The Power of History

THE POWER OF HISTORY

Faculty in the Fredonia Department of History strive to inform students about the past, and through its lens provide them with lifelong tools to learn, analyze, and communicate as they engage in a diverse and changing world. These tools have universal value in every career, every place, and every relationship. History is a core discipline of the liberal arts: its subject is the totality of recorded human experience; its methods draw upon the fields of the humanities and sciences; it informs every element of our lives.

• Knowledge, and the research skills that enable its acquisition, are at the heart of our mission. History Department faculty members are practitioners, deeply engaged in historical research and writing; they are likewise teachers, devoted to communicating their knowledge and skills to students.
• Knowledge without analysis is barren. The discipline of history is rooted in analysis of the enormous diversity of human experience. It acknowledges no boundaries, taking the world as its subject and borrowing from all disciplines to interpret the past and create new understandings of the present.
• Knowledge not communicated is valueless. Effective communication, both written and oral, is essential to the discipline of history and allows us to connect with our communities. It is deeply embedded in our curricula, modeled in our teaching methods, practiced in our classrooms, and experienced in internships and service learning.
• Knowledge isolated from community is wasted. Through local history research, service learning, internships, History Day competitions, and study abroad experiences, History Department students and faculty are responsible citizens, engaged with local, national, and global communities.