Department of History

Department of History
at Pittsburg State University

General Overview

History is more than names and dates. Historians seek to know how kings and everyday people lived, believed and dreamed. There are historians of science, of ideas, of every region on the globe, and of every era.

Part of PSU's College of Arts and Sciences, the Department offers classes that attract students with interests in technology and business as well. Our department maintains a broad selection of courses and rigorous undergraduate and graduate programs, and all members of the history faculty are active scholars with a commitment to teaching. Because the classes are small, students have a tremendous opportunity to interact with high-quality professors. The department maintains a computer lab for history students, participates actively in Teaching American History grants, and houses one of the few distance-friendly M.A. programs in the United States, and the only M.A. in History available in either southeastern Kansas or southwestern Missouri. Our internship program, available to seniors and graduate students, has benefited from successful partnerships with the National Archives Central Plains Kansas City Branch, the Powers Museum, Mine Creek State Historical Site, Ft. Scott National Historical Site, and Axe Library Special Collections, among others. Two members of the Department have established nation-wide reputations for the use of computers in the classroom, and a third has included international webcasts in a number of his courses. The Department of History established the History Computer Review in 1985 for dissemination of materials related to the use of computers for classroom instruction and has housed the multidisciplinary journal, The Midwest Quarterly since 1981.

Engaged as they are in community and regional outreach, our professors have earned a strong reputation as evinced by local support for our programs. The Department of History seeks not only to provide its students with an understanding of people and the effects of their actions and ideas, but with analytical and problem solving skills useful in any occupation that demands intellectual discipline and articulate expression, be it written or oral. Aspiring teachers should know that PSU’s first-rate history teacher education program enjoys a consistently high job placement rate and is directed by a practicing historian rather than a professional administrator with no real feel for our discipline.