2024-2025

History, Minor

Department of History

College of Arts and Letters

As the French poet and politician, Alphonse Lamartine, remarked, “History teaches everything, even the future." The History minor attracts students who wish to understand how the past affects today, not only in terms of nations and cultures, but also genders, the arts, and the sciences

  • A minor is earned in conjunction with a bachelor's degree.

    To receive a minor (18 - 24 units) at Northern Arizona University, you must complete a planned group of courses from one or more subject matter areas with a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0. At least 12 units of the minor must be unique to that minor and not applied to any other minor.

In addition to University Requirements:

  • Complete individual plan requirements.

Students may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.

No more than fifty percent of the units used to satisfy minor requirements may be used to satisfy major requirements.

Minimum Units for Completion 18
Major GPA 2.5
Fieldwork Experience/Internship Optional

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate the ability to deal with historical ideas, processes, problems and subjects in the following ways:

  • Interpret and extract meaning from a variety of primary sources.
  • Interpret secondary sources and existing historical scholarship critically through the following practices:
    • Identifying specific interpretations of a topic in a source.
    • Identifying points of agreement as well as of variance or conflict between various historians’ interpretations of historical issues and problems.
    • Inferring and analyzing assumptions underlying different historians’ interpretations of issues and problems.
    • Applying different assumptions to the same subject matter and generating  alternate questions and possible conclusions.
  • Make arguments based on evidence from primary and secondary sources through the following practices:
    • Comparing their own findings with other evidence from the period on the subject and/or on relevant subjects.
    • Formulating conclusions about the issue under study.
    • Testing such conclusions against additional evidence and the ideas of other historians.
    • Developing their own historical interpretations;
    • addressing conflicting evidence and alternative perspectives.
    • Recognizing ways in which their contemporary society’s concerns inform their own evaluations of the past .
  • Express analytical and interpretive understandings of history through writing in ways and formats that meet appropriate academic standards.
  • Express analytical and interpretive understandings of history through oral presentations in ways that meet appropriate academic standards.

 

Minor Requirements
  • No more than 6 units of individualized study coursework (HIS 408, HIS 485, HIS 497) may be used.
    No more than 9 units (three courses) of transfer credit may be applied to the minor.

    If your major plan requires history courses or allows you to take history courses as part of your major, you may not count these courses as part of your Minor in History.

Additional Information
  • Be aware that some courses may have prerequisites that you must also successfully complete. For prerequisite information, click on the course or see your advisor.