History Majors

[kittysbecute]

Anyone with a history major on here?
I was just wondering:
• Do you have a certain area (time, place) that you are focusing on?
and
• How did you chose your area of focus if you have one?

I'm going to be starting on a history major next year, and after I graduate I might decide to go for a masters in history with a specific focus.
The college I'm going to go to for my bachelors doesn't really have any focuses except it might have mostly European and American history.

 

[Atlantians]

I am.

 

[Apollo Celestio]

I'm merely a history minor. I like Ancient history over the more modern history. The west is mainly what I've learned of.

 

[dragonfruit29]

I know art history's not quite the same, but I was an art history major in undergrad. I focused mainly on Ancient history- Ancient Greece and Rome, to be more exact. I experimented in the other periods of history, to see what I liked and didn't like, and I found out that I really enjoyed Ancient history.

 

[Thunder Peel]

My minor used to be in history but I had to change it because I couldn't get the classes I needed. I took Western Civ. I and II (which is pretty standard in college) and I also took some electives like Tennessee History and American Medical History, both of which were pretty interesting. Art History was a fun class too and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

There are a lot of great history classes that you can take as electives, so look around and see what interests you.

 

[Tzaousios]

• Do you have a certain area (time, place) that you are focusing on?

I did my masters work on the late Byzantine period (1204-1461). The focus of my research then was on the institution of pronoia in the imperial army and administration. I worked with the collection of documentary sources called the Archives de l'Athos among other things.

Now I work on late antiquity and the late Roman/early Byzantine military and administration. Recently I wrote a paper on the logistical support of the army on Justinian's North African campaign against the Vandals in 533 AD.

My secondary focus is on the early modern Balkans and the Ottoman Empire.

• How did you chose your area of focus if you have one?

Basically I just combined my interests in the middle ages, the Roman Empire, and Christianity. Naturally this led me to the Byzantine Empire.

 

[kittysbecute]

I did my masters work on the late Byzantine period (1204-1461). The focus of my research then was on the institution of pronoia in the imperial army and administration. I worked with the collection of documentary sources called the Archives de l'Athos among other things.

Now I work on late antiquity and the late Roman/early Byzantine military and administration. Recently I wrote a paper on the logistical support of the army on Justinian's North African campaign against the Vandals in 533 AD.

My secondary focus is on the early modern Balkans and the Ottoman Empire.



Basically I just combined my interests in the middle ages, the Roman Empire, and Christianity. Naturally this led me to the Byzantine Empire.

One of my humanities teachers this year briefly mentioned the Byzantine Empire, and it sounds really interesting. I'm less familiar with the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire. Are those from the Roman Empire too?

 

[Tzaousios]

One of my humanities teachers this year briefly mentioned the Byzantine Empire, and it sounds really interesting. I'm less familiar with the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire. Are those from the Roman Empire too?

Good question. Chronologically, the Ottoman Empire conquered and became the successor of the Byzantine Empire when the sultan Mehmet II took Constantinople in 1453. The last Byzantine holdouts in the Peloponnesus and Trebizond fell in 1458 and 1461 respectively. The Ottomans held most of the former Byzantine territories in the Eastern Mediterranean, including a good deal of the Balkans.

Culturally speaking, it must be pointed out that the Byzantines were primarily Greek-speaking and Orthodox Christian in religion. Ethnically they were made up of many different groups - Greeks, Slavs, Syrians, Armenians, Egyptians, etc. The Ottoman Turks were originally nomads from Central Asia who became Muslims sometime in the thirteenth century.

From the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine I in 330 AD, to the death of the last emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos in 1453, the the Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the direct heirs of the pagan Roman emperors (they called themselves Rhomaioi in Greek). Geographically and institutionally, you can consider "the Byzantine Empire" or "Byzantium" the Eastern Roman Empire. When the western half fell circa 500 AD, the eastern lived on in various forms until 1453. There was a short hiatus from 1204 until 1261 when crusaders from the west took Constantinople and forced the Byzantines into "exile" in Asia Minor, a period which is known as the "Nikaean Empire" under the Laskarid dynasty.

Hopefully this overview was not too confusing!

 

[jasmine88]

I am a history major as well. My concentration is American History.

 

[Wren]

I'm a history major with no area of focus. They want us to be well rounded at my university (every major or minor must be interdisciplinary) so history majors have to take at least a couple classes in American, European, and world history. I'm taking slightly more world history (Islamic civ, traditional Asian civ, and African history) and American history classes than European.

 

[broken_one]

I am a history major as well...my minor is in theology, so I'm thinking that if/when I go to Grad School I may focus on the Reformation...it's always seemed appealing to me

 

[Windmill]

What do you history majors intend to do with it?

 

[kittysbecute]

What do you history majors intend to do with it?

I've always wanted to be a writer. And in every history class I take it inspires me for when I write. Other than that it can help me if I decide to work in a library or I could teach history.
I think writing is the main thing I intend to use it for. Everything else I'm not sure about yet.

 

[CMar04]

I'm a history major too. I don't have an area of focus, they require us to tkae a couple classes from European, American and non-western history. I took more European and American classes than non-western ones.

 

[Tzaousios]

What do you history majors intend to do with it?

I plan on teaching at the university level and doing historical research on the Byzantine Empire. Although I started on the track to teach high school, it quickly became a disillusion and I decided to keep trudging along.

 

[Maverick3000]

East Asian History, with a strong emphasis on Korean history. It mostly stems from my ethnic background (I'm part Korean)

 

[E.C.]

I would like to have an emphasis in Eastern European, Balkan or Russian history.


Does anyone know of any good universities for it? Preferably in the States, although if I ever had the opportunity to study abroad I just may...