The request to revise the M.A. in History
Date: April 8, 2016
To: College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
From: Office of Academic Affairs
Approved On: March 21, 2016
Approved by: Graduate Council
Implementation Date: Spring 2017
Note: Deletions are strikethroughs. Insertions are underlined.
Catalog Copy
History
- M.A. in History
Department of History
history.uncc.edu
publichistory.uncc.edu
Graduate Program Director
Dr. Christine Haynes
Public History Director
Dr. Aaron Shapiro
Graduate Faculty
Dr. Benny Andres, Associate Professor
Dr. Jurgen Buchenau, Professor and Chair
Dr. Christopher Cameron, Assistant Professor
Dr. Karen Cox, Professor
Dr. Daniel Dupre, Associate Professor
Dr. Erika Edwards, Assistant Professor
Dr. Maren Ehlers, Assistant Professor
Dr. Karen Flint, Associate Professor
Dr. David Goldfield, Robert Lee Bailey Professor
Dr. Christine Haynes, Associate Professor
Dr. Cheryl Hicks, Associate Professor
Dr. James Hogue, Associate Professor
Dr. David Johnson, Assistant Professor
Dr. Jill Massino, Assistant Professor
Dr. Gregory Mixon, Associate Professor
Dr. Heather Perry, Associate Professor
Dr. Amanda Pipkin, Associate Professor
Dr. Ritika Prasad, Assistant Professor
Dr. Sonya Ramsey, Associate Professor
Dr. Steven Sabol, Associate Professor
Dr. Aaron Shapiro, Associate Professor
Dr. John Smail, Professor and Dean of University College
Dr. John David Smith, Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor
Dr. Carmen Soliz, Assistant Professor
Dr. Peter Thorsheim, Associate Professor
Dr. Mark Wilson, Associate Professor
Master of Arts in History
The Master of Arts in History program at UNC Charlotte is designed to give motivated students an opportunity to pursue advanced studies in close collaboration with accomplished scholars. The program emphasizes the development of methodological, literary, and conceptual skills that graduates can employ as students in a doctoral program, as professionally oriented history teachers in secondary schools, as staff at museums or historic sites, or as citizens more acutely aware of the historical evolution of their society. Offering both day and evening courses, the Department of History attracts a diverse group of traditional and non-traditional students. Candidates may pursue the M.A. degree in History or Public History on either a full-time or part-time basis.
The Department offers courses in United States, European, and Latin American history, with particular expertise in the following areas:
- African-American and Black Women’s History
- American South, Old and New
- Colonial and Modern Latin America
- Comparative Slavery, Race and Race Relations, and the African Diaspora
- Early Modern and Modern Europe
- Environment, Labor and Business, Science, Medicine, and Technology
- Military, War, and International Relations
- Nationalism and Colonialism in World History
- Urban History, Immigration, and Ethnicity
- Women’s History, Gender and the Body
The Department also offers a concentration in the field of Public History. The program emphasizes museum studies, historic preservation, and the creation of new media projects such as websites, digital collections, and documentaries.
Admission Requirements
In addition to the general requirements for admission to the Graduate School, the following are ordinarily required for admission to the M.A. in History program:
- A minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.0 in History or a related discipline
- Acceptable performance on the verbal and math portions of the GRE
- A personal statement outlining the candidate’s background, interest, and goals in History
- Three letters of recommendation from former instructors and/or employers
- A writing sample of at least 6-8 pages
Degree Requirements
The Master of Arts degree in History requires completion, with a GPA of 3.0 or above, of at least 30 hours in approved graduate courses. These courses must include at least 24 credit hours in History, of which at least 15 hours are in seminars or colloquia open only to graduate students, and no more than 6 hours in individually designed readings or research courses. Students taking the comprehensive examination may take 3 hours of exam preparation and students completing a thesis may take 6 hours of thesis preparation toward their 30 hours.
Students who pursue the concentration in Public History must complete 30 hours of required and elective coursework, 3 hours for an internship in some area of Public History, and 3 hours of thesis work, for a total of 36 hours.
Students must complete all degree requirements, including the comprehensive examination or thesis defense, within six calendar years of first enrollment in the program.
All students in the program are expected to maintain an overall B (3.0) average. Students who do not meet this expectation will be subject to suspension on recommendation of the Graduate Committee of the Department of History.
Core Courses
Required courses for the M.A. in History are as follows:
- 3 different HIST colloquia (choose from
U.S. I, U.S. II, 19th Century Europe, 20th Century Europe, and/or Colonial or Modern Latin AmericaHIST 6001, 6002, 6101, 6102, 6201, 6202) - HIST 6693 History and Methodology (to be taken in the Spring, after completion of at least six credit hours)
- HIST 6694 Seminar in Historical Writing (to be taken in the Fall of the second year, after completion of HIST 6693)
- HIST 6698 (Comprehensive Exam, 3 hours) or HIST 6999 (Thesis, 6 hours)
Candidates pursuing the concentration in Public History must complete only 2 different HIST colloquia. In addition, however, they also must complete the following core courses:
HIST 6310 Museum Studies
HIST 6320 Historic Preservation
HIST 6330 History in the Digital Age
HIST 6400 Internship
HIST 6999 Thesis (3 hours)
Consult the department website at history.uncc.edu for a more detailed description of program requirements and suggested courses of study.
Electives
Among courses in History, the following qualify as electives: HIST 5000, HIST 5001, HIST 5002, HIST 6000, HIST 6694, HIST 6901, HIST 6997. In addition, all other History courses at the 6000 level may count as an elective, including the colloquia, if they additional credit hours beyond the already completed requirements. For example, if a student takes four colloquia, the fourth counts as an elective.
Students may also elect to take up to 6 or 9 hours of graduate-level coursework in disciplines other than History, depending on whether they pursue the thesis or comprehensive exam, respectively. Candidates seeking graduate-level teacher certification may use the elective option to take courses in professional education selected in consultation with the College of Education. If a student needs more than that number of elective hours to satisfy certification requirements, those hours will be added to the total required for the M.A. in History.
Admission to Candidacy Requirements
An Admission to Candidacy form must be submitted during the semester preceding the one in which the student plans to complete the degree requirements, either by defending a thesis or taking a comprehensive examination.
Assistantships
The Department of History currently supports eight students with teaching assistantships, two students with editorial assistantships, and occasionally provides support for other students via administrative assistantships. Assistantships are currently funded at $9,000 per academic year. From time to time, the department also provides students with other employment opportunities.
See the section Financial Assistance below for additional information on resources available to graduate students in the Department of History.
Internships
Internships are available to all students and required for those in the Public History program. Some are available within the department; others with a variety of local historical museums and sites.
Advising
Students may not register for graduate-level courses without the permission of the Department of History. Consequently, students must be advised by the Director of Graduate Studies, either in person or by phone or email, prior to registering for courses each semester, as well as prior to filing their admission to candidacy form and application for degree.
Transfer Credit
No more than six transferred hours may be approved for application to the requirements for the degree.
Language Requirement
Although students are not required to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language, they are expected to be able to use whatever languages they need to pursue their research interests.
Thesis/Comprehensive Examination
After completing the required courses, students must either prepare a Master’s thesis based on original primary research or take three comprehensive written examinations based on reading lists compiled in consultation with faculty members. Students intending to write theses must first write and then defend a thesis proposal. M.A. candidates completing either the thesis or exam must then pass an oral defense of their written work.
An Examining Committee, consisting of two graduate faculty members from the Department of History and a third member selected from History or another department, oversees the student’s thesis work or conducts the comprehensive written and oral examinations.
Financial Aid/Financial Assistance
Students may obtain limited financial support from paid internships, summer or adjunct teaching in the department, archival work in the library’s Special Collections, and teaching opportunities at local community colleges. Students doing thesis research or presenting papers at professional conferences may receive modest travel grants from the department or from the Graduate and Professional Student Government.
Information on non-departmental forms of financial assistance is available from the Office of Student Financial Aid.