It is the fifth minor available within the history department.

By Michael Lehman, Editor-in-Chief

Huntington University’s department of history and political sciences will offer a new minor in archaeology starting this fall. Students are currently able to add the minor this semester.

Archaeology is now the fifth minor available within the history department.

The announcement came on Monday, Jan. 27 via a press release from the university’s official website. The announcement reached a wider audience on Wednesday, Feb. 5 when the university shared the news on its Facebook page.

“The addition of the archaeology minor complements a very active museum studies program at Huntington University,” history professor Tim Smith said in the online press release. “The archaeology minor offers an interdisciplinary understanding of archaeology as well as a more refined sense of personal orientation toward careers in archaeology, art, biblical studies, history, landscape studies and museum studies.”

The new minor is 22 credits overall. It will require students to take classes like the Art and Archaeology of Angkor, which is already offered through the history department. Archaeology minors will also have to take classes from other departments. These include Religions of the World, Cultural Anthropology and Biblical archeology.  

Students must take at least one class from two tracks: the skills track (which includes art, film, and photography electives) and the culture track (which includes art history, religions of the world, and Hebrew). 

“Students will also be required to undertake an archaeological internship and/or practicum, where they will be able to transfer classroom skills into the professional field,” Smith said in the press release. “This, combined with interdisciplinary faculty who actively continue to pursue research, teaching and mentoring in related academic disciplines, forms the core components of the minor.”

According to Smith, talks of adding the minor began about a year ago. Since multiple departments already provided all the classes necessary for the minor, the history department decided to formally make one available to students.

Sophomore Erin Quick is a student on campus who has already added the minor. A junior by credit, Quick is majoring in history, biblical studies and international development and minoring in museum studies, refugee studies and non-Western studies.

“I actually want to pursue a graduate degree in Near Eastern (Middle Eastern) archaeology,” Quick said in an email interview. “My drive to do archaeology is based on my passion for helping cultures discover their ancient past and guiding them in reconciling with it.”