“Where better to study the Forum of Augustus than in the actual Forum of Augustus?"

This comment, by a history major who recently spent a semester in Catholic University’s flagship Rome Program, sums up why international education goes uniquely well with studying history.

About one-third of all undergraduate history majors at Catholic University study abroad for a semester, most commonly in their junior year. The history department strongly encourages international education, convinced that the experience of living and studying abroad is enriching for both personal and academic development. 

The department’s undergraduate program is deliberately flexible in order to help students fit study abroad into their curriculum, but it is important for students to plan ahead and consult with their adviser.   For example, the history B.A. includes two semesters of Junior Seminar (ordinarily in junior year) and a semester of Senior Thesis seminar (in the fall of senior year).  But we can help students planning to spend half the junior year abroad to work around this (by taking one of the Junior Seminar sections in sophomore year or even second half of senior year), with advance planning and consultation.

Many history students find it particularly enriching to choose a program in which they immerse themselves in the language they have been studying.  It can also be wonderful to study in the country whose history is of special interest to the student.  In recent years, history majors have been especially enthusiastic participants in the university’s programs in Oxford, Rome, and Berlin, and our unique parliamentary internship programs in London, Dublin, and Brussels.

Study abroad is not just for undergraduates!  In recent years many graduate students in the department have won competitive fellowships and grants to conduct research in archives and libraries abroad, and students should consult with their advisers as early as possible in their programs to learn about opportunities.  Depending upon their field of academic focus, graduate students in history are eligible to participate in programs such as the Summer Archaeology Field School, sponsored by the Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies, and the university’s programs with Oxford University (UK) and the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany).