Throughout this academic year, The Rider will explore the programs of study at UTRGV. This is the seventh in a series. The Rider interviewed David Fisher, an associate professor of history, for information.
Major: History
School: College of Liberal Arts
Department chair: Thomas Britten
Prerequisites: None
Total credit hours needed to graduate: 120
What is history? “The major in history is spread out between four major fields. Students study American history, European history, the history of Latin America, world history or we also have courses in the history of Asia and the Middle East. So, they get some choices where they want to concentrate after they take the history core courses.”
Which classes can students expect to take? “The core courses for history majors include World History 1 and 2, Historiography and Methods and Senior Research Seminar. So, those core courses are spread out through their program of study. The world histories are 2000 level, so those come early. Historiography is in the 3000 level, so it’s between the time they move from lower division to upper division. The Senior Research Seminar is in the 4000 level. It is a capstone that they usually take in their senior year.”
What skills will students learn by the time they graduate? “If we’re lucky, the students learn skills that fit into the bigger picture of humanities. Those skills correlate really well to skills employers say they’re looking for. For example, some of the recent surveys of what employers are looking for in college graduates include things like an understanding of the global context in which work is done. So, one of the skills the history major gives students is a really good database of knowledge of not just North America, but the rest of the world as well. Other skills that employers are looking for that they get from history are being able to evaluate reliable information and sources, to look at primary or secondary sources, to use the material to answer questions about the past and think about the present and maybe even speculate about the future. So, that ability to work in a sophisticated and complex way with multiple sources of information and evaluate them for reliability and then somehow synthesize them to answer a problem is what employers are looking for. They put together a rich database of the world, learn how to analyze information and we work with them to improve their communication skills in terms of writing and speaking.”
What are some possible careers? “Like a lot of majors in the humanities, the name of major and the name of the job don’t match up, so the history major doesn’t necessarily turn students into historians the same way the literature degree doesn’t turn them into writers. The kinds of jobs that are available to history students deal with professions that are looking for students that are intellectually curious and communicate well. Teaching is a possibility. The top five areas they end up in are education, finance, retail, public administration or they hold jobs in some type of professional service position. They’re involved in management, sales and education. The history major is a really flexible degree in this ever-changing economic world. Some will go on into professional schools such as graduate school for business. History is also a good prep for law school. Many politicians were history majors, so that is a possibility as well.”
What salary can a student expect to earn after graduation? “History majors have the highest salaries of any graduates in the humanities and liberal arts. The average salary for a graduate of liberal arts would be something like $47,000 a year, but the average for history majors was about $10,000 more. We must be teaching them some useful skills out there because they end up in a wide variety of jobs. Since they’re good communicators and they’re good at dealing with a wide variety of information and thinking about cause and effect and why things are the way they are, they end up earning higher salaries.”
Are there any student clubs? “Currently, I don’t believe there are. At the moment, we’re looking forward to students starting some student clubs associated with history.”
For more information: contact Fisher at david.fisher@utrgv.edu or 882-8836. Or, contact Britten at thomas.britten@utrgv.edu or 882-7379.
—Compiled by Sarah Carvajal
