Lehigh history majors have frequently gone on to law school or to work in various areas of education, journalism, and public affairs, but the majority have pursued a wide range of occupations in business. The major also provides an excellent basis for graduate training in many public policy fields.

The department offers a program of independent research under the direction of an individual faculty member through the Honors Thesis in History (History 391, 392). A maximum of six credits may be used toward this project. Normally students pursue their research in the second semester of the junior year and the first semester of their senior year; the project may also be undertaken during the senior year. Students who do well on their research project will graduate with department honors.

The department, like the university as a whole, combines two models?the liberal arts college, with a strong commitment to undergraduate education, and the research institution, dedicated to the creation of new knowledge. We seek to integrate these two models to the benefit of undergraduates, graduate students, and the academic community at large. We offer students a Bachelor of Arts degree, as well as a master?s and a doctoral degree. In addition, the Lehigh history department offers both undergraduate and graduate students a concentration in public history, designed to provide the skills to make history accessible to the public in settings like museums, historical societies, and other non-profit institutions.

The study of history contributes to the goals of a liberal arts education by enabling students to gain a deep appreciation of the diversity of human experience over time. Small class sizes and the opportunity for individualized instruction mean that students have contact with a distinguished research faculty. The Department of History encourages students to actively participate in historical inquiry, whether in freshman seminars or graduate-level community-based learning.