History

Program Overview

The History Program serves as a center for historical study, providing a core base of knowledge of past events and fostering an atmosphere to examine the significance of those events on the human experience. The Master of Arts Degree in History is designed to train students in historical methodology, research techniques and writing, and to impart historical knowledge with special emphasis on the United States, Africa, and African diasporic (including African American) communities. The program offers an outstanding opportunity for students seeking professional training in history and provides a learning environment featuring a quality faculty, intimate classes, and personal advisement which challenges and nurtures the aspiring student as a historian. Graduate students writing masters theses are strongly encouraged to utilize the rich primary source collection in the archives of the Robert W. Woodruff Library. The program prepares students for careers in academia, research, government service, and related professions. Students may concentrate in any combination of United States, Africa, and African American history. Moreover, graduate aid and internships are available for both financial support and direct experience.

Program Objectives

Graduates of the Master of Arts Degree in History will:

1. Provide students with varying perspectives of cultures of the past, in reference to local, regional, national, and global geographic scope.
2. Identify the impact of past events and examine the significance of historical writings.
3. Articulate historians’ contributions to historical knowledge and human experience.
4. Prepare students for advanced studies as well as careers in education, research, government and other professions.
5. Provide intersectional types of history such as topical, geographic, and temporal; and outline various aspects of multi-disciplinary historical approaches to the profession including feminist, cultural, and political.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students pursuing the Master of Arts Degree in History will:

1. Discuss and critique the contributions of major scholars within historical schools in U.S., African, African American, and Civil Rights Movement history.
2. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of principles and strategies of historical and geographical inquiry.
3. Interpret the influence of the impact of the past on the present and append the multiple facets of causation.
4. Assess the value of historical data based on its context, credibility, authority, and bias.
5. Utilize appropriate tools to construct chronology of timelines and sources of historical data.
6. Apply advanced technical skills to produce an academically sound research-based thesis on theoretical concepts of history.