Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Whittier College Department of History.

We are a diverse group of teachers and scholars who are committed to working with students who want to engage the study of history at any level. We offer a broad range of courses and teaching styles that help students understand human beings in the United States and around the globe. Ultimately, we try to help students understand themselves and their own cultures by comparison with cultures of other times and places.

Our department emphasizes the need for students to gain both a depth and a breadth of historical knowledge. Students thus receive broad training in foundational courses but also get to choose their specialty in a particular geographical area: Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, or the United States. The outcome is a student who understands broad trends and global connections but who also has developed some expertise in their chosen field.

Students who enroll in our classes will learn how to do the detective work of the historian and will be expected to become historians themselves through close reading and analysis of historical documents, essay writing, and class discussion. This training prepares our graduates with a wide range of critical thinking and writing skills that can be applied in any setting. Indeed, our students pursue a diverse array of meaningful and successful career paths. Whittier's History Department graduates have gone on to professional degrees in law, business, and health; to museum and archival work; to secondary school teaching; and to graduate work in history. To the question,"What can I do with a history degree," we answer: "Anything you are interested in and are willing to work hard for."

Elizabeth Sage
Department Chair