History is the research and interpretation of human experience in the past. Being a historian is more like being a crime scene investigator than it is about memorizing facts and dates. You learn to ask good questions about the historical “crime scene.” What happened? Why? Who was involved? How did it go down? Our students work to collect original evidence, organize and analyze it and present it to an audience in a compelling way. All majors do a substantial senior research project—from African-American debutante balls to 19th-century prison reform movements—that breaks new ground. As a historian you may be digging in a field with archaeologists, through old letters in an archive or into the pockets of a centuries-old coat trying to determine what was kept there. And you’re not just focusing on the distant past. Our students learn how to collect oral histories from living people who have witnessed what might otherwise be lost. They know historians of the future will thank them.

Some of our alumni continue to research, write and teach history for a lifetime. Others work for museums. We also launch those who go on to be attorneys and physicians, or work in key roles in government or nonprofits. We stay connected with our alums. We help them get where they want to go. It’s one of the benefits from having worked so closely with them as undergrads; we really know whether they are politically minded, teaching-centric or whether they are into the long ago and far away. In fact, our alums, seeking to keep this close-knit atmosphere alive, funded a summer scholarship to support current students with research or internship stipends. The Leavell-Oberg Scholarship honors and continues a beloved Drew history professor’s legacy of supporting student research.