About the Department
Mission Statement
The Department of History and Political Science at Azusa Pacific University 1) offers undergraduate degree programs in political science, history, and social science, and a single-subject waiver for a teaching credential in social science; 2) provides general education in history and political science courses consistent with the outcomes of a liberal arts education; and 3) prepares students for graduate study, law school, or success in their chosen careers.
Overview
This department offers majors in history, political science, and social science. Within the political science major are four optional concentrations: ethics and politics, international relations, American politics, and prelaw. Many courses in the department emphasize the reading of classic texts or the study of primary sources. All courses offered in the department are within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and designed to contribute to a Christian liberal arts education.
The department's three majors strive to:
- Develop intellectual curiosity
- Equip students with the abilities to write and speak well, think critically, and judge wisely
- Enable students to distinguish justice from injustice
- Teach students the legitimate purposes and necessary limits of political power
- Provide students historical perspective for making judgments in the present
- Instruct students in human possibilities and limits
- Prepare students for careers calling for clear cogent reasoning
- Familiarize students with other cultures and times
- Make available to students the knowledge that is needed by citizens and statesmen
- Prepare students to teach various social science disciplines
To graduate as department majors and minors, students must maintain at least a 2.0 grade-point average in major courses.
Students who want to earn up to 16 units in their major through the Azusa Oxford Semester or the American Studies Program in Washington, DC, may do so by arrangement with the Department of History and Political Science.
Goals
The History and Political Science Program prepares students who:
- Demonstrate proficiency in spoken and written English appropriate to college graduate level.
Political science
- Demonstrate the civic literacy and articulate the responsibilities required of citizens in a democratic republic.
- Articulate a Christian understanding of politics.
- Explain the principles, purposes, and main features of American government.
- Analyze the writing of major thinkers in the history of political philosophy.
- a) Describe and analyze the main features of contemporary international relations; or b) Compare the political systems of several contemporary nations; or c) Give an account of the history of American foreign affairs.
History
- Demonstrate a knowledge of primary and secondary historical source material.
- Articulate a Christian worldview of history.
- Demonstrate an understanding of historians/historiography.
- Explain the principles, purposes, and main features of historical inquiry.
- Demonstrate an understanding of geography.
- Analyze the writing of major thinkers in world history and American history.
- a) Describe and analyze the main features of major world civilizations before/after 1648; or b) Give an account of American history before/after 1865.
Social science
- Demonstrate the civic literacy and articulate the responsibilities required of citizens in a democratic republic.
- Articulate a Christian understanding of politics or relate Christianity to questions of history and politics.
- Explain the principles, purposes, and main features of American government.
- Explain the broad themes and significant events in U.S. and California history.
- Describe and discuss significant events in world history and their relation to current world events.
