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Undergraduate

History Major

Students with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History cultivate a broad understanding of human history across time and space and develop deep knowledge of a particular region of the world. At the same time, they learn how to ask transformative questions, develop their ability to answer them through effective research, and convey their ideas clearly and persuasively through strong communication skills.

Undergraduate

History Minor

Students whose major area of study is not history may nonetheless find that a minor in history makes an invaluable contribution to their studies.

Graduate

Doctoral Degree

The Ph.D. program in history has a global and transnational orientation, and emphasizes an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach to historical studies, encouraging innovative thinking about global historical processes. In consultation with their faculty advisors, Ph.D. students complete courses of study and original research that bring together their temporal, geographical and thematic or methodological interests.

Graduate

Master’s Degree

The Department of History offers an M.A. degree in history for those individuals who are interested in postgraduate work, but who are not planning to complete a Ph.D. It is a degree program that can fulfill in-service education requirements for current teachers as well as for future teachers earning a single-subject credential in social studies.


The History faculty at UCSC includes influential scholars, prize winners, and recipients of major grants and fellowships. We have particular strengths in histories of colonialism and empire; gender; science, technology, and medicine; transnationalism; labor; and migration. We also emphasize public history, oral history, and the digital humanities, in addition to traditional archival research and academic writing.

Assistant Professor Kat Gutierrez posing with photographs for the Watsonville Is In the Heart Archive Project

The History Department faculty are a diverse group of scholars whose research and teaching interests often span the divides between traditional academic disciplines. These faculty form collaborative working relationships with their colleagues campus wide, producing new and exciting interdisciplinary fields of study:


News

Last modified: Sep 04, 2025