History
Interpret historical data and study how the past can affect the present.
Overview
Gain critical thinking skills as you interpret, assess, and use data to study social movements, environmental changes, and political issues.
History: Your Roadmap to the Future
History is the study of the past through a consideration of its remains. Historians collect and study historical materials, interpret their content, assess their value as sources of information, and use what they have judged to be the most reliable of these to describe and explain what happened in the past.
History students learn what historians have discovered, but are also taught the historical method, and are encouraged to think critically about the past and its influence on the present. The program offers two interrelated streams: North American history (including the history of Canada) and European history.
The program includes courses on a wide variety of topics and themes, including women’s history, the history of education, intellectual history, the history of social movements, Indigenous history, environmental history, military history, the history of Northern Ontario, and medieval history.
Students in the fourth year of their program may undertake a major research project (HIST 4055) under a professor’s personal supervision; this may involve travel to archives in other cities to consult primary sources. The Department is home to a Research Chair in the History of French Ontario.
Key Features
Career Opportunities
Business, entrepreneurship, government, graduate studies, journalism, law, politics, teaching at primary or secondary schools or in college and universities, archivist, curator in museums and art galleries, librarian, community development worker, costumer and teacher of the history of clothing and textiles, financial planner, civil service, historical interpreter, counsellor, researcher, member of a historical board.
Brianna Kobylka
In attending Laurentian University's Bachelor of History program, I have been fortunate enough to pursue a subject that I have loved for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I'd ask my parents questions about Titanic with Leonardo Dicaprio or Anastasia, which would lead me to Googling and research at the library. I would fall in love with the stories of men and women who lived in a time which I would never be familiar with. Studying History at Laurentian University has given me the ability to find the truth in the lives of people who existed, the challenges they faced in politics, religion, and classes. In order to do all of this as an actual adult now, I've had awesome professors who've not only made my life as a student easier but more interesting and engaging than I ever remember school being. So if you're like me and you've been the history nerd in your friend group, study at Laurentian University! The smaller classes mean that you engage more with the (fabulous) professors and the course content is interesting and specific. The textbooks are also (cheap) very readable and sometimes even fiction, to get a better sense of the culture and not just a collection of factoids from the time period. All in all, Laurentian has a great History program!
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Program Details