Candidates for the master’s degree are required to complete 30 credits of graduate-level history work; or, alternatively, 24 credits and an acceptable 6-credit thesis written under the direction of a professor.

Three (3) credits must be taken in Historical Methodology.

Students electing to write a thesis will designate (in consultation with the Director) a 3-person thesis committee. Students and the Committee will have a Proposal meeting (prior to registering for thesis credits) and a defense, scheduled when the Advisor and Committee deems the student ready. All completed and defended theses will be digitized and placed online.

All graduate students will have a formal / designated advisor in the department, and the Mentor-Mentee relationship will be formalized by the start of the student’s second term in the program.

Students have up to 5 years to complete their graduate studies.

• The Early American Republic
• The American West
• Europe 1914-1933
• The Reformation
• The Irish in America
• Modern East Asia
• Historical Methodology
• The Gilded Age
• The Arab-Israeli Conflict
• The Ottoman Empire
• History of the Middle East to 1920
• La Belle Époque and WWI

Summer I: May 27 – June 27

HIS 535: The Progressive Era – Dr. Jeff Johnson, Tuesday/Thursday 4:30-8:00pm
The American Progressive Era, c. 1895-1920, is a fascinating one in American History. The “Age of Reform,” as Richard Hofstadter called it in his 1955 classic, has much to tell us about government regulation, capitalism, race, political ideology and practice, class, reform, environmentalism, dissent, consumerism, war, and social justice. This graduate course will carefully examine a period that bridges the Gilded Age and the modern 20th Century, a time when the nation and its citizens (pro)actively wrestled with the changing world around them.

HIS 770: Major Topics in East Asian History – Dr. Colin Jaundrill, Monday/Wednesday 4:30-8:00pm
This class explores pivotal moments in the premodern and modern histories of East Asia (China, Korea, Japan). Our readings and discussions will deepen students’ general knowledge of East Asian History and give educators more tools to explore world history in the classroom.

Summer II: June 30 – August 1

HIS 630: Race & Slavery in Early New England – Dr. Ted Andrews, Tuesday/ Thursday 4:30-8:00pm
The history of race relations in New England is a long, complicated one. This course explores the interactions between European colonists, indigenous Americans, an people of African descent in that region from the beginnings of European colonialism to the aftermath of the American Revolution. It will pay particular attention to religious encounters, economic cooperation and competition, and the rise and demise of slavery.

HIS 770: World History Theories – Dr. Guolin Yi, Monday/Wednesday 4:30-8:00pm
This course is designed to offer graduate students the opportunity to learn about the global and comparative perspectives of world history. It will introduce major schools of thought including World System, Nationalism, Environmental History, and Subaltern Studies/Border Thinking. It will situate the West in a global context and show how world history is written from non-Western perspectives.

HIS 500: Historical Methodology – Dr. Jeff Johnson, Tuesdays 4:30-6:50pm
This course is a broad introduction to research methods and academic writing. Students will learn to think critically about, and participate in, the art of the professional historian. It will expose them to how the discipline developed professionally, to the many interpretations of the past developed by historians, as well as the many disagreements that emerge from these interpretations. Students will conduct research using primary and secondary sources that will culminate in an original research paper. In the process, students will learn new and easy-to-use research aids, such as bibliographic software. The class will work with archives and may use local research libraries. In the end, students will have been afforded the opportunity to work and think like a historian.

HIS 510: Colonial America – Dr. Ted Andrews, Thursdays 4:30-6:50pm
Examines the discovery, exploration, and settlement of North America up to the early 18th century. Particular attention given to those factors which contributed to the development of a distinctive American character.

HIS 581: Europe Since 1945 – Dr. Matthew Dowling, Tuesdays 7:00-9:30pm
Since the end of World War II, Europe has grown toward greater economic cooperation but still experiences the pains of ethnic struggle and warfare. Examines the seemingly contradictory forces of unity and fragmentation. Studies the political, social, artistic, and religious evolution of the continent in recent decades.

HIS 770: History of Islam in America – Dr. Vefa Erginbas, Mondays 4:30-6:50pm
Did the Americans develop meaningful ways of engagement with Islam and the Muslims? What did account for their special relationship with Islam? What do these questions tell us about American history? From the very early days of American history, Muslims and Islam have played a peculiar role. The American engagement with Islam began when the Muslim slaves were carried from Africa to the Atlantic shores. In the next century, the founding fathers engaged with the Muslim states of North Africa through Barbary Wars. Islam also played a significant role as a discursive tool to criticize and sometimes demonize specific practices associated with absolutist monarchy or defend certain interpretations of Christianity. Since the horrendous events of 9/11, Muslims in the US and abroad have been under constant scrutiny and suspicion. This course will survey the American engagement with Islam and the Muslims from colonial times to the present. No knowledge of Islam or Muslims is necessary to take this class.

HIS 523: The American West – Dr. Jeff Johnson, Wednesday 4:30-6:50pm
The History of the U.S. West spans much of our national experience. In fact, for some (notably Frederick Jackson Turner) expansion into the West defined the American character. This seminar will center on a number of themes, notably the mythology of the West, its historiographical traditions as well as the “New” Western History, the region’s “sense of place” and role in popular culture, the idea(s) of conquest, and the West’s important environmental, ethnic, gendered, and working class past.

HIS 573: The Reformation – Fr. John Vidmar, Tuesday 4:30-6:50pm
This course is designed to familiarize the student with the historical events leading up to the Reformation of the 16th century, the political and philosophical causes of the Reformation, and the theological issues which emerged during the Reformation, using lectures and original sources. The course will also examine the results of the Reformation: the Catholic response known as the Counter-Reformation; the effects of the Reformation and Counter- Reformation on art, architecture, literature, and music; denominationalism; and political, economic, and societal ramifications of the Reformation –the “unintended Reformation”. A research project will require the student to choose a character or event of the Reformation and examine how it has been treated over the last few centuries by a variety of authors, coming to conclusions about the authors’ veracity, bias, insight, etc., especially as opposed to the latest research.

HIS 770: Early American Republic – Dr. Steven Smith, Monday 4:30-6:50pm
This graduate seminar will introduce students to the early years of the United States, an important, formative period that is often misunderstood. We will take into consideration the prospects, successes, limitations, shortcomings, and outright contradictions of the Revolutionary era and how it informed the early presidencies of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. We will also think about the democratization of social, cultural, and spiritual life and the emergence of new forms of political expression that brought more people into the body politic while simultaneously excluding large segments of the population. Indeed, questions about the experiences of ordinary people in the cities and the countryside will be central to this seminar.

HIS 770: Colonialism and Nationalism in Modern Africa — Dr. Luz Colpa, Thursday 4:30-6:50pm
This course takes students through late colonialism and early Nationalism in Africa, starting with the transition from concessionary companies to formal colonial rule, and ending with present debates over Neo-colonialism. We will explore the themes of colonialism and nationalism through a series of topics including race and the law, education and citizenship, and gender and tradition. Through the scholarship on colonial Africa we will excavate the colonial origins of the contemporary challenges facing African nations and delve into the importance of African history in an increasingly interconnected world.