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Nov 04, 2024
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2024-2025 Graduate Catalog
History, M.A.
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Admission Requirements
Candidates must have a minimum of 12 credit hours of advanced-level undergraduate work in history. The GRE graduate admission test is optional. If English is not the applicant’s native language, they must also take the TOEFL English language proficiency test and score 80 or higher. Students must submit a statement of purpose, an example of their written work and official transcripts. Three letters of recommendation are also required. Prospective students must submit their applications and all supporting documents for priority consideration by December 15; the final deadline for applications is March 1. Students may begin the program only in the fall term.
The History Department normally requires a minimum 3.000 GPA overall and a 3.000 average in history for admittance to the M.A. program.
Candidates must present evidence of competence in a language other than English, normally through two years of undergraduate study.
Major Adviser
Each student will be assigned a major adviser. The major adviser and the History Department’s director of graduate studies will work with each student to plan a specific course of study.
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Degree Requirements
The master’s degree requires 30 credit hours at the 6000 level and is offered on two tracks: U.S. history or global history. Students on both tracks must take 24 credit hours of coursework, as stipulated below. For the remaining 6 credit hours, students on both tracks choose between the thesis option and the non-thesis option, as described below.
Required Courses (6 Credit Hours)
Tracks (18 Credit Hours)
One track from the following:
U.S. History Track
- Six courses (18 credit hours) at the 6000 level, which are focused primarily on themes and topics in U.S. history.
- With approval of the student’s advisor and the director of graduate studies, up to two of these courses may be taken in other departments or schools.
- One of these six courses must be focused on global/comparative themes and methods.
- No more than two of these courses can be focused on global/comparative themes and methods.
Global History Track
- Six courses (18 credit hours) at the 6000 level, which are focused on various time periods and areas of the world (Classical history, Medieval history, early modern and modern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, the Islamic world, the Atlantic world, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and South Asia, as well as the United States).
- With approval of the student’s adviser and the director of graduate studies, up to two of these six courses may be taken in other departments or schools.
- One of these six courses must be focused on U.S. history.
- No more than two of these six courses can be focused on U.S. history.
Thesis/Non-Thesis Options (6 Credit Hours)
One option from the following:
Thesis Option
Along with the student’s adviser, two other professors, usually from the History Department, serve on the thesis committee, which assesses the thesis and conducts the oral defense. The thesis will demonstrate ability to define and analyze a historical problem, mastery of the pertinent historiography, and understanding of the methodological issues posed by the problem. It must also make significant use of primary source material. A unanimous positive vote of the committee is necessary for the student to pass the defense.
Nonthesis Option
In lieu of writing a thesis, students must do the following:
- Take two additional courses at the 6000 level during the spring semester of the second year;
- Write two research papers in any two graduate courses taken during their tenure as an M.A. student; and
- Take a 90-minute capstone oral exam covering three historical fields at the end of the spring semester of the second year.
The oral exam committee consists of three members: the student’s adviser (who serves as chair) and two other members of the department. Students should expect questions requiring demonstration of historical knowledge about the time periods and topics covered in the three fields, as well as a clear understanding of the dominant themes and historiographical issues addressed in the three fields.
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