I was part of the #AHA20 #s279 on Marketing the History major. It was a great conversation w/ Paul Deslandes (Vermont), Sarah Olzawski (@OUHistDept), Darién Davis (Middlebury), and @justin_behrend (@GeneseoHistory). Here’s a recap of @LMU_History's efforts ... 1/26
At @LMU_History, we peaked in our number of majors in spring 2011, but then saw a decline of 60%+ – a function of national trends, revisions to our University Core Curriculum that drastically cut history’s presence in it, and the creation of new majors in @LMUBellarmine. 2/26
But after hitting our low in fall 2017, we’ve seen an increase of 35% in majors, an increase of 120% in minors, and strong enrollments across all courses. How did we reverse course? A combination of curricular reform, programming and publicity efforts, and recruitment. 3/26
We revised our curriculum in fall 2018, making changes to create a bit more flexibility in the major, to create opportunities for people who declare late or who are double majors. We also created generalist and specialist tracks. 4/26 
Students in our specialist track choose one of five concentrations: Public & Applied History; Law, Politics, and Society; Global Economies, Encounters, and Exchange; Race, Gender, and Culture; Environment, Science, and Technology. 5/26
These concentrations were chosen with an eye to faculty strengths, student interests, and career pathways. They've stoked interest in the major & help students think about how their courses fit together and talk about the benefits of their History major more effectively. 6/26
In particular, Public & Applied History, which focuses not merely on practice but also on discussing and analyzing the public uses of the past, has given students the language to talk about the relevance of history in today’s world. 7/26
We also transformed one of our spaces into a Public History & Digital Humanities Lab, a project space where faculty and students can collaborate on public history and DH projects. 8/26
This coming fall, we’re introducing a series of 1-unit courses: Intro to History (and the university) for all first-semester students; learning communities around our concentrations; and a senior ePortfolio as a capstone experience. 9/26
In our programming, we’ve introduced greater variety of programs, shifting away from the standard hour-long talk by a visiting historian (after all, students don’t want to hear us lecture so much, and they know us!) to a mix of programs oriented towards students’ interests. 10/26
Those include History in the Headlines events, rapid response events to breaking news and current events, with faculty offering historical context for what’s happening today and also drawing comparisons with other countries. Always good turnout for these! 11/26
We’ve also organized events related to historical anniversaries or connected to one of our thematic conversations. Often, rather than have just one speaker give a talk, we’ve invited in two speakers for a facilitated conversation, which is fun for everyone. 12/26
These events are designed to bring in not just History majors & minors but all students. We want students in our “villages," & we redecorated our space to make it more welcoming. Students now hang out in the villages to study, work on projects together, or just catch up. 13/26
And while the 3400 village was vandalized over the break, our southern-orientation map survived, and we were able to salvage most of the posters that were ripped down for the walls. They’ll be back up soon! 14/26
We’re committed to building community among faculty and students. We have a welcome event for new students, “Feasts during Finals,” and an annual end-of-year celebration. Our @LMUHistoryAssoc also hosts events, including film nights and History Jeopardy. 15/26
But we’ve also taken our History programming out of the village and into the community. We’ve staged exhibitions in the library, done “free history lessons” on campus and in nearby Playa Vista (read more here: playavistadirect.com/free-history/), done #HonorNativeLand flyers, etc. 16/26
We’ve also focused on “career pathways,” to demonstrate that a history degree works, bringing back alumni to talk about how they used their history major. Our famous history majors posters demonstrates that History majors become leaders! 17/26
We’ve also launched a marketing/publicity campaign with our “Study History” posters. I particularly like our Game of Thrones poster/flyer, which we had up and around campus the day after that episode aired. 18/26
Every year, we have a student poster contest. They must include a historical image, a meaningful quotation, and the department’s contact information. Themes have included “History is stranger than fiction” and “Past and Present.” 19/26
We replaced the pamphlet that no one read w/ postcards – general Study History ones w/ departmental information on the back & ones highlighting our concentrations. We give these to our partners on campus, distribute them at events, & just leave them around campus. 20/26
We overhauled our tragically out-of-date website: bellarmine.lmu.edu/history. We really like our news archive, which includes student write-ups about our events & things that they've done as History students: bellarmine.lmu.edu/history/beyond… 21/26
We’ve also amped up our social media presence. You can follow us on Twitter (@LMU_history), Instagram (@lmuhistory), and Facebook (@LMUHistoryDepartment). One of these days we might even try our hand at TikTok. 22/26
Our recruitment efforts have focused on collaborating with Admissions, including Open House and Preview Day. Every year, the chair meets with someone from Admissions to talk about what we’re doing, so that they can better talk about the department. 23/26
Faculty also do direct recruitment in their classes, encouraging engaged students to consider adding a History major or minor – one of our most successful tools! Students appreciate the vote of confidence in their abilities, and it gives us a chance to pitch the major. 24/26
We collaborate w/ the @LMUBellarmine advisors &communications specialist, as well as w/ colleagues in University Advancement. Basically, we talk about the relevance of history and how great the department is with whomever we can whenever we can! 25/26
@LMUBellarmine It’s a lot of work, but it’s also worth it. @LMU_History is a dynamic and growing program, with great students and a wonderful community. Happy to talk more if people have questions. 26/26
