Historical Studies (FD-HS) is one of the six Foundational Disciplines that are part of the WCAS bachelor's degree.

Historical studies examine change over time in a wide variety of spheres, including beliefs, cultures, economics, intellectual thought, politics, and society. The scale and scope of offerings in this area range from the local or regional to the global, and from the origins of human society to the present day. Students learn to assess, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary sources (for example, documents, testimonies, texts, artifacts, images) and use them to develop arguments in oral and written form. Courses in historical studies teach critical methods including: evaluation of evidence, understanding conditions under which historical actors operated, comprehension of cause and consequence, tracing patterns (continuities and ruptures), comparative analysis of sources, and modes of historical argumentation.

Learning Objectives for FD-HS

Courses in Historical Studies are designed to achieve a combination of the following learning outcomes:

• Acquire knowledge of historical phenomena (cultural, economic, intellectual, political, and social practices and their interdependent development over time in their local, regional, and/or global contexts) and become familiar with relevant primary and secondary sourses
• Develop skills of historical analysis, including the means to evaluate sources; become acquainted with scholarly historical demonstration, discussion and debate
• Appreciate the impact of historical developments; acquire historical perspective on the present; consider agency and subjectivity in the context of the times; reflect on the varieties of memory and experience
• Express the results of historical investigation effectively and persuasively in written, oral and visual forms, and engage in debate with other narrators and interpreters of history, both past and present

FD-HS Courses

Courses approved for the 2024-2025 academic year.