Philosophy, history, activism, culture, religion — all of these make up the “humanities.” We examine the relationship of people to people and people to their world.
Majoring or minoring in Humanities creates a foundation for service and professionalism. Students can expect intensive work in multiple dimensions of culture, with a special emphasis on the skills needed for leadership and research.
- See History: Each of our programs puts the past in touch with the present. Students who see the past at work in the problems of today will see them more clearly.
- Think On Your Feet: The humanities emphasize a student’s ability to put problems in context and see them from multiple perspectives. Tools like Reacting to the Past push our students to articulate nuanced problems in professional and civic ethics.
- Put It Together: Professional and civic life places new demands on BSU graduates. Courses in history, politics and art prepare our students to put technical knowledge in touch with knowledge of a variety of cultures and ways of life.
Speak with an advisor about a degree in humanities, especially if you are considering a future in: law, religion, public policy, human rights, non-profit work, the arts or graduate school in the social sciences or humanities.
Our Mission
History is the human story, encompassing the diversity, interconnectivity and complexity of the human experience across time. Historians interpret why humans have made the choices they did and continue to do, investigate the causation and relevance of past events, and aim to empathize with the wide-ranging views of past and present peoples and assess information about the past from a wide variety of sources and ground their analyses in careful reasoning and reliable evidence. Historians understand that their own interpretations are also filtered through their own and cultural perspectives. As a result, history is necessarily a dialogue among varied interpretations.
Therefore, the mission of the History Program at Bemidji State University is to cultivate critical thinking, research and communication skills that will empower students, both to find their place in the world and connect with others. The faculty will guide the students to the discovery that they are both the subjects and practitioners of History, as well as the insight that History is both personally and professionally valuable to all students because it is more than a discipline. Both the faculty and students will strive to form a learning community that values and pursues diverse perspectives, nurtures historical thinking by inspiring its members to consider the past’s impact on the contemporary world and their own lives and fosters creativity, empathy and self-awareness through dialogue.