The Millsaps History
Department has developed
a curriculum that is intended to expose students to the variety
of human experiences. We seek to encourage the free exchange
of ideas and interpretations and to help students understand
that the really important historical questions--the "why"
questions--have no single "right" answer, but that
all interpretations must be judged on the basis of the evidence
that is offered to support them. Courses are designed to allow
students to practice the thinking, evaluation, interpretation,
discussion, and writing that are essential to the study of
history.
Millsaps College Department of History
(L to R) Dr. Andrew Paxman, Dr. Robert McElvaine, Dr. Kristen Oertel, Dr. Amy Forbes, Dr. Nicholas Brown, Dr. William Storey and Dr. David Davis
All members of the history
faculty hold the Ph.D. degree and are outstanding teachers
and scholars. While all members of the department are active
scholars, we also realize that the department's primary mission
is to teach, with an emphasis on the individual student. The department is especially strong in the areas of American, European, African, African American, Latin American, women’s, environmental, and comparative history.
Student evaluations of all members of the
Millsaps history faculty are consistently far above the already
very high mean for the Millsaps faculty as a whole. Student
comments on anonymous written evaluations of our faculty are
filled with praise and superlatives. What is especially noteworthy
is that students love the teaching of all members of the department,
despite the fact that the various members of the history faculty
employ very different teaching styles. Students seem to very
much like all the different ways in which our faculty members
teach.
Members of the history faculty have won
the last three Millsaps Outstanding Young Faculty Member Awards.
Two members of the history faculty have been named Humanities
Teacher Award and one has been named Millsaps Distinguished
Professor twice, Mississippi Professor of the Year by the
Carnegie Endowment for Education, and silver medalist in the
National Professor of the Year competition by the Council
for the Advancement and Support of Education.
The bottom line is one that students often
write on their evaluations of members of the history faculty:
“The Millsaps history department rocks!”
What can I do with a history major? The best answer to that question is: “Anything you want to
do.” A history major can, of course, lead into a field directly
related to history, including going to graduate school and
becoming a professor, teaching history, working in a museum
or archive, etc. History is also among the best undergraduate
majors for students planning to go to law school. Beyond these
career paths, however, what you will learn as a history major,
with an emphasis on developing critical thinking, analytical
skills, and written and oral communication, will serve as
an excellent preparation for almost any career you choose
to pursue in the business world, politics, public service,
medicine—yes, medicine, too: We have had many pre-med students
who majored in history as undergraduates. You can check out
what some of our graduates are doing below.
In addition to preparing you for what you
will do after your graduation, the Millsaps history department
offers many exciting opportunities for you during your time
with us. Among them are the Millsaps
History Club, chapter of Phi
Alpha Theta, internships and award
programs.
Noted History graduates
In recent years, Millsaps history
majors have gone to well-known graduate and law schools such
as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, North Carolina, Indiana, Vanderbilt,
Virginia, Texas, Emory, Washington & Lee, Michigan State,
and many others. Among the many noted Millsaps history graduates
are David H. Donald, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian at Harvard;
Otis Singletary, President Emeritus of the University of Kentucky;
and Randall Pinkston, CBS News White House correspondent.
