As Sessional Assistant Professor of History Steven Hicks enters his 36th year of teaching at Trinity Western University, and his last semester before his retirement in April, he thinks of his students and how they are the legacy that he leaves behind. 

Before Hicks became a professor at TWU, he was an undergraduate student in 1981. “I did one year of undergrad here,” he told Mars’ Hill. “I then transferred up to Simon Fraser University, where I did my undergrad and grad degrees, primarily because there was a wider breadth of courses available at SFU at that period of time, and the cost was much less as well.” 

After graduating with his master’s degree from SFU in 1989, Hicks found himself in an “odd circumstance” when looking for a position as a university instructor. “The history department at SFU had clipboards with openings at various institutions. And I was looking through it, and I just happened to see that one of the openings on this clipboard was handwritten, saying that there was an opening at TWU for a position in the history department,” he said. Figuring that he would take a look to see what TWU was interested in, Hicks was subsequently interviewed and hired. “So, it was kind of providential that I had that connection to TWU, and somebody had found out about this and just posted a piece of paper on the clipboard.” 

Hicks began his career at TWU as a part-time sessional professor teaching one or two courses a semester until he was asked to take on a larger role within the department in 1998. In 2020, Hicks was promoted to assistant professor of history. 

The first course that Hicks taught at TWU was 20th century European history; however, he was later asked to set up a series of courses in Arab Middle Eastern history and sub-Saharan African history. “So I have traditionally taught two upper-level classes at the 300 level in modern Arab Middle Eastern history, and two courses in modern sub-Saharan African history,” said Hicks. “I also ended up teaching, for a long period of time, two courses in two 400-level seminar courses, one in the history of the Second World War and one in the history of the First World War, both of which are taught within the global area in our department.” This series of courses includes HIST 371 (Africa Since 1500: From Pre-Colonial to Colonial), HIST 372 (History of Africa Since 1500: From Colonial to National), HIST 381 (The Arab Middle East in the 20th Century: The Politics of Identity) and HIST 382 (Palestine & the History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict). 

“My two Middle Eastern courses are certainly amongst my favourites to teach. I teach a course in the history of modern Arab nationalism, and I also teach a course on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Hicks, noting that the latter is a popular course leading to lots of debate. “And, of course, I’ve always enjoyed my two seminar courses in the First World War and the Second World War.”  

When asked what advice he would give to first-year history students, Hicks started by acknowledging that in high school, history is traditionally taught as an “exercise in memorization and regurgitation of names, dates and events,” creating a perception that history is boring. “In fact, history is just the opposite. So my advice would be that, when going into your first year history courses, don’t approach them as a memorization exercise,” he said.

“Here in the history department at TWU, we’re more interested in students understanding how to think critically.” 

Hicks also strongly advises students to get to know their professors. “It’s one of the advantages of TWU because we’re a smaller institution. That means that the students that I teach are more than just a student number to me,” he said. “So don’t be afraid to knock on your professor’s door if you have any questions. You know, if they are around and available, they are going to love to talk to you.”

When looking ahead to his retirement, Hicks is eager to spend time with his two grandchildren and looks forward to the birth of his third grandchild in July. Hicks and his wife also anticipate the freedom to travel, with plans to visit family in Ontario, taking a driving tour through the Maritimes and exploring their ancestry in England. He will also continue to take care of his 92-year-old mother, who lives in a senior facility. 

Yet, Hicks’ legacy continues on through his students, which he describes as the most important part of his legacy. “Even when our kids were younger, after I’ve been teaching at TWU for 10 or so years, I already began to see students that I had been teaching here at TWU, teaching my kids,” he said. “I had the privilege of seeing how students that had had classes with me, who are now out in the world sharing their experience, sharing their knowledge, sharing their understanding and insights and how I had at least played some role in affecting that.”

In addition to that experience, Hicks acknowledges that in being the third faculty member hired in the history department—with Dr. John Klassen and Dr. Robert (Bob) Burkinshaw starting before him—he had the privilege of creating the global history stream. 

“I remember when I accepted this position, one of my professors at SFU asked me, ‘Why did you agree to this position?’ You know, he expected that any courses in Middle Eastern history that I would be asked to teach at TWU would be like biblical history of the Holy Land, so a very carefully controlled study of Middle Eastern history,” recalled Hicks. “And I said, ‘if that were the parameters under which I would be able to teach Middle Eastern history at TWU, I would not have accepted the position.’”

The assurance of having complete freedom to construct his courses is something that Hicks has enjoyed and appreciated about TWU.

“It gave me the opportunity to teach courses in Middle Eastern history and in sub-Saharan African history from a Christian worldview perspective, and for me, that was an opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up.”

But despite leaving behind a course stream he created, Hicks is reassured that the department will continue to thrive. “I have really great confidence in the department and in the faculty members that they will be able to find a way to keep the global stream within the department flourishing down the road, even without me,” he said. “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with them over the years. The people that are in the history department right now are people who have been there for the past 15 years or 20 years. We have established very close relations with each other over that time, and those relationships are part of what I will remember most about my years of teaching at TWU.