Student Work
History and women’s studies double major Alletta Brenner is a Honors College student with a minor in political science whose work at the UO has garnered her many awards. Brenner combined her majors to create a research paper, “The Good and the Bad of That Sexe: Monstrosity and Womanhood in Early Modern England,” which won her the first annual UO Undergraduate Library Research Award.
Brenner is also the first UO student to win the Marshall Scholarship, an award that will take her to Edinburgh, Scotland, where she plans to pursue a graduate degree in international studies and African studies. “Whatever I do I want to go into some form of public service,” she says, “because I just think it is the responsibility of people that have talent and have had a lot of opportunities given to them. I’ve basically had a free ride so far. I feel that comes with a responsibility.”
In the future, Brenner hopes to give back to the community through Teach for America and by becoming a lawyer for a human rights organization.
Jeannine Schneider says she always wanted to be a Duck. “I never had any intention of going anywhere else,” she says. “It’s an excellent school and they have a great history program.” In her spare time, Schneider gives voice to the lost stories of older generations. “I do oral histories for people who are born pre-1919. It’s getting harder to find these people. They have such interesting stories to tell… I just got addicted to talking to people.”
Selected Faculty Work
James C. Mohr is College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of History. His six books and dozens of articles address subjects ranging from the Civil War and Reconstruction through nineteenth-century American medico-legal policy and public health.
He teaches lecture courses and seminars in all of those fields. Winner of the Oregon Book Award for 2005, he has also received Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Rockefeller-Ford fellowships. In demand as a speaker all across the country, he has also testified twice as an expert witness before the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate. “I’ve always argued that history may be the most practical major of all, since it prepares people to deal analytically with the complexities they’ll face for the rest of their lives. Almost anyone can teach specific skills—and we do that, too, especially with regard to writing. But ultimately we hope to help students develop sharp thinking, clear expression, global perspectives, and above all else, a sense of how the world really works. I’m enormously proud of what we do, and I think our students feel the same way about the history department.”
Career Prospects
The qualitative and interpretive skills you’ll gain from a history major can help carry you into a wide range of careers. You can go on to law school or pursue a career in government.
A degree in history can help you obtain an interesting career in foreign relations.
Other career opportunities include museum curator, information specialist, librarian, biographer, corporate historian, research analyst, editor, writer, book distributor, or book sales representative.
Students have also chosen to continue their studies of history through a master’s or doctoral program. The list of possibilities is limited only by your imagination.