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.

Recommended expectations and outcomes by course level

1000-level courses:

Introduction to history as a discipline
Historical thinking: understanding that history is constructed from evidence, that it consists of arguments made about the past, and is subject to interpretation and reinterpretation
Primary and secondary sources: distinction between them and exposure to both
Opportunities for small-group discussion of historical questions and arguments
Placing people, events, and ideas in historical context
Synthesizing lecture and reading material coherently and concisely
Research skills: Familiarity with the library and electronic resources
Writing skills: Using sources as evidence in support of an argument
Proper citation and the logic behind it; understanding plagiarism and why/how to avoid it

2100-level courses:

Diverse historical topics, often with an emphasis on relevance to current issues
Historical thinking: analyzing causes and consequences, understanding context and contingency, tracing continuity and change over time
Primary and secondary sources: distinction between them and exposure to both
Secondary sources: understanding secondary sources as arguments or interpretations, exposure to conflicting interpretations
Placing people, events, and ideas in historical context
Synthesizing lecture and reading material coherently and concisely
Understanding plagiarism and why/how to avoid it

2200-level courses:

Surveys of national histories, regional histories, and important historical themes
Historical thinking: assessing historical significance, taking historical perspectives, analyzing causes and consequences, understanding context and contingency, tracing continuity and change over time
Primary sources: analyzing and contextualizing primary sources, using them to construct and support historical arguments
Secondary sources: identifying and evaluating historical arguments and interpretations
Research skills: Familiarity with the library and electronic resources
Writing skills: Developing your own argument, writing a thesis-driven essay or similar
Proper citation and the logic behind it; full understanding of plagiarism and why/how to avoid it

3000-level courses:

More detailed exploration of particular subjects or comparative investigations of historical themes
Historical thinking: engaging with historiography, analyzing historical works in their own historical contexts, thinking laterally across times, regions, topics
Primary sources: analyzing and contextualizing primary sources, using them to construct and support historical arguments
Secondary sources: Exposure to a variety of historical approaches and/or the historiographical change of interpretations over time
Research skills: Generating your own research question, developing skills of detection and inquiry
Writing skills: Using a variety of evidence to construct and support a persuasive historical argument
Opportunities for oral presentations and student-led discussions

4000-level courses:

Active reading and discussion, and self-directed research, in highly focused courses
Historical thinking: engaging critically with historiography and history as a discipline, producing original historical work
Primary sources: extensive engagement with primary sources, possibly at an archival level
Secondary sources: students are expected to become familiar with the historiography of their field and to engage it directly in their own research and writing
Research skills: Developing an original research question and pursuing it through all available primary and secondary sources
Writing skills: Writing a substantial research paper or project in support of an original historical argument, supported with evidence and presented in clear, compelling prose.
Presentation of one's own research and ideas, orally or through a range of mediums
Sustained engagement with peers and professor in discussion of historical debates and the process of doing history