Master of Arts History (MA)
Department website: https://ww1.odu.edu/historydept/graduate
Brett Bebber, Graduate Program Director
Email Address: graduatehistory@odu.edu
The Department of History offers a Master of Arts degree that prepares competent graduates for modern careers in business, government, teaching, non-profit work, and further graduate study in history, law, library science, or business. The program offers an introduction to the major debates and cutting-edge topics in the field while also providing education in most regions and periods in global history.
Students select from a broad variety of courses with the ability to emphasize a particular geographic region or time period through electives. Completion of the degree requires choosing from one of three options: examinations to ensure mastery in the field, a written thesis to demonstrate the student's research expertise, or a portfolio of projects to prepare for a future career in history. The degree requires a minimum of 30 credit hours.
The Department's academic offerings reflect the diversity of the faculty. Students are encouraged to sample the course offerings that investigate the histories of societies and cultures from across the globe. The M.A. program offers many varied options to expand one's horizons beyond the required number of classroom courses, including individualized independent studies on focused topics, original thesis research, and practical hands-on work experience.
Admissions
Applicants must meet all University requirements and regulations for admission. Applications must include a short essay of 500 words or less addressing academic interests and goals and two letters of recommendation attesting to academic achievement and potential. A writing sample of 10 or more pages, preferably showing an applicant's work with primary sources, is also required.
An undergraduate major or minor in history is desirable but is not required for admission. Generally, 24 semester credit hours in history and closely related cognates are required for regular admission. Applicants with 18 semester credit hours may be considered for admission on a provisional basis. These credit hours should include survey and upper-level courses. The Graduate Program Director may prescribe certain undergraduate courses to be completed before recommending admission to the program. Under certain circumstances, students can be admitted to graduate courses while simultaneously completing an undergraduate prerequisite.
The requirement for admission to full standing (regular status) is 24 semester credit hours with a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.00 in history and a general GPA of 3.00. Provisional admission requires a minimum of 18 credits (as described above) with a GPA of 3.00 in history and a GPA of 2.70. Students with averages below these minimums can attempt to improve their standing in undergraduate courses approved by the Graduate Program Director. However, they cannot be admitted to graduate courses until they have achieved acceptable averages in history. Applicants who are denied admission to the M.A. program in history are not permitted to enroll in history graduate courses as non-degree students.
Prospective applicants with questions about their admission credentials and preparedness should contact the Graduate Program Director in the Department of History. Those certain of their qualifications should apply through the Office of Admissions.
Admissions forms should reach Old Dominion University well in advance of the intended term of entry, but no later than November 1 for spring admission and June 1 for fall. All required forms and documents must be sent directly to the Admissions Office, which creates a central file for each applicant. Those seeking a graduate assistantship should file the Application for Institutional Graduate Financial Assistance (available from the Office of Graduate Admissions) and send a letter of application for fellowship consideration to the Graduate Program Director.
Graduate Financial Aid
Old Dominion University offers financial assistance to qualified graduate students. Types of aid include research and teaching assistantships, fellowships, grants, scholarships, and part-time employment. Nearly all forms of aid require that the student be engaged in full-time graduate study or nine semester credit hours.
Fellowships, assistantships, tuition grants, and small research grants may be available. Departmental funds may affect fellowship and assistantship amounts. The establishment of student need and academic promise also affect some grant amounts. The application deadline is February 15. International students must pass the SPEAK test (or an equivalent) of spoken English to become eligible for teaching assistantships.
Curriculum Requirements
Three courses of study are available. The examination option is a 30-credit program capped by written comprehensive examinations in two general fields and an oral examination. The thesis option is a 30-credit program capped by a thesis for which students earn six credits (HIST 698-HIST 699) on a pass/fail basis, and an oral defense. The portfolio option is a 30-credit program capped by two portfolio components and an oral defense. Completion of any of the three options leads to an M.A. in history.
All candidates for the M.A. in history must meet the general graduate degree requirements established for the University. In addition, all students must complete HIST 600 during their first year in the program. No more than nine of the required 30 hours may be earned in 500-level courses. Students are permitted a maximum of six credits in other departments offering graduate courses if the work is germane to their historical studies; prior approval of the Graduate Program Director is required. Students who have received two grades of C+ or below will be indefinitely suspended from the program. Those students whose grade point average falls below 3.00 will be subject to the University’s probation/suspension policy.
Examination Option
Students pursuing the examination option must take course work as follows:
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| HIST 600 | Historical Theory and Practice | 3 |
| Electives * | ||
| American History | 6 | |
| Non-American History | 6 | |
| Other Electives | 12 | |
| HIST 675 | M.A. Exam Preparation and Research | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours | 30 | |
- *
Elective courses can be at the 500, 600, or 700 level.
Students choose two fields of concentration for the Examination Option, which will conform to the expertise of two of the three committee members who constitute the student’s exam committee. The fields can be tailored to the geographical areas, topical interests, or other fields of study in consultation with the exam committee.
Students pursuing the examination option must complete HIST 675 during their last year in the program. Written comprehensive field examinations may be taken in conjunction with HIST 675. The two field exams are taken during a department designated time each Fall and Spring semester. Within a two-week period following the successful completion of written exams, the student will take a two-hour oral examination. Exams are individualized by the student’s examining committee but competence in the entire field is essential. Examinations are completed no later than 30 days before the end of a semester, and thus are normally scheduled in April and November. A field exam is judged in its entirety and is rated Pass or Fail by the examining committee; the same is true of the oral examination. Students who fail an exam can be re-examined in the next scheduled round of exams. Only one re-examination is permitted.
Thesis Option
Students pursuing the thesis option must take course work as follows:
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| HIST 600 | Historical Theory and Practice | 3 |
| Electives * | ||
| American History | 6 | |
| Non-American History | 6 | |
| Other Electives | 9 | |
| HIST 698 | Thesis | 3 |
| HIST 699 | Thesis | 3-9 |
| Total Credit Hours | 30-36 | |
- *
Elective courses can be at the 500, 600, or 700 level.
The thesis option will be recommended for those students who have maintained a high GPA and have the support of a faculty thesis advisor. The master’s thesis is written under the direction of the thesis advisor selected by the candidate in consultation with the Graduate Program Director. The thesis is reviewed and the candidate examined by a faculty committee chaired by the thesis advisor. The thesis defense—normally a two-hour oral examination—focuses on the thesis, the historical context, and related aspects of the student’s concentration. Final approval of the thesis is the responsibility of the thesis advisor, the Graduate Program Director, and ultimately of the dean of the College of Arts and Letters, who certify the candidate for graduation.
Portfolio Option
Students pursuing the portfolio option must take course work as follows:
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| HIST 600 | Historical Theory and Practice | 3 |
| Electives* | ||
| American History | 6 | |
| Non-American History | 6 | |
| Other Electives | 12 | |
| HIST 677 | Portfolio Option Preparation | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours | 30 | |
- *
Elective courses can be at the 500, 600, or 700 level.
Students choose two components for the Portfolio Option: one or two research papers, a single examination field, a teaching preparation component, or a public history project. The portfolio is reviewed and the candidate examined by a faculty committee composed of three faculty members, each of whose fields of expertise relate to components of the portfolio. The defense of the portfolio is scheduled during a department-designated time each Fall and Spring semester, normally scheduled in November and April.
Students pursuing the portfolio option must complete HIST 677 during their last year in the program. Students may submit their materials and/or sit for the oral defense for the components in conjunction with HIST 677. The portfolio is judged in its entirety and is rated Pass or Fail by the examining committee. Students who fail the oral defense can defend again in the next scheduled period. Only one additional defense is permitted.
Courses
The course is an advanced study of selected topics designed for small groups of qualified students to work on subjects of mutual interest which may not be offered regularly. These courses appear in the course schedule, and will be more fully described in information distributed to academic advisors.
Analysis of the development of historical theories, principles and methods and their application to historical research and writing. Required of all graduate students in history.
This course offers an introduction to the principal writings and interpretations of American history from the period of European colonization of America to the beginning of the American Revolution. Readings and discussions focus on the development of American cultures and identities and on the formation of American social, political, and economic life.
An advanced course designed to familiarize students with the principal historiographical problems besetting the field of studies of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.
This course examines the history of immigration to the U.S., focusing particularly on the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It critiques the "melting pot" metaphor through key themes, including transnationalism; the influences of class, race, gender, and nationality; working class and race relations; formal and informal economies; and popular and consumer culture.
This course explores the history of food and drink in the U.S. and the world as a way to examine the cultural, social, and political meanings about and consequences of producing and consuming food. This course will explore an array of topics including food as an essential element of identities and power relations, commodity chains, eating trends, and global security.
This course is designed to familiarize students with the principal historiographical problems besetting the field of U.S. military history from the pre-Revolutionary period to the present day.
This course examines the historiography of the Long Civil Rights Movement, the struggle for civil rights stretching from the nineteenth century to the present day and encompassing multiple movements that sought to achieve the basic rights of citizenship for a number of different groups.
This course provides a historiographical survey of U.S. labor and working class history, focusing on the period after the Civil War. Work as a reflection of everyday life, class formation and class consciousness and the development of unions and other labor organizations are examined through a variety of different methodologies and in the contexts of citizenship and civil rights.
This course explores the Atlantic World as a place, a process, and a new field of historical inquiry. It examines the global processes of imperial, economic, and demographic expansion that drew British North America into transnational networks that spanned the Atlantic Ocean and brought European, African, and American inhabitants together.
The course explores the trans-Atlantic slave trade from its beginnings in the 15th century to its suppression in the 19th century. It examines the historical literature on Africa, the Atlantic slave trade and the New World to provide students with a general orientation to the broad context of the Atlantic slave trade.
This course examines the historiography of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Key themes include the slow, uneven and often unsuccessful integration of the region into centralizing states in Mexico and the United States; the changing nature of migration and commerce across the international boundary; and the importance of violence and social conflict in shaping the region.
This course focuses on the social and cultural history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain. It explores broad themes of social conflict, class divisions, race and racism, and gender dynamics presented in recent historiography . Topics include politics, culture, leisure, entertainment, arts, economy, and the impact of the Empire on Britain.
This course explores British imperialism and colonialism in the early modern and modern periods, from the Caribbean to Australia with emphasis on the "second British empire" of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Key themes will include: webs of power and communication, labor, gender, race, and colony/metropole relations.
Seminar.
This seminar delves into literary and archaeological sources to examine the development of ancient Greece in the archaic, classical and Hellenistic periods. It traces the development of Greece's vibrant culture, the struggles between Athens and Sparta, and the subsequent alliances forced by Phillip II and Alexander the Great.
Using historical texts and archaeological remains as sources, this course considers Ancient Rome from the city's mythological foundation stories to its decline in late Antiquity. It will study Roman history and historiography exploring topics including the economy, the military, women's roles, religion, art and architecture in the Republic and the Principate.
This seminar focuses on the development of Greco-Roman Palestine, from its encounter with Hellenism to its conquest by Rome, and ultimately to its transformation into the Christian Holy Land under the patronage of Constantine and Helen.
Research in Soviet archives in the past decade has enriched and enlarged the study of Stalin's era (1924-1953). This reading seminar samples new literature on traditional topics, such as Stalin's rise to power, methods of rule, and foreign policies, as well as scholarship in newly emerging fields. These areas include social history, gender and the family, cinema and popular culture, nationalities, patron-client relations, and the history of science.
The seminar explores recent maritime historiography and demonstrates how maritime history presents unique understandings of human history and also works within or redefines broader historical constructs. Students will analyze sources related to specific topics of maritime history.
This course examines the complex ways in which the French viewed the Atlantic Ocean and other bodies of water and the opportunities water travel provided them from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Emphasis is placed on the Atlantic as a zone of interaction and on the French global trading networks and the development of overseas empires.
This course examines the religious, political and civil strife as well as the ramifications of social change in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. Emphasis will be on religiosity and how early modern peoples understood and experienced religious life and how the "reformations" altered gender relations, sexual dynamics, everyday life, and intellectual thought in Western Europe.
This course introduces students to the interpretive methodologies of questions of "Enlightenment" and the French Revolution that drive much of the historiography in European intellectual history today.
Seminar.
This class examines how coastal societies around the North Atlantic have developed their use of fish stocks and other marine resources since the late medieval period and analyzes how and why over-fishing of nearly all major species took place and how international agreements sought to address the issue of sustainable, biological oceanic resources.
Students work to gain field experience with professionals in such areas as museum management, archives administration, historical editing, historical preservation, electronic records management, archaeology, or oral history. Students are supervised by graduate faculty members who assign academic reading and written work to contextualize and enhance the field experience. Individually arranged. Minimum of 120 hours.
This course examines the intersections of politics and economy with culture and society in Europe from 1880 to 1914 with an emphasis on continental trends. It explores political ideologies relating to nationhood, race, ethnicity, class, and gender and their articulation in the arts, cultural production, technological innovation, and intellectual development at the turn of the century.
This course examines the complex history of the Holocaust, beginning with the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s. It will explore issues of resistance and collaboration as well as ambivalence. It will also examine aspects of postwar Holocaust denial and the memory of the Holocaust as well as its representation in the historiography to the present.
This advanced seminar integrates the skills needed to pass the M.A. exam in history. Exercises include designing examination reading lists, learning the historiography of the exam fields, preparing for orals, and writing and evaluating a practice exam. This course is not open to students pursuing the thesis option.
This course prepares students transitioning from one degree option--examinations, portfolio, or thesis--to another.
This advanced seminar integrates the skills needed to construct the Portfolio Option for the M.A. in history. Exercises include conducting research and writing for a research paper, learning the historiography of a single examination field, preparing teaching materials, working on an applied history project, and preparing for the oral defense. This course is not open to students pursuing the thesis or examination option.
Through the work of historians around the world, this course examines the nature of events in the 1960s. It explores global commonalities and local particularities, focusing on the simultaneous and interrelated phenomena of anti-colonial struggle, youth activism, and culture of dissent. It also looks at the countervailing pressures and groups that emerged in opposition.
Instruction for students continuing with research and preparation for thesis, portfolio, or examinations.
The course is an advanced study of selected topics designed for small groups of qualified students to work on subjects of mutual interest which may not be offered regularly.
Individually arranged with appropriate professor and with permission of the graduate program director.
Individually arranged with appropriate professor and with the permission of the graduate program director.
3 credits.
3-9 credits.
This reading seminar will focus on the changes of the Chinese society since the beginning of the 20th century. It will examine the pivotal historical events that led to the Chinese revolution, which put Mao's Communist regime in power and has changed Chinese society ever since. While studying the history chronologically, students will identify issues and factors that affect the Chinese political system and society, and examine the legacies of Mao's revolution from social and individual perspectives. The course will also focus on political formation and transformation of the government, social structure and upheavals, economic reforms, and foreign policies. (cross listed with IS 718 and IS 818)
The advanced historical study of selected topics in international studies.
This course is a pass/fail course for master's students in their final semester. It may be taken to fulfill the registration requirement necessary for graduation. All master's students are required to be registered for at least one graduate credit hour in the semester of their graduation.
This course is a pass/fail course doctoral students may take to maintain active status after successfully passing the candidacy examination. All doctoral students are required to be registered for at least one graduate credit hour every semester until their graduation.