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Laura Hunt Hume

Associate Professor; Director of Prelaw Program

Full-Time Faculty

College of Arts and Sciences: History

Contact

Email: Laura Hunt Hume
Phone: 937-229-4229
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Degrees

  • Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, 1993

Profile

Laura Hume came to the University in 1989, where she has been teaching courses in English, medieval and early modern history, as well as The West and the World in the Humanities Commons and a variety of seminars for majors. She has also team-taught several courses, including an innovative interdisciplinary course called Shakespeare's Worlds, and Constructing Communities, which brought together The West and the World with PHL 103.

Dr. Hume dramatically widened her teaching and service repertoire in 2010 when she became Director of the University's Pre-Law Program. She wrote a minor curriculum for the program in 2014, including a new course, Legal Careers and Professional Development, which she now teaches. Dr. Hume has also worked with the University of Dayton School of Law to bring to fruition Introduction to Legal Research, Writing & Analysis, an undergraduate course being taught by law professors. She also is a coach and instructor of record for the University mock trial classes.

Dr. Hume has initiated or participated in a number of outreach programs to area schools, including bringing history to "life" in the classrooms through first-person historical character presentations, and has given invited papers and presentations in the United States and Europe. Dr. Hume is also a past assistant dean for the College of Arts.

Faculty perspective

"I have spent my career seeking to bring students to an awareness of the real, ongoing impact history has had and continues to have on their lives. I firmly believe and teach that historical understanding provides the perspective, critical analytical skills, and values necessary to function as thoughtful and productive contributors to society. This is one of the fundamentals I work to pass on to future teachers. Moreover, whether in my classroom or beyond the boundaries of the University, I try to pass on to people my love for the color and drama of the past. My own personal fascination with it has led me to examine peoples in England and their relationships with their society as well as their material culture, the way they lived their daily lives."

Research interests

  • Early modern England
  • Immigration, governmental policies and structures
  • Material culture

Selected publications

Strangers settled here among us: Policies, perceptions and the presence of aliens in Elizabethan England. Routledge, 1996.