History

Overview

History at Hood is the challenging and exciting study of the human past in all its dimensions. If you've enjoyed reading historical novels or visiting historic sites, exploring museums or re-enacting past time periods, the History program will allow you to develop that interest while acquiring valuable lifelong skills in research, writing and critical thinking.

In thought-provoking seminars and small, discussion-based classes, you can study royalty, revolutionaries, African-American culture, the Crusades or the role of women in the developing world. You will work closely with faculty members who specialize in ancient history, medieval Europe, modern eastern Europe, 20th-century America, African-American history, women's history, African history and Asian history.

The history major at Hood is designed to address various educational and career goals. You can choose from among three tracks:

Graduate school preparation: intended for students who plan to pursue further study in history or related fields at the graduate level. Your adviser will help you design a program that reflects your own interests and the requirements of graduate schools.
Secondary Education: intended for students who plan to obtain certification to teach at the secondary level. The history major adviser works closely with Hood's Education Department to ensure that you complete all necessary requirements, including a teaching practicum, to be certified to teach in the state of Maryland (with reciprocity in many other states).
General preparation: intended for most students pursuing the history major, either by itself or in combination with another major or minor. Your adviser will help you choose the courses that best meet your interests while fulfilling the major requirements. This is an ideal liberal arts major, preparing you for success in any number of career fields.

Historical Research Opportunities

If you're interested in intensive historical research, you could design your own independent study course, work on a collaborative project with a faculty member in Hood's Summer Research Institute or be invited to write a Departmental Honors paper.

Along with resources for all historical subjects, Hood's library houses the Landauer Collection on the Civil War and the Weisberg Collection, the nation's most complete privately held archive on the Kennedy assassination and the Warren Commission.

Internships

Hood's location—near Civil War battlefields, the nation's capital, the capital of Maryland and the county seat of Frederick County—provides an area rich with historical sites and internship opportunities. Among the locations where Hood history students have interned are:

C-SPAN
Harper's Ferry National Park
Historical Society of Frederick County
Library of Congress
National Archives
National Museum of American History (Smithsonian Institution)
National Museum of Civil War Medicine
National Park Service
Smithsonian Museum
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington County Historical Society

History Honors at Hood

Hood was recently awarded a chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national collegiate honor society for history students. Student members are chosen each year according to the number of history courses they have taken and their grade point averages.

Phi Alpha Theta sponsors many campus activities, including an annual regional conference at which student members may present their papers.

Alumnae and Alumni Success Stories

Our history graduates work in a wide variety of fields. Some are directly related to history, such as museum work, teaching history, public history, and historical publishing and broadcasting.

Other students pursue advanced study in history, museum studies or library science. Still others have careers in law, journalism, government, nonprofit agencies, the arts, entrepreneurial enterprises and business.

Faculty

Emilie Amt

Ph.D., Hildegarde Pilgram Professor of History
Phone: (301) 696-3696
E-mail: eamt@hood.edu
Courses include: ancient, medieval and early modern European history; women's history; and the social history of medieval art. She has published books and articles on 12th- and 13th-century English government, finance and politics, as well as on the experiences of women in medieval Europe. She is currently working on the history and records of a medieval English convent.

Purnima Bhatt

Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology, History and Interdisciplinary Studies
Phone: (301) 696-3723
E-mail: bhatt@hood.edu
Courses include: African history; Modern China and Japan; and Women, Power and Politics. Her primary areas of interest are Africa, Asian and interdisciplinary studies. Her publications focus on women in developing countries, and she is the author of two books.

Leonard Latkovski Jr.

Ph.D., Professor of History and Department Chair
Phone: (301) 696-3722
E-mail: latkovski@hood.edu
Courses include: Russia, revolutions and 19th- and 20th-century Europe. He is a leading expert on Russia and the Baltic states. He has direct experience regarding the nature of the Soviet system and the developments in the pPost-Communist states, has appeared on Russian and Latvian television and radio and has been a commentator on regional and national media in the U.S., including NPR. He is currently working on the history of the Catholic church in Latvia and the Soviet gulag.

Rusty Monhollon

Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History
Phone: (301) 696-3690
E-mail: monhollon@hood.edu
Courses include: U.S. history and African-American history and politics. His research examines various aspects of American life in the post-World War II era, including the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, anticommunist activism and the politics of the 60s. He is the author of "This is America?," a book about one community's response to political and social conflict in the 1960s.

Gerald McKnight

Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of History, adjunct faculty member
E-mail: jerrycatchall@aol.com
Professor McKnight is an internationally recognized expert on the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations.

For complete departmental information in our online catalog, click here.

For complete information in our online catalog, click here.

Academics.