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The Study of History at Alma College
- Examines the economic, social, political, intellectual and technological factors that affect human behavior over time;
- Evaluates historical interpretations explaining behavior;
- Discovers how humans have created economic, social, political and intellectual problems and tried to solve them;
- Provides framework to comprehend intellectual developments in other academic disciplines and context to understand contemporary society;
- Combines a history major with a major or minor in business administration, English, exercise and health science, philosophy, political science, psychology or a foreign language;
- Offers courses in world, European, ancient, English, American, Asian, Latin American, African and Russian history.
Facilities and Programs
Alma’s history students make heavy use of the College’s 242,000-volume library for research, especially for upper-level courses, independent studies and senior honors theses. Research materials are substantial for most periods of U.S. and modern European history, including microfilm collections of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s office files, and World War II Map Room files.
Phi Alpha Theta
Qualified history students have the opportunity to join Phi Alpha Theta, the international history honorary society. Alma students deliver research papers at the annual meeting of the society’s Michigan chapters and have won many “best research paper” awards.
Public Affairs Institute
Alma’s Public Affairs Institute attracts students who are interested in public affairs careers or who enjoy analyzing contemporary issues and the policy-making process.
The Institute’s courses and activities consider issues, policies and decisions that affect the public interest, with a central focus on interactions between the private sector and government in policy making.
Internships
Recent placements:
- Museums
- Research archives
- Libraries
- Michigan governor and attorney general offices
- Law firms
- Legal aid offices
- F.B.I. headquarters in Washington, D.C.
- Prosecuting attorneys’ offices
- Legislators’ staffs
- Political campaigns
- Environmental organizations/international study
You can deepen your historical and cultural understanding by studying abroad for a term or year in Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Mexico, Scotland or Spain.
Successful Graduates
History majors gain admission to and financial aid from quality graduate and professional schools.
History alumni have gone on to graduate study at Brandeis, Chicago, Duke, George Washington, Harvard, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Notre Dame, Stanford, Virginia, Wake Forest and William and Mary universities. History graduates enjoy successful careers in:
- Banking
- Government service
- Higher education administration
- Hospital administration
- Information management
- Information science
- Journalism
- Law
- Law enforcement
- Librarianship
- Ministry
- Museum and archive administration
- Non-profit sector fund raising
- Private business management
- Public relations
- Secondary and college teaching
