MA students to increase their knowledge of the past and the processes that have shaped the human experience. Such study may prepare students for careers in scholarship, teaching, public service fields, cultural institutions, and many business settings.
All master鈥檚 students must complete 30 credit hours of course work, a master鈥檚 essay and a comprehensive examination. At least 18 credit hours must be in history courses numbered 6000 or above, and at least six of those credits must be in research seminars. There is no foreign language requirement, although students wanting to go on for a doctoral degree are encouraged to work on their linguistic skills. A typical sequence of classes for a full-time MA student will look something like what is shown in the table below.
MA Essays
MA students complete a master's essay or public history project. This essay typically originates in one of the required seminar papers (HIST 6954) but is both revised and expanded beyond the original work, in historiographical and/or primary source analysis. MA essays must engage with the historiographical major fields, as appropriate for their topic (geographic, chronological, and thematic contexts). Historiographical depth should be built from coursework related to the fields of inquiry and through consultation with the major professor. HIST 6961 provides a structure for MA essay completion.
Essays should be at least thirty pages long (around 7500 words), exclusive of bibliographies and other end matter. Public History projects (usually related to work carried out as part of the process of earning the Public History minor) may be used in lieu of the MA Essay. Such projects also will include a written component that demonstrates engagement with the historiographical context, which should be at least 15 pages, exclusive of bibliographies and other end matter.
A list of MA forms is available on the Graduate School's website.
