Undergraduates frequently praise introductory history courses as a formative part of their Tar Heel experience. Whether learning about colonial America, global history, the history of Islam, or the ancient world, history courses allow us to understand both our past and our present. For many students, undergraduate courses become a springboard for a deeper love of history and a challenge to the old date-and-name style that many learned in middle and high school. Regardless of why they take history courses, whether they major in history or something else, or which time periods pique their interest most, UNC’s undergraduates thrive in history courses. Even as instruction moved online in the spring of 2020, they made clear that the COVID pandemic is no match for the stellar learning environment the History Department offers.
We spoke with three of the 191 students currently enrolled in Professor Eren Tasar’s course, “The World Since 1945” to gauge their views on studying history even amid virtual learning. While they miss the classroom, they reported that remote instruction can be just as informative, engaging, and fun as ever, despite the obvious drawbacks. Nash Philbeck, a junior biology major and first-year transfer student from Tennessee, said that history is a way for him and others to “understand our past in as many ways as possible.” Though he aims to enter UNC’s competitive undergraduate business program, Nash claims that history courses at UNC have so far been illuminating, even though he admits that he was not a “big fan of history” before. He found studying the career of postcolonial Congo’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, particularly illuminating because he came to appreciate how the consequences of colonialism still dominate the world today. Nash believes that UNC’s courses have opened up a new interest for him and he plans to enroll in more history courses, even though his major does not require them.
Another undergraduate, Malcolm Carlton, is considering adding a history minor to his political science major. Malcolm, a junior who hopes to attend law school, is currently enrolled in three history courses—a feat by any measure! Though he admits that virtual learning has made it harder to “communicate with professors with recorded lectures,” he remains undeterred and plans to take a European history course next term. Like Nash, Malcolm believes that studying history is important to understanding the world of today. Through his history courses, Malcolm has learned to identify “how conflicts in the world, especially in the Middle East, started without relying on news outlets.” As a result, he feels that studying history offers a level of objectivity that other disciplines lack. Though his favorite course thus far has been on the history of South Africa, taught by Professor Lauren Jarvis, his true interests lie in the history of 19th and 20th century Europe. He’ll have no problem finding engaging courses on those topics!
Finally, Sean Maxwell, a sophomore history major, also places immense value on studying history. Like many budding historians, Sean spends much of his free time reading. He is eager to finish his “gen eds” so that he can “get into more history,” especially on topics related to the military and the American Civil War. Like his classmates in Tasar’s undergraduate course, Sean sees “little point in making mistakes that someone else made for you 200 years ago” and argues that history allows people to “take a broader view of things” while offering a lens into how views and actions “develop over time.” This, he relates, is what separates history from other disciplines. While expressing some reservations about virtual learning, Sean still loves the environment his history course engenders, specifically when a professor’s “engagement” and interest in a subject make the class more stimulating. The interest and engagement evinced by these students in Tasar’s course demonstrate that history, though confined to the past, is still very much alive.