Historical Studies

Professors K. Du Mez (history), C. Hanson (art history), D. Howard (history), W. Katerberg (history), K. Maag (history), D. Noe (classics), F. van Liere (history), K. van Liere (history; chair), W. Van Vugt (history)
Associate Professor E. Washington (history)
Assistant Professor: D. Rohl (William Spoelhof Teacher-Scholar in Residence; history)

The Department of Historical Studies offers a variety of majors and minors which prepare students for a wide range of pursuits. Graduates pursue careers in teaching, public service, graduate or professional school (e.g., law and medicine), media, ministry, museums, and business. Our courses offer rigorous training in writing, research, critical thinking, and public speaking, and promote engagement with a broad range of cultures and eras.

Students in Historical Studies programs have opportunities for practical learning, including a hands-on Digital Humanities lab course and internships in museums and cultural organizations.

History and Classics can readily be combined with a minor or second major, or with a pre-professional or professional track such as pre-law, pre-medicine, public health, or business.

Historical Studies also houses the interdisciplinary minors of African and African Diaspora Studies , Archaeology , and Medieval Studies .

History

We study the past to understand humanity’s place in the world, to remember those who came before us, and to help us live more wisely in our own time. Get your hands dirty leafing through manuscripts, handling treasures unearthed from ancient cities, and studying abroad, exploring the great sites of London or Budapest. We offer a robust History major that encourages students to select courses according to their interests while also ensuring they experience both depth and breadth of content.

Students pursuing certification for Secondary Education must earn either a double major in History and Social Studies, or a major in one of these two disciplines with a minor in a different discipline.

Classics

Homer, Sappho, Plato, Cicero, St. Augustine—these and many other men and women of the ancient world wrote works of enduring interest, with a long and complicated impact on Western society and world history. Greco-Roman antiquity is also the context in which Christianity was born and began to spread.

The department of Historical Studies offers a major in Classical Studies, which combines courses in the history, culture, and languages of ancient Graeco-Roman civilization. Students can also minor in Classical studies, ancient Greek, and Latin.

Art History

An art object—whether a painted altarpiece, a bronze sculpture, a pastel portrait, or a photograph of a performance piece—provides a material engagement with the past, serving in some sense as a ‘time machine’, not transporting us to the past but bringing into the present a physical trace of past ideals and aspirations, while also pushing us to ask important questions about our own values.

The Department of Historical Studies offers an array of Art History courses, including survey courses that range from paleolithic cave paintings to the contemporary art scene, along with more focused offerings from the seventeenth century to the present.

Programs

• Classical Studies Major
• History Major
• History Major: Secondary Education

• Classical Studies Minor
• Greek Minor
• History Minor
• History Minor: Secondary Education
• Latin Minor

• Social Studies Group Major: Elementary Education
• Social Studies Group Major: Secondary Education

Courses

• ARTH 101 - Introduction to the History of Art I
• ARTH 102 - Introduction to the History of Art II
• ARTH 232 - Early Christian and Byzantine Arts
• ARTH 233 - Medieval Art
• ARTH 234 - Northern Renaissance Art
• ARTH 235 - Italian Renaissance Art
• ARTH 237 - Baroque and Rococo Art
• ARTH 238 - Nineteenth-Century Art
• ARTH 239 - Modernism and the Arts
• ARTH 240 - Contemporary Art
• ARTH 241 - Asian Art
• ARTH 243 - Art of the Americas
• ARTH 393 - Museum Studies
• ARTH 397 - Methods in Art Historiography
• ARTH 399 - Symposium

• CLAS 211 - Classical Literature
• CLAS 221 - Classical Art and Architecture
• CLAS 231 - Classical Mythology
• CLAS 383 - External Practicum
• IDIS 198 - Classical and Medieval Palaeography

• GREE 101 - Elementary Greek I
• GREE 102 - Elementary Greek II
• GREE 201 - Intermediate Greek
• GREE 203 - Biblical Greek
• GREE 205 - Greek Prose
• GREE 206 - Greek Poetry
• GREE 300 - Readings in Greek Literature

• HIST 151 - History of the West and the World I
• HIST 152 - History of the West and the World II
• HIST 153 - Explorations in World History

• HIST 233 - Modern Middle East
• HIST 235 - India and Its World
• HIST 238 - Latin American History
• HIST 242 - Africa and the World
• HIST 245 - East Asia to 1800

• HIST 229 - Seminar in United States History
• HIST 251 - Early America
• HIST 252 - America from Republic to Empire
• HIST 253 - Recent America
• HIST 255 - African-American History
• HIST 256 - Women and Gender in US History
• HIST 258 - U.S. Military History
• HIST 259 - American Economic & Business History

• HIST 225 - England
• HIST 261 - Ancient Mediterranean
• HIST 262 - Early Medieval Worlds, 300-1000
• HIST 263 - Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 1000-1500
• HIST 264 - Reformation and Revolution: Europe 1500-1800
• HIST 267 - Modern Europe

• HIST 271 - War and Society
• HIST 274 - Environmental History

• HIST 293 - Public History
• HIST 294 - Research Methods of History

Enrollment in all 300-level courses presupposes two courses in history or permission of the instructor.

• HIST 331 - Studies in Middle Eastern History
• HIST 338 - Mexico and the Americas
• HIST 346 - Modern China

• HIST 353 - Studies in U.S. Religious and Intellectual History
• HIST 356 - American Social and Cultural History
• HIST 358 - Native American History

• HIST 362 - Studies in Ancient and Medieval Europe
• HIST 364 - Studies in Early Modern and Modern Europe

• HIST 372 - Studies of Modern Empires
• HIST 376 - Studies in the History of Women and Gender

• HIST 359 - Seminar in Secondary Social Studies Pedagogy
• HIST 383 - External Practicum
• HIST 390 - Independent Study
• HIST 390H - Honors Tutorial in History
• HIST 391H - Honors Senior Thesis
• HIST 393 - History Internship
• HIST 395 - Historiographical Perspectives

This section includes not only courses that are interdisciplinary (IDIS), but others also that do not fit logically into any single department or which are in disciplines not otherwise offered at Calvin.

• IDIS 210 - Introduction to the Digital Humanities

• LATN 101 - Elementary Latin I
• LATN 102 - Elementary Latin II
• LATN 201 - Intermediate Latin
• LATN 205 - Latin Prose
• LATN 206 - Latin Poetry
• LATN 300 - Readings in Latin Literature