Whether you are planning a future in education, law, museum curation, business, healthcare, publishing, or politics, we have the program and tools to help you get where you want to go. Along the way, you will discover what our students tell us time and again: history is fun. The history major offers an endless array of fascinating topics—and dynamic classroom teaching—that will bring the past to life.
We invite you to learn about the many offerings for History majors. For example, we give you the opportunity to work closely with faculty in small classes, publish your work in a journal, join the History honors society, and get course credit for an internship at many excellent sites around Birmingham.
What Can You Do with a History Degree?
History teaches the research, writing, and persuasive arguing skills that are so essential to every professional field. Some of our former students are curators of historical sites, such as Sloss Furnaces or Rickwood Field (the oldest baseball park in the country). Others are archivists, IT experts, military officers, directors of schools and banks around the world, and non-profit professionals.
We're Here for You
We are a hands-on department, made up of professors and instructors who are committed to teaching in many different styles—from lectures, to small discussion groups, to historical reenactments. At UAB, our goal is to make sure you have access to academic and student experiences that will launch you toward a lifelong love of history and into a rewarding career.
Fall 2025 Special Topics Courses
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HY 200-2C: CAC: History of Religion
Instructor: Rodrick
This course investigates the history of religions, and what better way to explore their impact than in a diverse and vibrant city like Birmingham? From before its foundation, through its early establishment, through the Civil Rights era, and up to the present, many religious communities have taken root and continue to contribute to the rich social and cultural tapestry of the city. This course will introduce students to the origins, central doctrines, historical development, and social impact of many of the world’s religious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, indigenous religions, and others. Along with these we will also briefly survey other faith traditions, philosophies, and schools of thought including Zoroastrianism, Shinto, Yoruba religion, magic, agnosticism, atheism, and critical perspectives. We will examine themes such as doctrine, ritual, scripture, mysticism, pilgrimage, and myth across various religious traditions, and discuss methodological approaches to the comparative study of religion. This .
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HY 201-2D: LGBT History
Instructor: Zaretsky
This class examines the intersection of history and human societies. Emphasis is placed on the use of theories and methods from the social and behavior sciences to understand how humans create and experience government, religion, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, and class. How and why societal change occurs is also a focus.
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HY 201-QL: Nazi Germany
Instructor: Weisen
This course introduces students to the period in Germany from 1933 to 1945 known as the Third Reich. Almost eighty years after the collapse of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship still poses powerful questions to historians:
- Why did Germans turn to a fascist leader to solve their social and economic problems?
- To what extent did the average citizen support Hitler’s brutal and racist policies?
- How did German society and culture change under National Socialism?
- How did the Nazis justify starting a genocidal world war?
Through readings, discussions, and the writing of papers and exams, we will address these questions. Over the semester, we will keep in mind not only the key historical debates about the Third Reich, but also the moral stakes of these discussions. There are no prerequisites for this course.
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HY 201-QLA: CAC: First Peoples of North America
Instructor: Nail
This course will provide a comprehensive overview of North American Indigenous People. We will cover their history from the first human settlement of the Americas, along with religion, culture, and encounters with each other, Europeans and later the United States. The time frame starts with pre-history leading to the twenty-first century.
