Whither the History Major?

Boyer Hall: Home of the Messiah College History Department

On Sunday afternoon I attended AHA session #186: “Whither the History Major?”  Here is the session description: 

Where is the history major headed? Is it losing ground or at the leading edge of humanistic teaching and learning? Perhaps it is possible for both propositions to be true. This panel–comprised of award winning teachers, department administrators, key players in the AHA’s history curriculum tuning project, and digital historians from a variety of colleges and universities–will consider the past, present, and future of the history concentration all with an eye toward pointing out the challenges and opportunities the major is likely to face in the generation to come.

As a department chair, I was encouraged by the session.  While I am still concerned about the future of the history major, I was happy to learn that Messiah College History Department was fairly well “tuned.” I also realized, as is always the case, that we still have some things to work on, especially in the area of digital history.

See my storified tweets and comments here.

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