Author: gkaster

Myth: Welders make more than philosophers. Reality: Happy, social useful, and well-compensated Humanities majors. The data are clear: Contrary to the distortions and in some cases outright lies circulating in our society about the Humanities and the traditional Liberal Arts, persons who major in those areas are not only well-compensated but also highly satisfied in their jobs.…

An interesting and timely interview with Gustavus’s own distinguished alum and leading historian of the Civil War, Prof. James M. McPherson. The interviewer, who writes and edits for History News Network (HNN) where the interview appears, mentions Gustavus. As McPherson notes, there was no Civil War history course when he attended. There is now, and…

Congratulations(!) to Professor Glenn Kranking whose article, “Leaving the ESSR: Sweden’s Attempts at Repatriating the Estonian-Swedes from Soviet-Controlled Estonia, 1940-1941” has been published in the Journal of Baltic Studies 46, no. 4 (2015): 458-70. Prof. Kranking notes that his article “seems to be one of 3 articles relating to Sweden and the Soviet-occupied Baltic States,…

See this recent and excellent myth-busting article in Forbes by Wilson Peden of the Association of American Colleges & Universities which demolishes, once again, the persistent myth that humanities majors are unemployable or, at best, destined to mediocre earnings. The opposite is true, though one might not know it from all the ill-informed and sometimes…

(Right Photo: Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston) As we stress to students in our Gustavus History courses, History is a dynamic (not static) discipline or field of study. As historians, we disagree with one another all the time over our interpretations of the past. In this sense, the past is contested terrain in the…

Here’s the story of a Department named History. Welcome back History majors, minors, and buffs to another academic year (2015-16) at Gustavus!  We are delighted that Prof. Maddalena Marinari has joined us as a historian of the U.S. specializing in immigration history.  Stop by to meet and greet her and to say hello to the…

Gustavus History Department majors and alums continue to secure hard-to-come-by internships and admission to highly competitive graduate programs.  To cite just three recent telling examples: Alums Aaron Hiltner and Maura Coonan are pusuing graduate work in, respectively, the PhD program in History at Boston University, and the Coordinated MA program in History and Library/Information at the University…