Looking at the amount of dedication University students have for the history of the University and Mr. Jefferson in general, it comes as no surprise that the Corcoran Department of History hosts one of the most popular areas of study for undergraduate and graduate students. There are currently 533 undergraduate history majors, 20 M.A. graduate students and 138 Ph.D. graduate students in the department.
Department Chair Duane Osheim said students who choose to be history majors have diverse reasons for doing so.
"I think history is one of the most popular majors, especially for people who want to know why things are the way they are today," Osheim said. "It especially works well for people who want to go and do graduate work -- whether this is pre-law or pre-med."
Fourth-year College student and history major Catherine Jenks said she finds some students are deterred from being history majors for career reasons.
"I think some people shy away from being a history major because they think they can't get a job with a history major," Jenks said. "But whenever I come in contact with potential employers, there is always a historian amongst them, and we bond over that."
Fourth-year College student and history major Nancy Amling said she finds the history department successful in providing the students with numerous opportunities for taking interesting classes.
"Obviously, for an upperclassman, it is easier to take very popular classes than [it is for] first or second-years," Amling said. "But, in terms of what is offered, it is for sure that you will find something that you like and that you can also get into, even as a first-year."
The history department offers students classes in European, Latin American, African, Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian and American history, as well as general history classes.
According to Osheim, the courses in American history, some of which are offered in collaboration with the Miller Center, are not only the most numerous but also the most popular.
"Last time I looked, we live in America," Osheim said. "It's something we know and we want to know. So, naturally, most classes are offered in the area of American history because the demand is so high."
Amling said she found the American history classes the most compelling.
"You always have those classes that you say you can't not take if you are a history major, and a lot of them are American history," Amling said. "Like 'Rise and Fall of the Slave South,' 'History of the Civil Rights Movement' and 'Viewing America' when it is offered."
Osheim said although American history remains popular with students, interest in other areas has been increasing over the years.
"When I arrived here in the 1970s, there was not as much interest in areas outside of the Anglo-Saxon history," Osheim said. "Nowadays, students much more broadly engage all the fields outside of America and Europe. That was always the hope we had when we created area requirements, but the area requirements don't explain this completely. We have a much more diverse population here at U.Va. It is a different place than it was 30 years ago, and you can see that in the changing interest of the students."
The history department also offers a Distinguished Majors Program for its undergraduate students, in which students take a special seminar course in their third year, surveying many different kinds of academic literature and work on an independent research project to prepare their theses in their fourth year.
"The Distinguished Majors Program plays to the most creative and most interesting instincts of our students," Osheim said. "The thesis that the students prepare their fourth year is as challenging and informative as a master's thesis. We consider this to be the best way to understand history. It's making history by taking a problem, thinking about it and solving it."
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