Expectations & Outcomes
Historians at Western promote understanding of the formative issues of our time and of the past by equipping students with critical analytic ability and broad historical understanding.
Historical study offers the opportunity to move beyond the limits of one's own time and place, to engage with and analyze events, institutions, and cultures often radically different from our own. It enables students to observe patterns in the past that are larger than one individual life, or even several lives. The study of history expands the imagination, introducing students to questions and experiences they had not previously encountered. It also gives a sense of the ways in which the forms modern societies take and the challenges they face are linked to the past, are produced by past experiences and choices.
The Department of History believes its curriculum will permit students to answer their own questions about how the world in which they live came into being and functions; promote the creation of an informed citizenry, one capable of understanding and analyzing critically a large range of issues; and develop students’ ability to express themselves clearly and succinctly.
Learning Outcomes for Undergraduate History Modules
Western History graduates should be able to:
• Explain and interpret past events, movements, and topics from a variety of time periods and geographic areas.• Assess the significance of historical events and contexts, analyze causes and consequences, and trace continuity and change over time.
• Locate, analyze, and evaluate multiple forms of historical evidence.
• Use historical evidence, including both primary and secondary sources, to construct and support persuasive historical narratives and arguments.
• Articulate, evaluate, and defend historical arguments and interpretations, orally and in writing.
• Engage with peers and experts in productive discussion of historical questions and debates.
• Present historical knowledge to diverse audiences in a variety of formats.
• Engage with historiography and history as a discipline, analyzing and assessing ways historical interpretations have been shaped by contemporary contexts and concerns.
• Make meaningful connections between the past and present, understanding the use of historical knowledge for today’s world and the limits to that knowledge.
• Engage history with humility and empathy, recognizing and respecting diverse perspectives, including the perspectives of different times.
• Adhere to standards of professional and academic integrity, and judge their own ethical responsibilities to the past, present, and future.
