I am currently a grade 12 student in Canada and history has always been something that has interested me. However, up until only recently I've never considered it as a career due to a push towards the sciences and mathematics. If anyone has any insight at all into the feasibility of a career in history, and what type of university programs would be beneficial for me.
Any help at all would be appreciated greatly!
So, you want to study history. Great! Welcome to the party. Broadly, there are two things that you can do with a degree in history.
First and IMO more boring is using the humanities to develop general skills like writing, research, and presentation to go into business or law. Many, many lawyers have BAs in history.
Second, you could actually work with history as an academic. Obviously there are school teachers, or professors if you go all the way to a PhD, but you could also work in museum fields, preservation, or branch out into other, related fields. These are fields like Religious Studies and Anthropology (including Archaeology). This opens up avenues into social work and cultural research (think Pew Institute) or Archaeology on behalf of governments, academic institutions, or private companies. Furthermore, each of these fields has a legal arm if the law degree I mentioned above appeals to you, but you still want to focus on history.
Speaking of laws, if you're interested in the legal and legislative aspect of it, you may also consider political science or international studies. While not directly connected to history, you would certainly have to study it, and I hope the benefits of historical knowledge in a political context is obvious.
Hopefully this has been helpful to you. If you're current school has a counselor I highly recommend asking them. Just remember to be a little forceful about wanting to hear about history and not be steared away. You could also try to find out who advises history majors at universities that you're interested in and ask them for information via email.
Sorry to hijack your post @dinosaur6332 but I am also from Canada and thinking about going back to school for history. However, I would be applying as a mature student (I already have a diploma in journalism and working in the field). I'm not sure which program I should apply to for history: Arts & Humanities, or Social Science.
I am interested in working in a museum, behind the scenes doing research but also working with the public as a curator or interpreter. I enjoy history, ie: American history from pre-colonial to 1930s, Canadian, Mexican, and whatever else happens to pique my interest at any given time; I like to read and research. Archaeology is exciting. I love Baroque and Neoclassical art. I enjoy archives and genealogy.
My dream job would be to work in a museum as a curator and doing other research. Doing research for an institution and for the public is also desirable.
Based on the above, my biggest question I have is the difference between an Arts & Humanities program, and a Social Science program when it comes to history – both get you a Bachelor of Arts Honors. In this respect, does it really matter which you choose because you won't be specializing until your Masters? Which would be more suited to my interests? I am conflicted because a particular university I am looking at has "Museum and Curatorial Studies" and "Art History and Museum Studies" are listed under A&H. "History" and "Public History" are listed under Social Sci. What is the difference between each of these?
As you mentioned above, humanities focuses its attention on writing and research – how we document the human experience. And social science focuses more on the relationships between people and society. I am a hands-on person so I would love my degree to lead to something where I can be out doing things and meeting people, as well as allowing me to sit and research.