Department of History homepage collage showing art and photos from across the centuries, going from Martin Luther King, Jr. all the way back to Pre-Modern history.

Careers

Study the Past, Prepare for your Future

History majors leave college with skills that serve them well in a wide range of careers. Don’t fall for the myth that the name of your major is going to be name of your job.

Our recent graduates are businesspeople, teachers, ministers and librarians; they found startups, get PhDs, and continue on to law and medical school.

Spend your time at UT studying ancient Rome, medieval China, colonial America, and much more. Leave college with thousands of years’ worth of human wisdom and experience in your back pocket.

History and Law

The rigor of the History major offers excellent preparation for law school. Here are some places our majors have been accepted to law school recently:

University of Tennessee
Georgetown University
University of Arkansas
Harvard University
University of Memphis
Emory University

History and Education

We are very proud that many former UT History majors are teaching middle and high school history across the state of Tennessee and the nation.

We believe the best teachers bring a passion for their subjects to the classroom. Here in the History Department, we love history, and we’d love to share that passion with you. Pairing a History BA with an Education MA is a great way to prepare for a lifetime of bringing the past alive for the next generation.

History, Business, Policy

History teaches you communication and analytical skills that can be used in a wide variety of fields, from the business world to the government and non-profit sectors. Nationally, about 30% of History majors go on to work in one of these areas.

Becoming a Historian

Professional historians work in lots of different settings – as professors, archivists, librarians, policy analysts and museum specialists. If you are considering an MA or PhD in History or a related field, reach out to your favorite professor! We are all happy to share our stories about how we trained for our jobs, and we have networks around the country (and in some cases around the world) that can help launch you into a career doing history.

What Our Graduates Are Doing Now

I built my arsenal of analytical skills through majoring in history at UT and now pass along those very same skills to my students here in Knoxville. The UT History Department really is a department that cares – to the bone – about students and their individual wellbeing.”

John Clugg, History Teacher, Karns High School

Through the History major, I gained crucial research, writing, and critical thinking skills that I use daily, as well as valuable experience engaging with diverse perspectives and viewpoints. My History courses also gave me the tools to understand global events while placing them in their broader social and geographical contexts.“

Emma Allish, Former analyst at Acclaim Technical Services, current Harvard Law School student

I honestly cannot overstate how valuable my history degree was to adjusting to law school. Both disciplines require reading complex and dense sources, whether it is a Supreme Court case or a proclamation from 400 years ago, and the ability to extract meaningful conclusions from them. Studying history trains students to read with a careful eye and express their ideas in a logical manner. At its core, this is what the study of law is.“

Joseph Espinal, Student, University of Tennessee College of Law

The UT history major definitely helped prepare me for my role at Axle, first and foremost through learning about different cultures (we deal with many different cultures in the trucking industry), and also through the critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed on a daily basis to deal with so many different problems. The extensive writing as a history major also helps with communication, as clear and concise communication is needed with carrier and shipper partners regularly. There’s also the research aspect, since we study historical trends in the freight market to try to predict future market swings and rates.“

Zachary Askew, Capacity Manager, Axle Logistics