Department of History

Why Study History at SFSU?

One of the best experiences about traveling is meeting new people, discovering qualities in them that are different from you and also qualities that you share. Studying History is like traveling, except in both space and time. You meet new people and by reading the texts they left behind. You see through their eyes what their lives were like. You see how people in the past lived different lives from you and me, but also what we all have in common.

Expand Your World

In the History major, you will study the experiences of people in the United States and people from around the world, of people in the recent past and people who lived centuries and even millennia ago. You will see how culture and structures of power created different experiences for people, but also what unites us as humans. Studying the past can help you decide what you want our present and our future world to be.

Engage Your Community

In college, learning goes beyond the classroom, extending to making connections with your fellow students and the community around SFSU. Come spend time in the History Department Reading Room in Humanities 203, where you can find a quiet place to study or relax between classes, as well as meet friends that share your interests in history. In a more formal way, students can connect through the History Students Association and the Phi Alpha Theta History honor society. Students can also write and edit for Ex Post Facto, an annual journal created from start to finish by students like you. You also have many opportunities for internships and community service learning to immerse yourselves in community throughout the Bay Area.

Launch Your Career

A History degree is a gateway to a wide variety of careers. Here, you will build skills in critical thinking, research, writing, oral communication, reasoning and empathy — all skills that are important in managerial jobs in any field. Traditional fields for History graduates include education, law, and archives/libraries/museums, but our graduates have gone on to a broad range of fulfilling careers from government and nonprofits to business and the corporate world to film and television.

California needs teachers. If you are interested in teaching at the K – 12 level, you are going to want to complete your History B.A. and a teaching credential, which typically takes one to two additional years after graduation. For teaching social studies in junior and/or high school, a properly planned History B.A. can help you waive out up to three sections of the CSET. You may also want to think about adding an Education minor, to start learning about what it’s like to be a teacher.