Welcome to UNH! Choosing a college and major is a challenging process, and we're glad that you are considering studying history at UNH.
Students and parents often ask, “What can you do with a History major?” The answer is practically anything you want. Some graduates from our department become teachers, but History majors also go into law, medicine, and business, as well as careers in technology, international relations, politics, and the media. Recent graduates have gone on to some of the top graduate programs in the country, including Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Wisconsin, the University Southern California, and Northwestern. History majors enter graduate school and the work force with writing and critical thinking skills that are in high demand.
The History program offers great opportunities to our students. History majors take almost all of their ten required classes with tenured or tenure-track faculty. Most courses have fewer than 25 students in them, allowing faculty to work closely with students and get to know them. We offer courses on a wide array of subjects, from traditional surveys of American history to advanced courses on subjects such as the Roman Empire, China’s Cultural Revolution, medieval Islam, the American Revolution, and museum studies, among many others.
Every major also takes an introductory seminar on historical writing and analysis, and the major concludes with a senior colloquium that gives students the opportunity to conduct in-depth research. History is a demanding major, but our students tell us it’s worth the effort. Along the way, many of our students pursue a double major, study abroad, master a second language, or complete a minor (or two!).
UNH’s Department of History is one of the top history departments in the country, with an internationally recognized faculty. Members of our department have won some of the most important prizes in the profession, including the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and Fulbright fellowships, as well as many teaching excellence awards. Surveys of scholarly productivity among faculty at research universities have placed us among the top twenty History departments nationwide. You may have heard or seen our faculty on PBS, C-SPAN, TLC, NPR or the History Channel.
We understand that the decision about where to attend college can be difficult, and we know that you have other choices. If you would like, I would be happy to arrange a time to meet in person or to speak by phone or email. My email address is Kurk.Dorsey@unh.edu; you can also reach me by calling the department office at (603) 862-1764 or 862-1765.
Yours,
Kurk Dorsey
Professor and Department Chair
