Department of History

The Department of History at CSULB is a researching and teaching community that nurtures the intellectual curiosity and career aspirations of its students. Through their research, departmental historians create and communicate scholarly knowledge that informs their teaching and promotes student understanding of the means by which historical knowledge is constructed, contested, and situated in public and educational settings. The History Department has a distinguished national reputation in history education at both the university level and in the preparation of teachers in the public schools. History teaching at CSULB is grounded in innovative pedagogy, and in effective forms of research-based instruction and assessment, which balance individual student inquiry and collaboration in the process of learning. History courses promote sequenced and sustained student development in disciplinary and interdisciplinary forms of analysis and reasoning, oral and written communication, research, and the ability to make and evaluate arguments and evidence. History students at CSULB acquire the critical-thinking and communication skills, and a deep understanding of both the global and national past, which provides them with the ability to succeed in a variety of professions from the law and management to public history and teaching in the schools.