The Calling of Historians: Essie Shull ’23

Before we say farewell to a spring semester unlike any other, I'd like to share some student work from HIS290 Introduction to History. This year I had students conclude our gateway course by writing a thousand-word essay in response to this question: What does history have to do with your calling? After watching this interview …

How You Can Help People in Minneapolis and St. Paul

Whether you live in the Twin Cities or far away, you're surely aware of what's been happening in Minneapolis and St. Paul in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. If you've been wondering how you can respond, please consider this message from our colleague Annie Berglund '13. I am at a loss for …

Congratulations, Jake Marsh!

Since 2001, Bethel has honored a handful of students each year with the Servant Leadership Award, recognizing their "substantial contributions to Christian ministries, community service, and demonstrated leadership." One of the four students honored this year is Social Studies Education major Jake Marsh '20, who has mentored local high school athletes when he wasn't thriving …

And the Best Historical Movie Is…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HEZeFLqjCU Congratulations to 12 Years a Slave, winner of our tournament to determine the best historical film! It's just one more award for a film with a shelf full of them, including the Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA for Best Film of 2013. If you're interested in learning more about the background of 12 Years a Slave, …

Pandemics and History

Check out the newest online project from our faculty! Hosted by Prof. Chris Gehrz, Pandemics and the Liberal Arts is a limited-run podcast series exploring the ways that academic disciplines in the liberal arts can help us understand and respond to public health crises like what we're experiencing right now with COVID-19. In future episodes, PLA will …

Jill Lepore on History

This week in Intro to History, we're talking about history as a form of literature. Wanting to point students to some of my favorite writing historians, I started with Jill Lepore, the Harvard professor who also writes regular essays for The New Yorker. ("All historians are coroners," she began a 2019 piece on inheriting a …

Course Previews: The Fog of War

Today's Fall 2020 preview is a bit different: what's below isn't a History course, but Prof. Gehrz's new section of an interdisciplinary gen ed course called Inquiry Seminar, in which a relatively small group of new Bethel students works with a professor to explore a topic and — through that inquiry — better understand the …

What’s the Best Historical Film?

Our department's gateway course, HIS290 Intro to History, is meant to introduce students to the academic discipline of history: how historians think about the past, ask questions of it, conduct research, interpret and revise their interpretations, write about the past, etc. But what we think of as history is just one way that people tell stories …

Learn about Our New J-Term Trip: Medieval Worlds

In addition to registering for Fall 2020 courses like U.S. Business History and Modern Middle East, this is also the time of year when Bethel students start looking at Interim travel options for next J-term. For January 2021 we're putting our World War I trip on hiatus, and instead offering an exciting new travel course that will …

Course Previews: U.S. Business History

Our next Fall 2020 course preview features a brand new class from Dr. Kooistra, one that's meant both to give our department's students a different perspective on American history and to help Business students think more deeply about their current studies and future work. HIS330 U.S. Business History Days/Times: MWF 2:50-4:00 in Fall 2020 Prerequisites: Sophomore standing …