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HistoryDepartment Chairperson: Troyansky, DavidDeputy Chairperson: SenGupta, Gunja Location: 524 Whitehead Hall Phone: 718-951-5303 Fax: 718-951-4504 
Historians turn our predisposition to explain present events by the past into a formal intellectual tool. The Department of History helps students develop facility with this tool, as they learn to control a body of knowledge and utilize techniques of historical thinking that will serve them well in both professional and civic settings. The History Department also gives students the opportunity to achieve a broad, authoritative, current understanding of the social, political, cultural, and economic developments that constitute the historical background of the modern world. Students learn to identify significant problems, read evidence critically, organize information coherently, write about it cogently, and think independently. They come to appreciate that while vestiges of the past are all around us, history is what we write, not just what is "out there." Its uses are multiple, some are present-minded, but others involve an appreciation of the past for its own sake. The department offers a bachelor of arts degree in history, a bachelor of arts in adolescence education for social studies teachers, and a concentration for education majors in the following programs: early childhood education teacher (birth-grade 2); childhood education teacher (grades 1-6). The distribution requirements of the major-as well as individual courses-emphasize both historical content and skills and provide a diverse regional, cultural, and chronological scope. A minor in history is also available, as is a minor in archival studies and community documentation that affords opportunities to train in oral history and to undertake practical work in a variety of repositories and cultural institutions. Students have opportunities to work closely with a faculty whose members have won recognition for both teaching and scholarship and are eager to advise student research and to recommend internship programs to facilitate professional development. Many of the department's graduates become schoolteachers. Others prepare for careers in the worlds of business and public service. Students who wish to pursue advanced studies may apply to the master's and doctoral degree programs offered by or in conjunction with this department.
Disinguished Professors
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