Macricostas School of Arts & Sciences

History

224 Warner Hall

181 White Street

Danbury, CT 06810

(203) 837-8484

Welcome to the web site of the Department of History and Non-Western Cultures at Western! The department offers undergraduate and graduate students a range of courses on the human past. Over 300 undergraduate and graduate students are currently enrolled in our major programs.

Danbury, Connecticut is an ideal location for exploring the past. It has been the site of Native cultures for millennia. The city was a colonial outpost, Revolutionary War battle site, and center of the US hat-making industry. Today, the greater Danbury and New York City areas provide unmatched museums, historic sites, research centers, and internship opportunities for History students.

Western’s history majors receive a first-class liberal arts education and learn to think and read critically, write well, and plan and execute complex projects. A History degree prepares students ideally for a career in primary or secondary education or for graduate study in law, business, and humanities. Our alumni have succeeded in these fields and in others.

Back row: Drs. Abubaker Saad, Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox, Michael Nolan, Marcy May
Front row: Drs. Surekha Davies, Jennifer Duffy, Kevin Gutzman, Joshua Rosenthal and Patty Lerner (Secretary).


Our goals are:

  • To provide an interdisciplinary forum in which students can deal with political, social, cultural, religious, economic, and geographic aspects of history.
  • To introduce students to non-Western cultures and help them understand global political and cultural relations.
  • To help students develop their abilities to think critically, discuss, and explain clearly historical issues and problems.
  • To cultivate writing, research, and analysis skills that will help students lead successful professional and personal lives.
  • To provide a history/education curriculum that imparts a broad base of knowledge about historical events, principles, and theories, so that students have the foundational knowledge they need to educate others.
  • To facilitate our students’ understanding of their national and community heritage.