Department of History
History is the systematic examination of the significant events, people, and ideas that have shaped human civilization. The study of history humanizes us by multiplying the range of experiences in which we share. It civilizes us by demonstrating how institutions and ideals, past and present, have developed; at the same time it offers critiques of those institutions and ideals. Finally, the study of history liberates us by freeing us from a narrow view of time and place. It offers a frame of reference for making critical judgments about the present and the future.
History trains our critical faculties to arrive at valid conclusions based on all available sources of information. The historical way of knowing is not narrow or technical. It is applicable to a broad range of human activities from business (case studies) to health (medical case histories). Historical method is a formal but very general means of discovery and insight with nearly universal application.
The department of history enthusiastically supports and contributes to Xavier University's commitment to being an institution for which the intellectual pursuit of the truth, enriched by value-oriented teaching and active scholarship, is the highest priority.
The history faculty engages in research and is active in a wide array of professional and civic organizations. It is, however, first and foremost a teaching faculty. The faculty is readily available to students during regularly scheduled office hours. Students are encouraged to participate in history-related activities outside the classroom. Classes are small, and students and faculty get to know each other on an individual basis.
1 Globalization
One can hardly open a book or newspaper or turn on the television without hearing something about "globalization." We hear about the promise and the problems of economic globalization, about newly emerging global cultural forms, and we have now fully entered an era of global terrorism. Businesses attempt to strategize about it, students and workers both in the United States and abroad protest it, and scholars attempt to define it and to understand its impacts upon our laws, our economies, our identities and our values. Even a cursory review of the range of treatments leaves one convinced of the importance of the topic; at the same time it leaves one confused about the term's meaning(s), about whether we should feel hopeful or threatened by it, and about what it will mean for our individual, communal and national lives. One thing is certain: "globalization" is and will continue to define critical dimensions of our present and our future. This course will employ interdisciplinary, integrative approach to explore globalization in its economic, political, culture, enviromental and ethical dimensions.
2 History of Nicaragua
Taught as a component of the Academic Service Learning Semester in Nicaragua, the goal of this ocurse is to introduce students to the history of Nicaragua from the independence era to the present. Topics of study will include the nation building process of the early nineteenth century, the Walker Affair and the National War, the triumph of liberalism as a guiding force in poltics and economics, the struggle to overcome persistent violence, contemporary popular culture, and the turn toward new economic, political and cultural realities in the twenty-first century.
3 History of the Jesuits
This course will introduce students to religion in the late Middle Ages and the place of organized religious life in that Society. Students will then read about Ignatius Loyola and the formation of the Society of Jesus and its place in changing religious life because of the criticisms of the Christian Humanists. The students will then read about the work of the Society in education, in Latin and South America, in China and Japan, in exploring the North American continent and in astronomy. The Jesuits ran the only world-wide school system from its beginnings in Messina in 1540 until the suppression of the Society in 1784.
4 History and Film: Sophomore Colloquium
A required course for sophomore history majors intended to prepare students for success in advanced History seminars, the Sophomore Colloquium provides an introduction to the practices and skills historians use to locate, evaluate and present information about the past.
This version of the colloquium, “History and Film,” focuses especially on the conventions and characteristics of commercial films about the past. This close look at historical film, perhaps the most influential genre of history within our own culture, will allows us better to understand the different conventions and characteristics of other genres of history, such as academic articles and monographs, popular history, and historical fiction. It will also provide the context for studying and applying the conventions of the genres of history that History majors need to master, such as the historiographical essay, the annotated bibliography and the oral presentation.
5 Cities, Publics, Futures: Seminar
This seminar explores the public dimensions of city life with an eye to the possible futures of cities and publics. Its sources and approaches are eclectic, including various theories of the public, the history of urban images (panoramas, motion pictures, digital) and urban characters (flaneur, spectator, detective), and an ecological analysis of the city (understood as both a spatial and an environmental history of the city).
6 Immigration and Ethnicity
This course examines the impact of immigration and ethnicity on American culture. It covers both the immigrant experience as well as the emergence of ethnic identities, communities, and customs. The course also analyzes the politics of immigration and the ways in which ethnicity transforms notions of class, gender, nationalism, popular culture, and race.
Undergraduate Admission