Politics and History are in your Future!
Greetings from the Politics and History Department.
P&H faculty would like to put some politics and history into your future! We feel that we have much to offer! While we recognize the necessity to educate students for future jobs, we also are committed to educating students for citizenship. We feel strongly that students who are rigorously educated in politics and history will be more responsible citizens of the US and of the world.
The growth of Curry College in recent years has been an exciting development and the Politics and History Department has been working to keep up with the increasing and ever more diverse academic needs of this student body.
In Fall 2007, the P&H Department welcomes Dr. Melissa Anyiwo. Dr. Anyiwo, will be the Coordinator of the new African American Studies Minor at the College. The African American Studies Minor is an independent interdisciplinary minor that is open to all students regardless of their major. The College community is excited to welcome Professor Anyiwo, who brings to Curry her expertise and experience in running an African American Studies program.
Professor Anyiwo will also be a professor in the P&H Department, offering P&H courses. She will be the fifth full time faculty member in the department. We are thrilled that Professor Anyiwo will be a part of our departmental faculty. With the addition of Dr. Anyiwo to the Department and of the African American Minor to the College curriculum, we foresee an exciting and ongoing addition of courses to the curriculum.
Course offerings have expanded as we strive to offer a broader range of course, especially to our Majors and Minors. In recent years we’ve started to offer State and Local Politics and Gay Politics on a regular basis in addition to the Social History of Women. In Fall 2006, the department introduced a new course on the Modern Middle East and in Spring 2007 US Immigration History was offered for the first time. All of these courses are now regularly offered, once per academic year.
Course offerings have expanded as we strive to accommodate the needs of more students for CLAC courses. The Department is offering more sections of longstanding CLAC offerings such as Introduction to Politics and the European History Survey I & II (formerly Western Civilization). Starting in Academic Year 2006/2007, the US History Survey I & II (formerly American Civilization) were also designated as CLAC courses, and at this point these courses make up one of our largest CLAC offerings.
The department has also sought to take our academic offerings and intellectual exchanges out of the traditional classroom. In May 2006 nine P&H students traveled to the People’s Republic of China for a two week tour and while there completed the requirement of P&H 2120 China: Tradition and Change. Another trip to China along with the China course offering is planned for Summer 2008, taught by Professor John Hill. In Fall 2006 the P&H and Levin Library also sponsored a public forum, Terrorism: Roots and Responses, featuring a panel of three Curry professors offering students a historical and police-professional look at terrorism. Also in Fall 2006 P&H assisted the First Year Honors Program in bringing a guest speaker from Crispaz (a Christian peace organization working in El Salvador) to campus, providing students with a deeper understanding of some of the consequences and responses to globalization. The department has also offered a Brown Bag discussion on the US Constitution for two years now, on Constitution Day, and will be doing so again this year on September 17th. Also planned for the Fall 2007 semester is a Women in Politics forum, jointly sponsored with Women’s Studies.
Over the years P&H graduates from Curry College have gone on to educational and career success. Some P&H alums have gone on to Law School or gotten a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice, while others have become high school teachers; some have gone on to work as librarians or journalists while many others have gone into business; some have dabbled in politics (two recent P&H majors even ran for public office while attending Curry) or worked in government or public service while others have become political consultants or social workers. Career options for P&H majors are many and varied.
Let me encourage you to check us out, and let us put some Politics and History in your future!
Larry Hartenian
Professor and Chairperson
Politics and History Department