Program Goals and Learning Outcomes

A. Students will develop skills to evaluate the sources, methods, motivations, and interpretations behind historical narratives.

1. Students point out strengths and weaknesses of a historical argument
2. Students understand the historical contexts of different historical interpretations
3. Students compare, contrast, and explain differences between historical accounts

B. Students will learn a variety of sound historical research practices

1. Students formulate appropriate research questions
2. Students critically analyze appropriate primary and secondary sources
3. Students take into account the complexity and ambiguity of primary sources
4. Students reflect on the limitations of their sources and on silences in the historical record

C. Students will learn how to craft and present convincing and well supported arguments

1. Students present work with a clearly developed and methodologically sound historical argument and conclusion
2. Students provide a historiographical perspective to their work
3. Students present appropriate evidence for answering a research question with properly cited primary and secondary sources

D. Students will recognize and appreciate the diversity of human experiences and how these change over time

1. Students describe how historical actors are differently affected by their ethnicity, race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and language
2. Students demonstrate how political, economic, and social structures affect historical change