History (BA)

Why should you major in History? A Bachelor of Arts (BA) in History degree provides students with the skills necessary for success in a wide range of careers. The Department’s faculty works with you from your first semester to your graduation to prepare you for real-world positions as library and museum curators, as well as for careers in public service, business, law, and teaching. For more information about specific careers for History majors, see American Historical Association’s Guide to Careers in History. We are committed to having our regular full-time faculty teach at all levels of the curriculum, which means that students receive individual attention and access to their professors, many of whom are internationally renowned for their scholarly expertise. We promote engaged forms of scholarship, with an emphasis on helping students understand and learn the process and rewards of historical inquiry and the many uses of imagination in researching and writing history. We evaluate our success in terms of the impact that it has on students, colleagues, institutions, and fellow citizens. At a most basic level, we believe that historical consciousness is crucial to the cultural health of Nevada and to an informed understanding of the problems and challenges facing our world today and tomorrow.

Please see the UNLV College of Liberal Arts, Department of History web page for information about department programs, faculty and facilities. Degree worksheets and 4/5 year plan for the major are available on the UNLV Degrees Directory.

Purpose and Focus

The History Department seeks first to provide students with a broad knowledge of the human past and experience and the appreciation of diverse cultures crucial in a smaller and smaller world. A degree in history also provides students with the skills necessary for success in a wide range of careers and professions ranging from business to law, social services, and education. These skills include training in the collection, analysis, and evaluation of information; critical thinking; clarity of expression orally and in writing; and the ability to make independent judgments. Finally, the department seeks to train majors in the specific skills and knowledge necessary for public school teaching and for graduate study in history or in professional schools.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the development of the world history from antiquity to the present.
2. Demonstrate an awareness of the changing nature of historical interpretation and the ability to make independent judgments about conflicting historical interpretations.
3. Demonstrate training in the collection, analysis and evaluation of historical information.
4. Demonstrate training in critical thinking and the ability to construct a cogent argument on the basis of historical information.
5. Demonstrate training in clarity of expression orally and in writing.

Career Possibilities

A degree in history provides students with the skills necessary for success in a wide range of careers and professions ranging from business to law, social services, and education. The department seeks to train majors in the specific skills and knowledge necessary for public school teaching and for graduate student in history or in professional schools. For more information about specific careers and job openings, the UNLV History Department encourages its students to refer to the American Historical Association’s Guide to Careers in History.