Basic Course of Study

History 190 and 390:

History 190. The first course recommended for majors or potential majors is History 190. It is taught only in Fall semester. It offers a complete orientation to the field of history, including presentations by many department faculty so you will get an overview of what we offer. The course also introduces you to library and computer resources at WMU that you will need to use in upper-level courses. One important aspect of the course is the preparation of a term paper. You will be assigned to a section so that you will have personalized instruction about all aspects of preparing term papers.

History 390. This course accomplishes various tasks, among them preparation for 400/500-level courses. It fulfills the departmental writing requirement for the major and is, therefore, writing intensive. Over the years the history faculty has developed a coursepack with a variety of readings in historiography, that is, how history has been done in different places and different times. The writing assignments are frequent and you will also get personalized feedback on your writing in this course.

General Education Courses:

Many history courses are also part of the General Education program. They are often survey courses and are designed to serve the diverse interests of undergraduates across the university. For this reason, they have larger enrollments than the 400/500-level courses. They count both toward the major and toward the fulfillment of General Education requirements.

400/500-level Courses:

In addition to History 190 and 390, the other courses designed with our history majors in mind are 400/500 level courses. Capped at 30 students, the are offered on a host of different subjects, taking our faculty strengths into account. Some require term papers, some require essays, but all are writing--and reading--intensive. The major requires you to take 18 hours (6 courses) at this level as these courses are at the heart of our program.

Most of the courses are listed at the 400 level. 500-level courses may be taken by graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

For class descriptions of 400 level History courses, CLICK HERE.

For class descriptions of 500 level History courses, CLICK HERE.