oregon, an award-winning
multimedia publication praised by the National Geographic Society. - Discussion seminars generally have less than 15 students, allowing for individualized attention.
- Associate Professor Ellen Herman created the Adoption History Project, an online resource about the history of adoption in the United States during the twentieth century.