Phi Alpha Theta
| Phi Alpha Theta | |
|---|---|
| ΦΑΘ | |
 | |
| Founded | March 17, 1921 University of Arkansas |
| Type | Honor |
| Affiliation | ACHS |
| Status | Active |
| Emphasis | History |
| Scope | National |
| Motto | Seek Truth |
| Colors | Madonna Red and Madonna Blue |
| Flower | Red rose |
| Publication | The Historian |
| Chapters | 970 |
| Members | 9,000 active 400,000+ lifetime |
| Headquarters | Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society University of South Florida 4202 East Fowler Avenue, SOC107 Tampa, Florida 33620-8100 United States |
| Website | www |
Phi Alpha Theta (ΦΑΘ) is an American honor society for undergraduate and graduate students and professors of history.[1][2] It has more than 400,000 members, with new members numbering about 9,000 a year through its 970 chapters. The society is considered second only to Phi Beta Kappa in overall prestige among academic honor societies in the United States.[3][dubious – discuss]
Founding
[edit]Nels Andrew N. Cleven, a professor of history at the University of Arkansas, played an active role in fraternity and sorority social affairs, 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 Phi Alpha Theta.[1]
Symbolism
[edit]The Society's colors are "madonna red" and "madonna blue".[4]
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 [Ψ, Π, Α, Λ, Υ, and Ψ again] in clockwise rotation beginning at the uppermost point." The emblem can be jeweled.
This 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 [beveled] to 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.[4]
The Society's official flower is the red rose.[4]
Publications and leadership
[edit]Phi Alpha Theta publishes a quarterly historical journal entitled The Historian, which has over 12,500 individual subscribers and 1,000 library subscribers. The Historian splits the space in its quarterly issues between articles and book reviews. The book review section of the journal has been based at Ohio Wesleyan University since 1994.
The society's national headquarters and the journal's editorial offices are located at the University of South Florida.
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.[5]
Debra A. Mulligan of Roger Williams University is the current president, and Hosok O of Utah Tech University is the vice president of Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society. Clayton J. Drees is chair of the Advisory Board. Adrian O’Connor 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 requirements
[edit]Undergraduate students must have a 3.0 overall grade point average, 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, 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.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Then and Now". Phi Alpha Theta. Archived from the original on 2024-09-20. Retrieved 2025-01-27.
- ^ "Phi Alpha Theta Initiate". The Historian. 67 (4): 821–830. 2005-12-02. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.2005.00131.x. S2CID 218496271.
- ^ Rutgers Univ., Department of History – Phi Alpha Theta, accessed 22 Jan 2025.
- ^ a b c According to the Phi Alpha Theta Constitution, Article VII, accessed 17 Dec 2020.
- ^ "Login". Journals.chapman.edu. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
- ^ "Membership Requirements". Phialphatheta.org. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
External links
[edit]
- The society's official web site
- The Historian homepage hosted by Blackwell Publishing
- The Historian's Book Review Section website
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