The study of history is at the core of a liberal arts education. History teaches us how to draw meaning from scattered yet still lingering traces of past peoples’ lives and environments, to apprehend change over time and to account for the variety of the human experience. To understand the present, we have to study the past because the problems, conflicts and questions that previous generations confronted are now ours; they inhabit the world we have inherited.

Why study history at Sewanee?

History involves critical thinking and increased empathy for the human condition. History cultivates an appreciation of complexity and contingency (understanding the world not just for what it became, but also for the multiple possibilities inherent in each historical setting), and the insight that can only be won by thinking over broad timescales. Students of history at Sewanee acquire a skillset of finely honed analytical and rhetorical tools by learning how to read and pose analytical and historiographical questions of diverse and wide ranging materials, both secondary and primary, and how to write argumentative histories of their own that are supported by a firm evidentiary backing.

FIRST DESTINATIONS: HISTORY MAJORS

Sewanee graduates secure positions in a variety of fields. Some you would expect, others, are a bit of a surprise. Sewanee prepares you for your profession and your passion. Below is a sampling of recent graduates' first job.

  • Analyst, Merrill Lynch, Boston, MA.
  • History Teacher, Areta Preparatory, Gilbert, AZ.
  • Law Clerk, Wakefield and Associates, Denver, CO.
  • Legislative Intern, U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C.
  • Arts & Humanities Presenter, Discovery Children's Museum, Las Vegas, NV.
  • Marketing and Promotions Assistant, Duke University Athletic Department,  Durham, NC.
  • Media Consultant, Meltwater, Washington, D.C.
GRADUATE SCHOOL & PREPROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS: HISTORY MAJORS

Sewanee graduates enjoy extraordinary acceptance rates to top graduate and preprofessional programs–about 95 percent to law school and over 85 percent to medical school. Below is a sampling of where Sewanee grads continue their education.

  • Master's in Environmental Policy, University of Cambridge.
  • Master's in Commerce & Marketing, University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce.
  • M.D. Trinity School of Medicine
  • J.D. Tulane University Law School
  • J.D. Washington University School of Law

Domain Discoveries

A Sewanee history professor reads the landscape of the South Cumberland Plateau and finds its human history written—in the soil, on the rocks, and under the trees—just clearly enough to be legible.

If he’s not in the classroom, in the University Archives, or at home, it’s likely that History Professor John Willis is in the woods. That’s where, for the last several years, he has spent countless hours, hiking trails and bushwhacking off-trail, in summer heat and winter ice, to research an environmental and social history of the South Cumberland Plateau. Unlike many historians, Willis conducts much of his research outside, with his eyes and his feet, trekking to seldom-visited tracts on and off the Domain to search for evidence of long-forgotten human activity. Willis reads the landscape like a ship’s captain reads the sea, like a rabbinical scholar reads the Torah—scanning for subtle variations in vegetation and telltale signs in the dirt. All that sweat and squinting has paid off with one discovery after another, giving the lie to the notion that these forests are largely untouched by human hands.

Here, Willis offers his take on five sites along Sewanee’s Perimeter Trail that you, too, can find, if you just look hard enough.

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A Sampling of Courses

Consumer Culture and Its Discontents, 17th - 20th Centuries
History

This course examines the development of a consumer culture from the seventeenth to the late twentieth centuries in Europe and around the globe. "Consumerism" is used to encompass a constellation of historical changes, including the shift from a mercantilistic to free market system of capitalistic exchange, the advent of mass production, and innovations in retailing and marketing. The course analyzes how the increasing organization of life around seemingly infinite flows and accumulations of commodities affected political, social and cultural life as well as individual behavior and value systems.

HIST 121
Early Modern Cities
History

A survey of urban life between 1400 and 1750. This course examines the dynamic contours of early modern cities in a variety of contexts, considering how the period's emerging networks of exchange, as well as colonial ambitions, generated links between decidedly urban spaces across the globe. How did residents experience and use the space of the city to regulate relationships among members of disparate social and cultural groups? Students also assess the status of early modern cities as key sites for the transfer and production of knowledge.

HIST 210
History of the Middle East II
History

This second offering in a two-course sequence addresses the modern Middle East, and emphasizes the region's place in global politics and the world economy. Among the topics considered are European imperialism and local responses, 19th-century reform movements, the rise of the nation-state, the impact of Arab nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Islamic political movements, gender relations in the region, the importance of oil, the Iraq conflict, terrorism, and the peace process.

HIST 297
Global Segregation, Race, and Popular Culture in the United States and South Africa
History

An exploration of the rise and significance of segregation, race, and popular culture as crucial interlinked global phenomena during the era of burgeoning urbanization and nationalism in the late 19th and 20th centuries, with special attention to the histories of South Africa and the United States. Students engage primary sources from the popular culture of a global historical setting.

HIST 382
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History

Programs of Study & Related Programs

Requirements for the Major & Minor in History

Requirements for the Major in American Studies | Website

Contact

Kelly J. Whitmer
Associate Professor of History

kjwhitme@sewanee.edu

Walsh-Ellett Hall 302, Ext. 1723 

Connecting the Dots

Study Abroad
Engaged citizens solving global problems

At Sewanee, we pledge to offer each student an opportunity to study abroad. And at Sewanee, we keep our promises. Travel, learn, and cultivate your knowledge by communicating across cultures and acquiring a sensitivity to other ways of life. Apply social scientific methodologies to various frameworks. Learn to formulate solutions to global problems and apply those theories at home in a local context.

More about Study Abroad
European Studies
Ancient Greece & Rome or the Middle Ages & the Renaissance

European Studies is a full semester of study abroad and offers the unique experience of studying in a variety of locations in Europe. Students choose between two academic options: ancient Greece & Rome or Western Europe in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

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Slavery Project
Slavery, race, and reconciliation

The Sewanee Project on Slavery is made up of a task force of various faculty and students on campus who are interested in issues regarding equity and race relations. The task force is focused on identifying Confederate monuments and memorials on campus and making recommendations as to how the University can best handle these tributes to the past.

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