Program Requirements
About the major
As a History major at Mercer University, you will develop critical thinking and communication skills while crafting new viewpoints about the past. Our curriculum encourages you to encounter the past with fresh perspectives and pursue historical conversations with your peers, your professors, and other scholars in the field. Our courses cover a number of historical eras and regions whose stories impact our world today. While becoming proficient in research methods and historical argumentation, you also become literate in the people, ideas, movements, and developments that have created the present and will continue to shape the future.
The History major requires 33 semester credit hours.
About the minor
The History minor requires 15 credit hours. It may include no more than two 100-level courses and must include at least two courses numbered 300 or above.
Departmental honors
Students who major in history may attain Departmental Honors by earning a grade of B+ or better in HIS 495 (Research Seminar in History) and attaining a grade point average of 3.75 in history courses and 3.50 overall.
Secondary teacher certification
Teacher certification in history for grades 6-12 is available to history majors. Students planning to teach history in secondary school should notify their advisor and contact the chair of teacher education in the Tift College of Education.
Double major in History and Biology
How to enhance your pre-professional education with a second major in History:
- Choose a history research topic related to your field of study (science, medicine, health, etc.)
- Earn Phi Alpha Theta history honor society standing (3.0 overall GPA and 3.1 in major)
- Take a leadership role in the local Phi Alpha Theta chapter
- Present your History research at a Phi Alpha Theta regional or national conference or at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research
- Choose coursework connected to your intended geographical area of work (Southern, Global, American)
- Work an internship to demonstrate community involvement
What employers, professional schools, and graduate programs appreciate:
- Historians’ ability to communicate orally and in writing
- Historians’ ability to understand how the past affects the present (patient and family medical history)
- Historians’ sensitivity toward the struggles of groups and individuals
- Historians’ meticulous work at documenting their research and study
- Historians’ appreciation for multi-causality
- Historians’ recognition of the importance and consequences of group and individual decision-making