It is no idle cliché to say that we should study the past in order to understand the present and cope with the future. The American philosopher and poet George Santayana put it simply: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it.”

Students with a liberal arts emphasis in the history major prepare for careers in such fields as law, government service, university teaching, journalism, archival/museum work and business. Because history majors possess strong communications skills (both written and oral) along with good general knowledge of society, they enter an amazing variety of fields. In fact, occupational choices for history majors in the liberal arts are limited only by their imaginations.

The Department of History at UNI has 25 full-time faculty who offer courses in U.S., European, Asian, African and Latin American history. History faculty participate in the UNI Liberal Arts Core curriculum, as well as teaching a wide variety of departmental courses. In addition, all the UNI historians have active research programs; this helps them stay current with their subjects while at the same time adding depth to their teaching.