Master’s Program

**Accepting Applications for the 2026-27 Academic Year, the application will open on October 1**

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.

To complete the degree, each student must pass a total of 12 courses of 5 credits each and one 2 credit course 280A. Students must also write an M.A. paper of an average word count of 8000-10000, excluding footnotes and bibliography. The curriculum will be nearly identical to that taken by Ph.D. students in their first two years, except that there will be no language requirement.

Contacts

M.A. Course Requirements

• HIS 200, Methods and Theories of History
• HIS 201, Directed Research Colloquium
• HIS 202, Practicing World History
• HIS 298A, Constructing a Field, an independent study with adviser (Year 1, fall or winter quarter)
• One of the following research seminars during your first four quarters:
  • HIS 204A, History of Gender
  • HIS 204C, Colonialism, Nationalism, and Transnational Movements
  • HIS 204E, Transnationalism, Borderlands, and History
• One 2-unit courses:
  • First Year: HIS 280A
• Field of Concentration:
  • Seven courses (five units each), two of which may be taken outside the History Department. Courses taken are graduate seminars, most upper-division undergraduate courses, and independent study courses.

Master’s Essay

Students are required to produce a substantial research essay (average word count of 8000-10,000 excluding footnotes an bibliography) grounded in original research in primary historical documents. A successful essay will reflect a general understanding of the field of inquiry along with a critical grasp of the scholarship that currently defines the field; deep knowledge of the specific subject under investigation; the application of appropriate analytical models; and a well-supported interpretation of the materials explored.

Advising

Upon admission to the program, a student will be assigned a faculty adviser whose field of expertise most closely matches the student’s research interests. Advisers will approve a student’s program of study and provide an annual review of progress.