"Study History" by Ricardo Levins Morales
What is History?
"History is a set of evolving rules and tools that allows us to interpret the past with clarity and rigor. It requires evidence, sophisticated use of information, and a deliberative stance to explain change and continuity over time. As a profoundly public pursuit, it is essential to active and empathetic citizenship and requires effective communication to make the past accessible for multiple audiences. It is a craft with a set of professional ethics and standards that demand peer review, citation, and toleration for the provisional nature of knowledge." —From the American Historical Association Tuning Project
What We Do
Historians at UC Merced are passionately curious about the world of the past. We study a wide range of times and places, and ask many different questions, but all of us place local histories in dialogue with wider global ones. In our ongoing dialogue with the past as scholars and teachers, we explore how artifacts, objects, and writings open doors to understanding thoughts, beliefs and practices, as well as the multiple shifting power relations of past societies. We look forward to sharing our fascination with the past and the pleasure of studying it with you.
You can find our History Program Learning Outcomes here.
The History Major at UC Merced
History majors learn to do the work of historians, researching and writing about the past. All history majors complete a capstone project — a major research paper on a subject of their choosing. History majors have the option to do an internship that exlores the ways history can be used in cultural, social and political institutions.
For more information and a detailed list of requirements, please see the course catalog.
As a History major at UC Merced, you will enjoy:
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learning from outstanding faculty, two thirds of whom were first generation college students themselves
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a deliberately global curriculum
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small upper division classes
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the possibility of getting to know and work closely with your professors in the department
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individualized mentoring
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opportunities to work with faculty on research projects
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developing pathways to a number of future careers
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the prospect of publishing and gaining editorial experience in a student-run journal
The History Minor at UC Merced
Students who enjoy studying history but cannot accommodate the number of courses required for the major to it can minor in history. A history minor is easily integrated with many majors in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts and throughout the university. The history minor requirements consist of only two lower division courses and four upper division courses. For more information, please see the course catalog.
Updated 2021
