Departmental Brochure

History - the recording of the daily lives, conflicts, thoughts, relationships, work, and beliefs of men and women - has long been central to the world's understanding of human culture, and to every society's transmission of its culture. From ancient tribes to modern nation-states, virtually all groups have appointed bards, historians, or chroniclers to be the keepers of collective memory. Among the first subjects taught in universities, history has retained a central place in the modern canon, changing and evolving to reflect the zeitgeist of its time and place, but always central to how we understand our world and find our place in it.

Historians here, as around the world, seek to understand the totality of human endeavor in its time-based context. A dedicated historian seeks to know with significant sophistication the politics, economics, religion, material culture, science, art, music, philosophy, medicine, and even psychology of the men and women of a particular time and place. He or she must be at times a political commentator, a literary analyst, a translator of documents, a paleographer, an expert on poetry, a geographer, and a statistician. Hence, history is a discipline both intrinsically broad, and unavoidably deep. The scholarly projects of historians consequently require long-term intellectual commitment.

The history major at Fairfield University seeks to introduce to each student the richness of history, and the skills of reading, writing, and analysis of historical materials from every perspective - social, political, economic, religious, cultural, and intellectual. Through small classes, especially at the upper-division level, students are encouraged to analyze primary historical documents, do original research, and learn to write analytically. Majors work closely with faculty, each of whom brings his or her topical specialty, chronological focus, and thematic approach to their courses.

History

History majors take ten courses, including "Europe and the World in Transition," the core survey that includes readings in primary and secondary sources. Five intermediate courses, which cover specific geographical areas and time periods, include further work with historical documents and library research. Four advanced seminars focus on specialized subjects that explore extensively and in depth. These advanced seminars give students the opportunity to engage in compelling individual research or to produce seminar presentations. Majors gain a broad knowledge of history through the requirement that these nine upper-division courses include at least two in U.S. history, two in European history, two in non-western history, and one in a period before 1750.

Some of the courses offered are:

• European Society in the Middle Ages
• The Indian in American History
• The Third Reich
• African-American History
• Comparative Russian Revolutions
• The Spanish Caribbean
• Social and Cultural History of China and Japan
• Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race in U.S. History
• Era of the American Revolution
• Africans in the New World, 1500-1800
• Arab-Israeli Conflict
• The French Revolution and Napoleon
• Examining the 60s: History, Art, Legacy

To complete the Minor in History, students take "Europe and the World in Transition," three intermediate courses, and two advanced seminars.

The breadth of courses within the History Department is reflected in the participation of its faculty in the many interdisciplinary programs offered in the College of Arts and Sciences, including American Studies, Black Studies, Environmental Studies, Irish Studies, Italian Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, International Studies, Judaic Studies, Russian and East European Studies, Women's Studies, and the University Honors program.

Internships and Research

Qualified majors may complete an internship at a local historical site, such as the Fairfield Historical Society, the Barnum Museum, or the Bridgeport Public Library Historical Collections, to gain real-world experience in archival work and public history research and writing. Majors can use these many local resources to write original research papers as well. Majors can take advantage of Fairfield's proximity to major research libraries in New York City and New Haven, as well as tap the growing number of databases through Fairfield University's computer network.

History majors and minors annually produce significant papers on a wide variety of historical topics. The department gives out three awards each spring: the Clio, the Phelan, and the Murphy for research papers. One of these papers won a $1,000 Historical Essay prize from the joint Committee of the Society of the Colonial Wars and the Society of the Cincinnati, both Connecticut organizations. In past years, history majors have won the University's College of Arts and Sciences Award in the Humanities. Since the founding of Fairfield's Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 1995, at least 16 history majors have been inducted into membership in this prestigious national honors society. With funding through an ASIANetwork Freeman Student-Faculty Fellows grant, three students spent time in China with Dr. Danke Li, researching the experience of women during China's war against Japan (1937-1945).

The Faculty

William M. Abbott
Ph.D., Phil., Oxford University
Britain and the British Empire, Ireland

Stephen Bachelor
Ph.D., Yale University
Latin America, Mexico

Patricia Behre
Ph.D., Yale University
French social history, Jewish-Christian relations

Cecelia F. Bucki
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
U.S. social, labor, and immigration history

Ralph M. Coury
Ph.D., Princeton University
Middle East, modern Arab history, Islam

Kevin Dawson
Ph.D., University of South Carolina
Africans in the Diaspora, comparative slavery

Lawrence J. H. Kazura
M.A., Clark University
Colonial America, the American Indian, environmental history

Danke Li
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Modern China and Japan, East Asia
Director of Asian Studies

David McFadden
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
U.S. foreign relations, Russian and Soviet history
Director of Russian and East European Studies

Gavriel D. Rosenfeld
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Modern Germany, 20th Century Europe, history and memory, alternate history

Yohuru Williams
Ph.D., Howard University
African-American history, constitutional history
Co-Director of Black Studies

Lecturers and Visiting Professors:

Elizabeth Hohl
M.A., Sarah Lawrence College; A.B.D., Union Institute & University
U.S. women's history

Ricardo Court
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Early Modern Mediterranean, Italy

Cherie Woodworth
Ph.D., Yale University
Early modern Russia

Life After Fairfield

A great range of career opportunities is open to history majors. Graduates have gone into law, government, business management, finance, journalism, public relations, and social work, among other fields. History students qualify for social-studies certification as secondary school teachers. Recent graduates have found jobs as: associate executive director of a health foundation, coordinator of regional support activities for a university, project engineer, assistant archeologist for a museum, and the assistant to the manager of the New York City opera.

Those seeking higher education have been admitted to the Ph.D. programs at the University of Connecticut, New York University, Vanderbilt University, UCLA, University of Wisconsin - Madison, and the J.D. programs at Hofstra, Syracuse, St. John's Universities, Boston College, and Yale.

Profile

James Costa
History Major

"Since declaring a history major in the spring of my freshman year, I have certainly come to appreciate my decision. The history major has allowed me to perform the analysis, investigation, and presentation of the past that is so essential to my work as a college student. Paired with my second major in Italian language, the history major has allowed me to take the skills that I learned from the faculty of historians at Fairfield all the way to Italy for my junior year. While in Florence for spring 2005, I was engaged in an extensive research project that forced me to examine archives in both Italian and English in order to complete my exploration into the lives of some of the most famous names in Renaissance Italy. My studies in Italy, as well as all of the other work that I have done here for my history major, have provided me with experiences that will be vital to my development as a historian in graduate school and beyond."

For further information please contact:
Dr. David McFadden, department chair
Canisius 324
Fairfield University
Fairfield, CT 06824-5195
Tel: (203) 254-4000, ext. 2871
E-mail: DMcFadden@mail.fairfield.edu