The history department strives to embody Whitworth's education of mind and heart through excellent teaching, open and robust debate, scholarship, mentoring and thorough preparation of students for careers with purpose and potential.

The department aspires to educate students to develop an historical consciousness that informs their moral vision for civic and global responsibility. Faculty members encourage students to develop a vision for nurturing and transforming their communities and seek to enable students to construct intellectual perspectives based on a Christian foundation and honed by the skills and virtues developed in the study of the humanities and social sciences.

Professors in the Whitworth History Department, commit themselves to students in several important ways. First, they endeavor to prepare you for the complexities of life by challenging and supporting you during your college years. They seek to be available to you both in and out of the classroom to explore questions of concern whether they are academic or otherwise. Second, they provide enthusiastic teaching by a highly qualified Christian faculty. You have the freedom to explore questions raised by course content, political ideology, and personal faith from many perspectives because we utilize many different teaching methods. Third, the department seeks to provide you with a major or minor course of study constructed to fulfill your educational needs and desires. Finally, they desire to assist you in any way as you think through career options and move to the next step in your professional life whether it is in admission to graduate school, a teaching career, service as a public historian, or an entry-level position in business.