History Degree Requirements
The MA in History requires 32 graduate credits at the 700-level, with all graduate courses designated at four credits, for a total of eight courses. Students must take at least one course in each of four of the program's five areas of concentration, the Historical Methods course (HST 701), and the two thesis seminars (HST 798 and HST 799).
Students with initial certification in Adolescence Education (social studies) who wish to obtain professional certification will complete a program of 36 credits. They will take HST 798 (4 credits) and HST 799 (4 credits). In addition, they will take EDS 691 Advanced Studies in Teaching Secondary School Social Studies (3 credits) and an independent study course (1 credit) in the Department of Education in the same semester in which they enroll in HST 799 (Thesis Tutorial Seminar). For further information about these certification requirements, consult the Office of Teacher Certification Services of the New York City Department of Education at 212.420.1830.
Areas of concentration
History of Africa and the Middle East
History of Asia
History of Europe
History of Latin America and the Caribbean
History of the United States
Thesis
Students in their third semester will take the four-credit HST 798 Preparation of Thesis Proposal Seminar with an additional four-credit HST 799 Thesis Tutorial Seminar during the following semester.
- In the preparation of a proposal seminar, thesis students will develop their topic, begin research, collect bibliography, and receive instruction in research methodology and historical writing. Students will write a historiographical essay, reviewing the broader historical literature of their subject and relating their own approach to the field. Students will work with a thesis director in their field from the department faculty.
- The thesis director will continue to supervise the thesis student during the semester in the tutorial seminar. The thesis will be accepted in partial completion of the degree when it is approved by the thesis director , and the second and third readers, and is deposited in the department's archives.
The Faculty of the Department of History has established the following standards for an acceptable History MA thesis:
- An acceptable History MA thesis must be based on extensive research in primary sources. The thesis cannot be synthetic work based on the student's own interpretation of secondary sources and the writings of other historians.
- An acceptable History MA thesis must provide the historiographical context for the topic. The introduction to the thesis will provide a thorough literature review that illustrates student mastery of, and the study's situation within, the scholarship available on the thesis topic. Establishing the historiographical context for the thesis topic will be one of the main objectives of HST 798 in the preparation of the thesis proposal.
- An acceptable History MA thesis must advance an original argument. This does not mean that the student will be the first or only person ever to address the topic, but it does mean that the student must bring a new perspective to the study that has not been provided by a scholar before.
(Thesis students should consult the statement of guidelines for thesis submission to the CSI Library, maintained by the MA in History program).
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