MA in History

The History Department's graduate program is designed to serve the needs of students who intend to pursue doctoral studies at other institutions, teachers who wish to deepen their content knowledge, and those who simply seek a more advanced and specialized study of the past.

Mission

The mission of History Department’s Graduate Program is to serve the needs of students who intend to pursue doctoral studies at other institutions, teachers who wish to deepen their content knowledge, and those who simply seek a more advanced and specialized study of the past. Going substantially beyond upper-division undergraduate coursework, the graduate program will provide students with in-depth knowledge about the origins and development of peoples in the past and perfect their ability to conduct advanced research and writing. Graduates of the MA program will be equipped to make significant and independent contributions to the field of history and will be prepared for successful professional careers as secondary teachers, college or university professors, journalists, lawyers, and historians in government and private agencies.

Goals & Objectives

Graduate education is advanced study in a specific program which goes substantially beyond upper-division undergraduate coursework. Graduate study requires greater independence on the part of students. It is intended to develop in-depth knowledge and introduce students to research techniques so that they can later make significant and independent contributions to their fields of study.

• Graduates will master the ability to critically read both primary and secondary sources, and will use and properly cite both types of evidence in their written work.
• Graduates will master the formal styles of writing, argumentation, and presentation that historians use in their work.
• Graduates will achieve mastery of research techniques in history.
• Graduates will attain advanced oral presentation skills.
• Graduates will have in-depth understanding historiography and historical methodologies.
• Graduates will have an advanced knowledge of intellectual, political, economic, social, and cultural history of the United States, Europe, classical civilization, the Near-East, and one “Non-Western” area.

Learning Outcomes

1. Student's work demonstrates the ability to communicate historical knowledge, interpretations, and arguments clearly in writing and in formal oral presentations.
2. Student's work demonstrates research and information literacy skills using scholarly resources, including the critical use of both print and electronic research tools, as well as the proper citation of both primary and secondary sources.
3. Student's work reflects the ability to identify arguments in historical scholarship and to evaluate them critically.
4. Student's work reflects an understanding of intellectual, political, economic, social, and cultural history.
5. Student's work reflects an understanding of the constructions of race, color, gender, or ethnicity in history.