Department of History and Philosophy
College of Liberal Arts

Our program offers courses in a wide range of fields.  Along with the department’s strengths in African American History, Public History, the American South, and the African Diaspora, the department’s faculty also teach classes on Women’s History, Film, the Middle East, Latin America, Sexuality, Religion, Disability, and many other topics.

Our program includes two tracks for students seeking a Master of Arts degree (36 total credit hours) and is designed to be completed in two years.   We also have a non-degree option for teacher certification. The project option is specifically for students seeking to improve their credentials.  Students complete coursework and spend one semester writing a secondary-source-based research paper. The thesis option is recommended for students who wish to continue their graduate education.  Students complete coursework and a master’s thesis. This option requires a more intensive research focus under the guidance of an advisor with the goal of producing a master’s thesis that will prepare the student for a doctoral degree program. The non-degree seeking program allows those desiring certification to teach History to complete up to 12 hours of coursework.

Mission Statement

The Department of History and Philosophy offers students the opportunity to pursue a course of study that prepares them to enter a range of professional paths and careers. These potential careers include teaching from elementary to high school to junior college to the four year university. Additional professional forays are possible in research and scholarship enterprises, public and leadership service and a welter of other pursuits, all requiring a demonstrated knowledge, appreciation and application of the human historical experience in response to an ever-changing multi-cultural world.

The graduate History program’s areas of concentration include Global, Social and Cultural, U.S., Public, and African Diaspora history.  The department has an especially impressive curriculum as well as an assembled coterie of talented teaching research faculty.

Program Objectives

1. To use classroom instruction and relevant professional experiences, thereby, preparing majors to conduct historical research while acquiring the requisite knowledge, competencies and mastery essential to a history discipline concentration in a general liberal arts education.

2. To prepare students to either continue graduate study beyond the Master of Arts degree and/or engage in history related professional careers.

3. To prepare students to teach history in elementary and secondary schools and at the junior college level.

4. To serve the instructional needs of teachers, principals, and supervisors as required to maintain or improve their current teaching or leadership status.

5. To promote the scholarly study and investigation of the human historical experience as well as the dissemination of such research via both presentations at professional conferences and publication in the discipline.