Examine the past, define your future with the NAU Department of History
History majors are presidents and prime ministers, thought leaders, CEOs, entertainers, writers, lawyers, and teachers for whom a deep understanding of the past informed their path toward a powerful future. Our accomplished and diverse history professors will guide your journey into the past as you develop skills in research, communication, critical thinking, interpretation, and problem solving.
Opportunity in every direction
As a student of history, you’ll develop intellectual presence as well as broad and deep subject knowledge. You’ll cultivate critical skills and theoretical sophistication that go beyond rote historical narrative and memorization and allow you to articulate and defend how historical knowledge is created, contested, and changed in relationship to the present.
Widely published and award-winning faculty members offer courses in their regional and geographic areas of expertise, including the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Islamic world, and Africa. Faculty also specialize in North American West and borderlands history and the history of indigenous peoples and Native Americans.
In addition, Department of History faculty offer courses in their thematic specialization, including global/comparative studies; colonialism and nationalism; race, class, and ethnicity; gender and sexuality; environmental history; and the history of medicine. Undergraduate program paths include:
- Bachelor of Arts – The BA program offers flexibility for you to customize your studies based on the period or type of history that interests you. A language requirement enhances and expands on the core curriculum.
- Bachelor of Science – With a wide range of course offerings and requirements that prioritize choice, you can tailor your plan of study to your individual needs, whether you are preparing for graduate study in history and/or law school or a career in education, business, or many other fields. The BS degree requires a minor field of study.
- Bachelor of Science Education in History and Social Studies Secondary Education – An education degree prepares students to teach secondary history and social studies.
- Departmental Honors Program – The department’s honors program enhances students’ opportunities for graduate and professional studies and employment opportunities in history-related careers.
- Minor in History – An understanding of history will enhance and provide depth to any field of study.
Explore your world
“The more you know about the past, the better you are prepared for the future.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
NAU has connections with more than 180 study-abroad programs across the globe. History students have recently studied in Australia, Chile, China, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. After graduation, many students have gone on to graduate school and law school, while others have served as Peace Corps volunteers.
NAU offers a variety of international internships that can count toward history degree requirements. Earn credit while interning in museums or working for historical societies around the world.
Students can also take part in global learning opportunities—including clubs and activities that connect students to the international community—right here on the NAU campus.
Famous history students
Steve Carell – American actor/comedian
Winston Churchill – British prime minister
Katherine Hepburn – American actress
Kareem Abdul Jabbar – American basketballer
John F. Kennedy – President of the United States
Franklin D. Roosevelt – President of the United States
Theodore Roosevelt – President of the United States
Elena Kagan – United States Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia – United States Supreme Court Justice
TE Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia