1. Develop critical and analytic skills in reading primary and secondary sources.
  2. Construct a framework of knowledge about the past, learn to understand the past in its own terms, and develop an empathetic understanding of disparate histories and cultures as constituting common threads of human experience.
  3. Understand how historians construct arguments about the past by drawing on a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives.
  4. Craft well-developed essays that make arguments about the past based on effective use of evidence.
  5. Pursue independent research based on primary and secondary sources culminating in written work that illustrates the best practices of the historian’s craft.
  6. Engage in discussion about the past respectfully, mindfully, and knowledgeably.