Chair's Welcome

The Department of History at Old Dominion University is an exciting place with an excellent faculty made up of creative and vibrant teacher-scholars. Our faculty members have published numerous books and scholarly articles. They regularly attend conferences where they present the results of their historical research, and they have won many grants and teaching awards as well.

The Department of History offers a Bachelor of Arts degree for the History Major, and a Bachelor of Arts degree for the History Major that includes licensure for recipients to teach Social Studies on the secondary level in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have an accelerated program offering the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees that allows students to earn potentially both degrees in a five year period. We also offer the M.A. degree in History.

History majors find work in a variety of fields. History teaches critical thinking, communication, and research skills that are valued by many employers. History majors often pursue careers in government, business, libraries, museums, archives, publishing, historic preservation, industry, journalism, and public relations. Our majors also make exceptional teachers. History is an excellent undergraduate major for anyone thinking of law school or pursuing graduate work in history.

I invite you to come and check out the Department of History. You will find teachers who are passionate about their subject, whether it is American, European, Asian, African, Latin American, or Russian history. We offer traditional classroom courses as well as distance courses (TELETECHNET), and study-abroad courses. We are committed to providing a challenging academic environment that will encourage majors to explore and interpret the past while developing and voicing their own ideas. Majors will also acquire an understanding of why history is important and an appreciation of how history provides meaning in any culture.

In the Department of History at ODU we are excited about exploring the past. We invite you to consider majoring or minoring in history.

Annette Finley-Croswhite, Ph.D., Chair
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