The History Major consists of a minimum of 33 credit hours at the 2000-level and above. Three courses, History 2800, one 4000-level Readings Seminar and one 4000-level Research Seminar, are required, and at least 24 more hours must be chosen within the categories outlined below.
The student should design his or her History Major in consultation with the History Program Coordinator, who must sign the Major Program form. The student should select History courses to complement those courses chosen, in consultation with an advisor in the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, to meet the requirements of the General Education (GE).
Overview:
The 33 credit hours must fulfill the following four required areas (see below for details):
A) Skills Acquisition (9 credit hours)
B) Breadth (12 credit hours)
C) Concentration (12 credit hours)
D) Progression (included in above credit hours)
If students double count courses and fulfill all of the requirements in Categories A-C before reaching the required 33 credit hours (described in the Overview, above), they must still satisfy the 33-credit-houre requirement of the Major. They will fill in the remaining credit hours with History courses of their choosing.
A student is never required to exceed 33 credit hours in order to fulfill the requirements in Categories A-C.
No more than 3 credit hours of History 3193 or 4193 ("Individual Studies") may be counted towards the Major Program.
No more than 6 credit hours of History 2797, 2798, 3797, 3798, 4797, or 4798 ("Study at a Foreign Institution" and "Study Tour") may be counted towards the Major Program.
No more than 9 credit hours of 4998, 4998H, 4999, and 4999H may be counted towards the Major Program.
With the History Program Coordinator's approval, up to 6 credit hours of courses from other Departments may be designated as part of Category B (Breadth) requirements for the Major Program in History.
Category A: Skills Acquisition (9 credit hours)
The following three seminars (9 credit hours) are required of all History majors.
A (1) History 2800: Introduction to the Discipline of History (3 credit hours)
The “gateway” course for History majors, History 2800 emphasizes critical reading and writing, and introduces students to the methodologies, approaches, and historiographies of historical study.
A student must pass History 2800 with at least a "C."
A (2) One 4000-level Seminars in History (6 credit hours)
The two seminars—normally taken in the junior or senior year—will focus on historiography, analysis, methodology and interpretation, and will emphasize research and writing skills.
Note: History 4193, 4194, 4585 and 4797-4999 do not fulfill this requirement.
Category B: Breadth (12 credit hours)
Overview: Students are required to develop a program that includes chronological and geographic breadth. This includes:
2 courses (6 credit hours) focusing chronologically on the period before 1750
2 courses (6 credit hours) focusing chronologically on the period after 1750
2 courses (6 credit hours) focusing primarily on East Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia
2 courses (6 credit hours) focusing primarily on North America and/or Europe
1 course (3 credit hours) focusing on comparative, transnational, transregional, or global history
** Please note:
Students are permitted to use one course to satisfy more than one of these five areas of breadth simultaneously. For example, a course on Ancient Rome would satisfy the pre-1750 requirement and a "Europe" requirement simultaneously. That is, geographical and chronological requirements can be fulfilled by the same course.
In addition, the two 4000-level seminars can also fulfill any of these chronological and geographic requirements. That is, A. (2) or (3) can simultaneously satisfy any of the requirements in Category B. For Example, History 4211 (Readings in Roman History) would not only satisfy the A (2) requirement of a Reading Seminar but would also satisfy one pre-1750 requirement and one "Europe" requirement.
Courses used to satisfy Category C (Concentration) can simultaneously count towards Category B (see below under Category C for further discussion), and vice versa.
As a result, the total of the credit hours required for each of the 5 different sub-categories of Category B "Breadth" do not add up to the 12 credit hours required in this Category. However, as a result of double counting, both within the requirements of Category B and among Categories A-C, no student will be required to take more than 12 distinct credit hours in Category B.
Category C: Concentration (Geographic or Thematic): (12 credit hours)
Students must take 12 credit hours in either a Geographical or a thematic concentration.
Students are permitted to count relevant courses from A. (2) or (3) simultaneously toward this total.
Students are permitted to count up to 12 credit hours from category B (1-5) simultaneously toward this total, but courses in other departments may not count toward the Concentration requirement.
C (1) Geographical concentrations: Possible areas of geographic concentration include:
North America,
Latin America,
Europe (including Russia),
Near East, Middle East, Central Asia, and/or South Asia
East Asia, and
Africa
C (2) Thematic concentrations:
history of environment, science and technology;
history of race, ethnicity, and nation;
religious history;
history of colonialism and comparative empires;
military history and/or diplomatic history;
history of the state (power, culture, society)
women's history.
Students may also arrange their own thematic concentrations with permission of the Coordinator.
Category D: Progression (credit hours included in categories A-C)
Of the 33 credit hours required for the Major, at least 21 credit hours must be at the 3000-level or above. This includes the two required 4000-level seminars (6 cr. hrs.) plus at least 15 credit hours at the 3000-level & above. One 2000-level History course must be taken prior to enrolling in a 3000-level History course (or instructor permission). One 3000-level History course must be taken prior to enrolling in a 4000-level or a 5000-level History course.
Ideally, the 4000-level Reading Seminar will be taken prior to the 4000-level Research Seminar.