The flexibility of the History curriculum ensures that your path through the major will be uniquely your own. Our history major consists of 36 credit hours in history, which means it’s easy to pair your studies with a second major.
We also offer a secondary education track (33 hours of history + supporting coursework in the social sciences and a 36-39 hour education core) and a history minor (18 credit hours). Please see those pages to view their requirements.
Choose any two 100 level history courses.
This is a seminar required of all History majors. We offer four sections of History 200 per term, each of which is capped at 20. Each section is devoted to a different topic , so it is essential that you choose the section that best suits your own interests. Normally, History 200 meets twice per week, for 80-minute sessions.
History 200 is designed to help students acquire and practice the skills they will need in order to pursue advanced coursework in history. These skills include:
In general, the writing assignments in this course will be frequent, short, and practical, providing many opportunities for evaluation and feedback. They may take the form of response papers, sets of discussion questions or debating points, thesis statements, outlines, annotated bibliographies, oral reports, brief essays, and so on. Although students will be required to produce a final paper, this does not usually involve independent research (that is the goal of History 498). Students must earn a C or higher in HIST 200 to be considered a History major in good standing.
This is the capstone course for all history majors, in which each student will produce an original research paper based on primary source material, with reference to recent historical scholarship in the field. Students normally take this course in the junior or senior year. We offer three topic-specific sections of History 498 per term, each of which is capped at 15. Because each History 498 seminar is different, it is essential that you choose to enroll in the section that most closely suits your own interests. Normally, this course meets one day a week, for a two-hour session.
History 498 presupposes that students have acquired the essential skills taught in History 200, and that they have been building on those skills in advanced coursework. In History 498, accordingly, students will be expected to:
Research papers produced in this seminar usually average 20-25 pages. Students who would like to pursue research in libraries and archives off campus, and who need access to special resources or equipment, should consider applying for an Undergraduate Research Grant .
Two courses in either African, Asia, Global, Latin American, or Middle Eastern History.
Two courses in European history.
One course in US minority history.
One course in US history.
Choose 4 elective history courses that support your interests.
Advanced hours in LAS are defined as courses at the 300 and 400 level. Students are required to have a minimum of 21 advanced hours completed on campus to graduate. For history majors, 18 of those hours must be history courses (12 for students in the secondary education minor).
To register and see section availability, please browse our catalog on Course Explorer. Course Explorer provides the schedule of classes by term and a browsable database of general education requirements in addition to other resources.
Note that courses may count in more than one area, but they can only count in one area at a time