As a history major or minor at RMC, you’ll build a foundational understanding of the world and its cultures and belief systems as you hone your research, communication, and decision-making skills. Alongside RMC faculty, you’ll examine the past’s impact on modern-day events. You’ll put your learning into action through internships and research opportunities that can become a springboard to your personal career path.
Major/Minor History
History Up Close In and Beyond the Classroom
Hands-on Research
Inspired by Dr. Amy Lonetree’s Decolonizing Museums and fueled by a passion for public history, Morgan Lindsay ’22 examined the representation of indigenous communities within Virginia museums during her summer-long Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) project. In collaboration with history department chair and SURF mentor, Dr. Mathias Bergman, and RMC history professor, Dr. Jill Horohoe, Morgan expanded her research into her senior thesis.
High-Impact InternshipS
Dig deeper and apply your knowledge outside the classroom through personalized experiential learning opportunities in Virginia and beyond.
Recent RMC history internship sites include:
- Bacon’s Castle
- Scotchtown
- George Mason’s Gunston Hall
- Hanover County Black Heritage Society
- The American Civil War Museum
- Virginia Museum of History and Culture
- Agecroft Hall & Gardens
Global Education
The college’s study abroad offerings—featuring month-long travel courses and semester- or year-long programs—will enable you to gain different historical perspectives and broaden your studies all while immersing yourself in new cultures.
Recent study-abroad projects conducted by RMC history majors include:
- Researching African history in Kenya
- Studying the Habsburg Empire while traveling throughout Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands
- Examining the evolution of the Stuart dynasty in England
Advising & Mentorship
At RMC, you can count on the guidance of full-time faculty historians whose focus is your personal development and success as a student and in your career. They’ll help you connect ideas, not settle for surface answers, and spot opportunities to test your studies in the real world.
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10Number of Distinct Millenia you can study at RMC
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23%of 2020 RMC history graduates are pursuing graduate degrees
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6Continents on which RMC students can choose to study
History in full Courses You Won’t Want to Miss
(A very small sample)
Hist 215
The Sixties
Explore shifting attitudes and grapple with issues of the 1960s that still echo today through close study and discussion of primary sources that were produced during this decade of tremendous change.
Hist 249
The Lives of Wives
Study the centuries old practice of Chinese medical culture and its goal of preventing and healing disease by maintaining or restoring balance. Learn the concepts of yin and yang, harmony and equilibrium in this exploration of Chinese medicine from its ancient origins to modern day practice.
Hist 305
Tea & The Making of the Modern World
Trace the origins and evolution of the fascinating plant that mesmerized different cultures and the beverage that facilitated the making of the modern world.
Opportunities Worth Grabbing
Popular activities and programs among history majors
Franklin Debating Society
One of the college’s oldest clubs, an opportunity to practice your rhetoric and argumentation
Pre-Law Program
Focused career advising, just for students who plan to pursue a career in law
From Here To What you can do with a history degree from RMC.
Nicole Morton Ryan ’13
Leader of Business Enterprise
George Mason’s Gunston Hall
“As a history major at RMC, the history department greatly helped to prepare me and lay the ground work for my career in the museum field. My professors guided me to intern at two local Richmond area museums which allowed me real world experience in museums. It is because of my professors in the history department that I was able to connect with George Mason’s Gunston Hall, my current employer going on 10 years.”
KENNETH WHITE ’12
Principal
Highland Springs High School
PAIGE SELLARS ’19
Ph.D. Candidate in History of Art
University of Pennsylvania
bill sudduth ’83
Head of Government Information and Maps
University of South Carolina Libraries
amanda metell ’17
Attorney
Buzzworthy The latest from RMC History
News Story categories: History
Academics
Career Preparation
Agecroft Internship Dives into Hidden Symbolism in Tudor-Era Portraits
Taylor Gordon ’26 completed an internship with the museum house in Richmond, putting her history major to work interpreting the estate’s paintings and what they tell us about the period.
News Story categories: History
Academics
Career Preparation
Berkleytown Park to Feature Stories Gathered by History Students
Students conducted oral history interviews with residents of a historically Black community to be included in an upcoming heritage park project.
News Story categories: History
Faculty
Music
Endowed Professorships Celebrated at Installation Ceremony
Dr. James M. Doering was installed as the Shelton H. Short III Professor in the Liberal Arts and Dr. Mathias Bergmann was installed as the Isaac Newton Vaughan Professor in History.
More to explore 55+ areas of study to discover at RMC
Get Ready Discover History at RMC.
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