The academic conventions of writing, speaking, researching, and learning to analyze various sources (i.e. information literacy) are integral to the discipline of history and figure strongly in all of the department’s courses.

Students of history may take many different roads to historical understanding; department members have diverse interests, and they actively encourage students’ independent investigations of history. Majors, in particular, are invited to collaborate closely with their department mentors in their historical inquiries, while at the same time shaping their own methodologies, foci, questions, and answers. Students majoring in history are encouraged to plan their program of study with their departmental adviser by the end of the sophomore year.