History Department Resources
Building Your Resume: How History Can Help: Check out this page to learn how the UA history department helps its students prepare for life after graduation through internships, mentoring, research experience, and more.
What Can You Do with a Degree in History?: What kinds of jobs can you get with a history degree, anyway? How will a history major help you build a career? Read What Can You Do with a Degree in History? to find out.
Links and Contacts for Specific Career Goals
Career Center: The UA Career Center works with students at any point in their careers, from choosing a major to beginning a job search. The Center also hosts career fairs and utilizes Handshake, a job and internship platform, to connect students, alumni, and employers. The center also facilitates on-campus interviewing and information sessions to recruiters interested in recruiting at the Capstone. For more information, visit the Career Center’s website or download the current Career Guide.
Graduate School: Dr. Dan Riches, the Department of History’s graduate director, is the best contact here.
Law School: UA has a fantastic pre-law program, and they can help you with everything you need, from start to finish.
Secondary Education: UA’s Secondary Social Science Education program is dedicated to training teachers, and many of our undergraduates chose this career path. Also remember that there are networks of private schools who are looking for teachers, and who do not always have the same requirements as the public school system.
Museum Work: Dr. Bill Bomar is the director of the new UA Museum Studies certificate. Keep an eye out for the course he teaches in Museum Studies every spring.
Library Science: We have two historians on campus who have also earned graduate degrees in Library Science: Karly Johnson and Alex Boucher. They will be happy to answer any questions you might have about this exciting field, which integrates traditional library skills with all of the revolutionary changes underway in information technology and digital humanities. Both are eager to help and are currently compiling a list of resources for those interested in learning more about their field.
MBA Programs: Prof. Arthur Allaway, in the Culverhouse College of Business, is a great contact for anyone interested in marketing and similar business fields. We have had a number of recent graduates who have fared will in the business field. In fact, the MBA program eagerly accepts applicants from history.
Videos about Careers in History
Daniel Riches – How to Apply to Graduate School from The Department of History on Vimeo.
Ambassador Lino Gutierrez | Jobs in Government from UA College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo.
External Links for Careers in History
- On current career prospects for History majors, see:
- Paul B. Sturtevant, “History Is Not a Useless Major: Fighting Myths with Data [PDF],” Perspectives on History 4 (April 2017).
- The American Historical Association’s “Where Historians Work: An Interactive Database of History PhD Career Outcomes.”
- The American Historical Association’s “What to do With a BA in History.”
- The American Historical Association’s “Careers for History Majors.”
- Learn How to Become’s “Careers & Degrees in History.”
- George Anders, “Good News Liberal-Arts Majors: Your Peers Probably Won’t Outearn You Forever,” The Washington Post (September 11, 2016).
- George Anders, “That ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech’s Hottest Ticket,” Forbes 196 (August 17, 2015).
- Norm Augustine, “The Education Our Economy Needs: We lag in science, but students’ historical illiteracy hurts our politics and our businesses,” The Wall Street Journal (September 22, 2011).
- Matthew DeShaw, “Humanities Offer Marketability in a Competitive World,” Harvard Gazette (March 4, 2016).
- Elizabeth Elliott, “Yale History’s Major Comeback,” AHA Today (May 11, 2017).
- Anthony Grafton and James Grossman, “Habits of Mind: Why college students who do serious historical research become independent, analytical thinkers,” The American Scholar (Winter 2015).
- Loretta Jackson-Hayes, “We don’t need more STEM majors. We need more STEM majors with liberal arts training,” The Washington Post (February 18, 2015).
- Scott Jaschik, “Humanities Majors’ Salaries,” Inside Higher Ed (October 5, 2015).
- JM Olejarz, “Liberal Arts in the Data Age,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 2017): 144–5.
- Julio M. Ottino and Gary Saul Morso, “Building a Bridge Between Engineering and the Humanities,” The Chronicle of Higher Education (February 14, 2016).
- Constance Schulz, Page Putnam Miller, Aaron Marrs, and Kevin Allen, “Careers for Students of History,” (American Historical Association, 2002).
- , “A Harvard Medical School professor makes the case for the liberal arts and philosophy,” The Washington Post (December 24, 2015).
- Valerie Strauss, “Enough With Trashing the Liberal Arts. Stop Being Stupid,” The Washington Post (March 5, 2016).
- Rob Townsend, “Where Can You Find Data on Career Prospects for History Majors?,” AHA Today: A Blog of the American Historical Association (October 12, 2015).
- n.a., “What Kinds of Jobs do History Majors Land?,” History News Network (August 14, 2014).