History, MA

Location(s): Main Campus

The Department of History offers a full range of courses and programs in the fields of American, British and European, East Asian, Latin American, and Ottoman and Middle Eastern history. It offers exceptionally strong training in the fields of environmental history, science, technology and medicine, as well as women’s and gender history. While concentrating on the history of one nation or geographic area, students are encouraged to develop a comparative or global perspective in their work. To facilitate this, the department cooperates closely with a wide variety of interdisciplinary programs and departments to offer students additional instruction in comparative and world history perspectives.

An MA degree may be earned in one or two fields. These fields may be drawn from the list of major and minor fields in the Graduate Student Handbook.

Admission Requirements

Applicants for admission to graduate work in history are required to submit their college transcripts, scores on the Graduate Record Examination, an example of their written work (e.g., a paper submitted in an advanced undergraduate or graduate course), two letters of reference (preferably from professors), and a statement of their research interests and career goals.

Students who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States must also submit proof of English proficiency (such as TOEFL, IELTS or PTE Academic scores). International students who have received a college or university degree from an institution in the United States, United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or some Canadian provinces are not required to submit TOEFL, IELTS or PTE Academic scores. Additionally, all international students must provide immigration forms guaranteeing financial support.

Program Requirements

Course Requirements

Students pursuing the MA in History must take 32 graduate credits with a B average or better. Of the required courses, 24 credits must be taken in residence. All master’s degree students are required to take HIST 592 Historiography and one 600-level research seminar. All funded students must also take HIST 591 Teaching of College History.

MA students who choose to write a master’s thesis are not required to take the 600-level research seminar for the master’s degree.

A student’s coursework should be closely correlated with the proposed major and minor fields, and should include a balance between general colloquia and specialized research seminars. Students are encouraged to work with a number of different professors to broaden their exposure to different historical styles, methods and theories. In addition to the work completed for their courses, students are expected to pursue a coherent program of readings in preparation for their comprehensive examinations. Independent reading courses may be arranged with individual instructors to cover special topics, but must not be used to satisfy more than one-third of a student’s degree requirements. At the master’s level, only one independent study of between one and four credits may be taken under the S/U grading option and still count toward the master’s degree. All graduate seminars counted toward the history degree must be taken for a letter grade.

Choosing Advisors

Students are advised by a faculty member in their fields of concentration during their first semester in the graduate program. Before the beginning of the second semester, the student selects an appropriate member of the faculty as principal advisor (sponsor) and chair of a guidance committee. The student, in consultation with the principal advisor, solicits two additional faculty members to serve on the guidance committee. The chairperson of the guidance committee, with the assistance of colleagues and the director of graduate studies, aids students in their choices of courses, advises them on the fulfillment of other academic requirements and, in general, guides them through the graduate program. Normally, the guidance committee forms the core of the student’s comprehensive examination committee. In most cases, too, a student’s guidance committee serves as a three-person dissertation committee.

No faculty member is required to accept a particular student as an advisee. A student may, for reasonable cause, petition the director of graduate studies for a change of principal advisor or guidance committee.

Master’s Examination and Portfiolio Requirement

All students completing the MA are required to pass a master’s examination or successfully defend a research portfolio.

Master’s Examination: The master’s examination is a three-hour written exam in the student’s field of specialization given by three faculty members, at least two of whom must be members of the History Department. Examinations are offered once each semester and should be taken during the semester in which the student completes all other degree requirements.

Research Portfolio: The research portfolio defense is an oral examination of a student’s written work, including an article-length paper (approx. 10,000-15,000 words inclusive of footnotes) based upon original research, and a historiographical paper (approx. 4,000-7,000 words inclusive of footnotes), which should be substantially distinct from the research paper. The examination committee is made up of the student’s guidance committee. Typically students will defend their research portfolio in either their third or fourth semester in the program, which can be scheduled after a student completes at least 20 credits in the program.

Additional Information About the Program

For more information on the History MA program, please refer to the History Department website. To apply to the History MA program, please visit the University Admissions website.