Phi Alpha Theta () is an American

honor society In the United States, an honor society is an organization that recognizes individuals who rank above a set standard in various domains such as academics, leadership, and other personal achievements, not all of which are based on ranking systems. ...

for

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

and graduate students and professors of history. It was created in 1921 at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

Fayetteville, Arkansas Fayetteville ( ) is the List of cities and towns in Arkansas, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, Arkansas, Washington County, and the most populous city in Northwest Arkansas. The city ...

. It has more than 400,000 members, with new members numbering about 9,000 a year through its 970 chapters.

History

Nels Andrew N. Cleven, a professor of history at the

, played an active role in fraternity and sorority social affairs and became inspired by the structure of those groups to create a society for historical study. Cleven invited students to a meeting to form what was then called the University Historical Society on March 14, 1921, establishing the society on March 17, 1921. In April, the decision was made for the society to be known by the

Greek letters The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as we ...

Phi Alpha Theta.

Symbols

The description of the society's emblem is precise: The emblem of the Society is a gold disc, ''"''with the edge milled to represent a serpent's body, the forepart of the serpent's body being on the right side of the badge, and the eye shall be represented by a red jewel." On the face is a raised six-pointed star faced with black, "and bearing in gold the Greek letters Phi Alpha Theta horizontally across the middle, and the points bearing the Greek letters psi, pi, alpha, lambda, upsilon, and psi , , , , and againin clockwise rotation beginning at the uppermost point."According to the Phi Alpha Theta Constitution, Article VII
accessed 17 Dec 2020. The emblem can be jeweled. Its emblem may be mounted upon a gold key, ''"''which shall be in the form of a rectangle nineteen by twenty-one millimeters, and the corners of which shall be cut along the arcs of circles having a radius of four millimeters, the centers of said circles being at the corners of the key, and the edges of the key shall be eveledto a distance not to exceed one millimeter from the edge." A cylindrical stem projects from the top of the emblem finished with a ring. The cylinder projects from the lower edge of the key, similarly. Phi Alpha Theta's motto is "Seek Truth: The society's colors are "Madonna red" and "Madonna blue". Its flower is the red rose. Its quarterly publication is ''The Historian'', which includes articles and book reviews. ''Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review'' was founded in the Spring of 2009 by the Alpha Mu Gamma chapter of Phi Alpha Theta at

Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California, United States. Encompassing eleven colleges, the university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The school maintains its foundi ...

Governance

The society's national headquarters and the journal's editorial offices are located at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

. Hosok O o
Utah Tech University
the current president, and Kyriakos Nalmpantis o
Baldwin Wallace University
is the vice president of Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society. Debra A. Mulligan is chair of the Advisory Board. Kees Boterbloem of the University of South Florida is the managing editor of ''The Historian'', and Jonathan Scott Perry also of USF is the journal's book review editor.

Membership

Undergraduate students must have a 3.0 overall

grade point average Grading in education is the application of standardized Measurement, measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentage ...

, and at least a 3.1 average in their history courses. Undergraduate candidates must also be in the top 35% of their class. Students need not be majoring in history but must have taken at least four history courses at the university level. Specific universities may develop higher qualifications. For example, the College of Staten Island's PAT chapter requires undergraduate students to have a GPA of or better than 3.25, a History GPA of or better than 3.5, and at least 16 hours completed in History classes. Graduate students must have a GPA of better than 3.5 and have completed approximately 30% of the residence requirements for the master's degree.

References

External links

The society's official web site

''The Historian'' homepage hosted by Blackwell Publishing

''The Historians Book Review Section website
{{authority control Honor societies Student societies in the United States Student organizations established in 1921 University of Arkansas Association of College Honor Societies 1921 establishments in Arkansas