History Department at DePaul University

The degree program is intended to prepare the student for further advanced study, as well as to give him or her a disciplinary background adequate for those professions in which a master's degree is ordinarily considered adequate, such as secondary school teaching and archival work.

The purpose of all courses offered by the Department of History is to provide a critical acquaintance with the past experience of human society. Graduate courses involve wide contact with historical literature, including but not limited to source materials; some practice in collecting, interpreting, and presenting data according to acceptable standards of method and style; and intensive discussion of the nature and problems of the discipline.

Program Overview:
Core
Colloquia
Graduate Independent Study
Graduate Internship
Thesis Invitation
Substitutions and Transfers
Administrative Information

Program Overview

Three courses form the core of your graduate experience. The first course is HST 421 “The Historical Discipline,” which all students take in the Autumn Quarter of their first year. Midway through the program, you will take HST 422 “Seminar in Primary Source Analysis.” Finally, in the Spring Quarter of your last year in the program, you will take History 489 “The Graduate Capstone Seminar.” In between the curricular bookends of 421 and 489 and sandwiched around 422, students take a total of nine graduate colloquia, internships, and independent studies.

HST 421: The Historical Discipline . This course focuses on the fundamental concerns and skills necessary for the study of history at the graduate level. It does this by pr providing a “history of history,” giving an overview of the growth and development of the academic discipline of history, addressing issues of methodology, historiography and historical philosophy, and providing you with an awareness of current concerns, controversies, and debates in the discipline. In addition, you will develop your skills in reading historical monographs for their arguments and will acquire the ability to assess the author’s use of evidence. Whether you consider yourself “a teacher, not a researcher,” or if you plan to continue your graduate studies, it is crucial for all historians to be well acquainted with the analytical techniques and issues raised, examined, and discussed in this course.

History 421 is a prerequisite for all other 400-level courses in the History Department. It is offered only in the Autumn Quarter. All regularly admitted students will be allowed to take one other 400-level course during their first quarter. Conditionally admitted students will take only 421 during their first quarter.

HST 422: Seminar in Primary Source Analysis . This course builds upon the foundations established by HST 421. It focuses on the evidence historian’s use as the building blocks for their analyses. This material (“primary sources” in the jargon of historians) includes official documents, papers of almost any sort left behind by people from wide ranges of social, economic and political standing, images and artifacts such as objects d’art, films, photographs, architecture, and myriad objects often studied under the rubric of “material culture.” The Seminar in Primary Source Analysis is designed to introduce you to the many practical and theoretical tools by which historians construct historical knowledge out of the “raw” material left behind by earlier generations. The course will include study of these sources, methods of analysis and authentication, and ways in which different kinds of sources are integrated into coherent historical narratives. You will develop your ideas in a quarter-long primary-source exercise. Incorporating experiences and resources developed in your previous graduate colloquia, you will choose a significant primary source or set of primary sources related to a subject that interests you, and use this source as the basis for a paper in which you will discuss how you might develop a thesis based upon this source and related primary and secondary sources.

This course is offered only in the Autumn Quarter . Thus if you are taking two courses per quarter, you should plan to take this course at the beginning of your second year of study. If you are progressing at a rate of one course per quarter, you would ordinarily take this course after you have completed four to five graduate colloquia.

HST 489: The Graduate Capstone . The MA curriculum ends with the Graduate Capstone course, which all students must successfully complete in order to earn their degree. It is an intensive seminar in which you are required to analyze a number of important works of scholarship drawn from the breadth and complexity of the historical discipline . This course allows you to synthesize the many skills you have honed in your earlier classes: notably the ability to read and assess historical monographs— thereby demonstrating your competence in analyzing historical arguments; knowledge of both historiography and historical content; and proficiency in understanding the variety of primary sources and methods of interpreting them. In short, you will demonstrate an awareness of the relationships between historical sources and arguments, and the historical contexts (chronological, geographical and cultural) in which they are created and employed.

In addition to the core courses, you will take nine graduate colloquia. As shown below, each colloquium has a general title that indicates the broad field to be covered. When a given colloquium is offered, it will carry a specific subtitle. You may take up to four colloquia in any broad field as long as each one has a different subtitle.

The tentative course offerings for 2007-08 are listed below. Please be aware that they may change:

HST 431 Colloquium in American History – Business and the Rise of the Welfare State (Williams)

HST 435 Colloquium in European History – Medieval and Renaissance Women (Scott)

HST 432 Colloquium in Latin American History – The Cuban Revolution (Masud-Piloto)

HST 435 Colloquium in European History – Society and Culture in Early Modern Spain (Tikoff)

HST 437 Colloquium in World History – Approaches to Ancient World History (Scott Bucking)

HST 431 Colloquium in American History – Race and Slavery in Colonial and Antebellum America (Wolfinger)

HST 435 Colloquium in European History – Diplomacy of Transition in 20th Century Europe (Beiriger)

The purpose of an independent study (IS) course is to provide you with the opportunity to work closely with a professor in order to study intensively a particular historical question, debate, or issue. An independent study course may NOT replicate a course offered at any level in the regular curriculum.

With the permission of the Graduate Director and the approval of a supervising faculty member, you may substitute up to eight quarter hours of Independent Study for two graduate colloquia. IS courses require special registration so need to be planned and approved well in advance of the quarter in which they will be taken.

It is incumbent upon the student, NOT on the supervising professor, to prepare an IS proposal and submit it for approval. Because the proposal is substantive (see below), it will take the better part of an academic quarter to draft, revise, and finalize. You should begin by approaching a professor to see if s/he is willing to work with you in a future quarter. If the professor agrees, you can put together your draft proposal following the procedure outlined below. Please be aware that both the supervising faculty member and the Graduate Program Director need adequate time (a minimum of two weeks each) to look over and respond to the proposal. You should also be prepared to revise the proposal several times before it is ready for final approval. For these reasons, you must budget a minimum of 4-6 weeks for the proposal preparation process.

The cover sheet should include your name and signature, the name and signature of the supervising faculty member, the project title, the IS type, the number of credit hours requested, and the quarter in which the work will be undertaken and the deadline for submission.

The project description (1000 word max.) should set forward a detailed discussion of the question, issue, debate, topic, or theme that you plan to explore. It should also state in concrete terms what the outcome of the proposed project will be (a research paper, a series of essays, a website, etc.)

The proposal should also include a preliminary bibliography, divided into primary and secondary source sections, that cites the material you plan to use in the course.

The last required element is a schedule that sets forward your plan of work. The schedule should include specific milestone dates for completion of various parts of the proposed work, a list of meeting dates with the supervising faculty member, and the final submission date.

Once you have prepared a draft proposal, you must obtain the written approval (on the cover sheet) of the supervising faculty member with whom you will work.

Then, you need to download and complete the “personal information” and “course information” portions of the Graduate Independent Study form from the LAS Grad website (http://condor.depaul.edu/~lasgrad/forms/gradforms.html), attach it to the proposal, and submit the entire package to the Graduate Program Director for final review and approval.

NOTE WELL: University policy states that approved Graduate Independent Study forms must be submitted to the College office by the end of the FIRST week of classes each quarter. NO EXCEPTIONS!

When the project is complete, it is your responsibility to submit to the Graduate Program Director a completed IS Project Final Report form (available for download on the History Dept website). The Final Report should include copies of all graded elements of the project.

Similar to a graduate IS course, enrollment in HST 492 requires special registration and may be equivalent to a maximum of two graduate colloquia. If you have an internship lined up, please consult with the Graduate Program Director.

If a student’s skills and level of commitment are especially strong, a member of the department may invite her or him to write a thesis. Unlike independent study projects, the thesis invitation process MUST be initiated by the supervising faculty member. For more information, please consult with the Graduate Program Director.

Upon consultation with the Graduate Director and with her approval, students may request that up to 8 units (two courses) of graduate work done in other DePaul departments and/or 12 units (three courses) of graduate credit earned at another graduate degree-granting institution be counted towards an M.A. in History. The Graduate Director will handle such requests on a case-by-case basis. In no circumstances will graduate credit be given for undergraduate coursework.

Please make sure to obtain the Graduate Director’s approval in advance for courses to be taken in other departments.

If you are requesting transfer credit for courses taken outside DePaul, please have an official transcript sent directly to the Graduate Director. Then download and complete a Transfer Credit Request form and give it to the Graduate Director along with a copy of the course syllabus. The form is available online on the LAS Grad website: http://condor.depaul.edu/~lasgrad/forms/transcredit_request.pdf.

III. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

The History Department website is a great source for program updates, upcoming events, course offerings, and so on. Of special interest is the Graduate Program section and the link to “History Mailing Lists” under Events & Resources. The latter link (included below) allows you to subscribe to the department’s email list for graduate students: http://condor.depaul.edu/~history/mailing_lists.htm

There is also a special Blackboard site for History M.A. students. You can access it through Campus Connection.

A. Advising Resources

B. Registration Issues

Normal course registration is done online via Campus Connection. Registration windows for any given quarter are determined by schedules set by the University.

As discussed above, courses such as independent studies, internships, etc., require paper registration forms and the signatures of the instructor involved and the Graduate Director. Please note that these forms must be submitted by the end of the first week of the quarter, and thus you need to plan ahead if you wish to utilize one of these options.

If you were conditionally admitted to the program, you may register for only HST 421 in your first quarter. Following the successful completion of that course (with a grade of B or better), you may proceed to take more than one course in subsequent quarters should you so desire.

C. Financial Awards

Currently, the Department of History is able to offer two awards annually. These are the Departmental Assistant Award and the Egan-Martinez Scholarship. Applications for these awards are solicited every Spring Quarter for the following academic year. Application instructions are available on the History Department web page.

The Departmental Assistant Award provides tuition waivers for six courses over one academic year plus a stipend of $7000 (contingent on funding) in compensation for hours spent on departmental support activities such as

The Egan-Martinez Scholarship provides tuition waivers for six courses over one year. It may be divided among several students.

Pre-2004 Curriculum

Non-Thesis Option
Courses: minimum of 48 quarter hours, including:

HST 421 The Historical Discipline
HST 422 Seminar in Primary Source Analysis

In addition: Ten courses at the 400 and 300 level (at least five of which must be at the 400 level). It is recommended that among the 300-level courses, non-thesis students include at least four courses distinct from their area of concentration. [Students should take HST 421 and HST 422 before other 300 and 400 courses.]

Note: In an exceptional case, a 300-level course may be substituted for a 400-level course in the same field with the written consent of the student's advisor and the chairperson.

Written comprehensive examination:

This is a two-hour written exam with a focus on evaluating the historiography of two of the following fields of History:

African
African American
Colonial Americans
Medieval European
Early Modern European
Modern European
Britain and Ireland
Islamic
Latin American
United States since 1860
United States to 1865
World History
East Asian
South Asian

Courses. Minimum of 48 quarter hours, including:
HST 421 The Historical Discipline
HST 422 Seminar in Primary Source Analysis
HST 499 Thesis Research (up to eight credit hours)

Students planning to apply to Ph.D. programs after graduation are strongly encouraged to choose the thesis option.

The faculty of the Department of History highly recommends that students selecting the thesis option declare their intention to write a thesis and to select a thesis supervisor as soon as possible after they begin their course of study (at the end of their second quarter of study for full-time students or no later than the completion of their sixth course for part-time students). Furthermore, it is highly recommended that students take HST 421 and HST 422 before any other 300- or 400-level courses in History.

Students pursuing the thesis option will take a minimum of three courses at the 300 and 400 levels (at least one at the 400 level in their chosen area of concentration) and at least one course each in two of the following areas chosen outside of their concentration:

African American, European, Latin American, East Asian, Islamic, African, South Asian, Southeast Asian, United States

Students pursuing the thesis option must also demonstrate knowledge of a foreign or computer language, appropriate to the student's area of concentration. The department will accept as evidence of knowledge of a foreign or computer language 18 quarter hours (12 semester hours) of college study successfully completed (i.e., a grade of C or above) or four years of high school study. Students who have earned less than 18 quarter hours or the equivalent in the study of a single foreign language must provide evidence of reading knowledge by passing an examination set by the department.

Written comprehensive examination:

This is a two-hour written exam with a focus on evaluating the historiography of two of the following fields of History:

African
African American
Colonial Americans
Medieval European
Early Modern European
Modern European
Britain and Ireland
Islamic
Latin American
United States since 1860
United States to 1865
World History
East Asian
South Asian

The Graduate Curriculum