History, M.A.

Most students with a Master’s degree in history are teachers at the public school, community college, or college/university level. Many serve as public historians, historic preservationists, museum curators, archives/records managers, or analysts with government agencies. The Master’s equips students for further study at the doctoral level.

Advisories

Students must have completed a minimum of six undergraduate hours in history and be prepared to make up any deficits in knowledge.
Students who plan to pursue a doctorate should be aware that doctoral programs require competency in two foreign languages. These students should go the thesis route with the Master’s to prepare them for writing a doctoral dissertation.
Students may transfer in a maximum of twelve semester hours from another Master’s program if the courses are appropriate for this degree and conform to other Wayland graduate transfer policies.
Students must complete at least thirty hours of coursework before taking the comprehensive exam (HIST 5100 ) and must score a minimum of 80 on the exam in order to earn the degree.
Students may elect to research and write a thesis (six hours’ credit) or take two additional subject area courses instead.
Students may take any course more than once for credit if the topic is different each time.
Students must take HIST 5301 - Historical Methods and HIST 5302 - Historiography within the first four terms of enrollment in the program.
Students cannot take more than three content courses with any one professor (not including required courses or thesis hours) during the course of their degree program, and must take courses from at least four full-time history faculty members.

Degree requirements

The master’s degree in history requires 37 hours.

HIST 5100 - Comprehensive Examination 1 hrs
HIST 5301 - Historical Methods 3 hrs
HIST 5302 - Historiography 3 hrs

Six hours from:

HIST 5360 - Thesis I 3 hrs
HIST 5361 - Thesis II 3 hrs
or
Two additional courses

24 hours from the following courses:

HIST 5310 - U.S. Colonial and Revolutionary History 3 hrs
HIST 5311 - Nineteenth Century America 3 hrs
HIST 5312 - American Civil War/Southern Reconstruction 3 hrs
HIST 5313 - Gilded Age/Progressive Era 3 hrs
HIST 5316 - Social and Intellectual History 3 hrs
HIST 5331 - History of Science and Technology 3 hrs
HIST 5332 - Environmental History 3 hrs
HIST 5333 - Regional History 3 hrs
HIST 5334 - Public History 3 hrs
HIST 5335 - US Foreign Relations 3 hrs
HIST 5340 - Ethnic and Gender History 3 hrs
HIST 5341 - History of Warfare 3 hrs
HIST 5342 - British History 3 hrs
HIST 5345 - Medieval Europe 3 hrs
HIST 5346 - Early Modern Europe 3 hrs
HIST 5347 - Modern Europe 3 hrs
HIST 5348 - Early 20th Century U.S. History 3 hrs
HIST 5349 - Post-1945 U.S. History 3 hrs
HIST 5350 - The American West 3 hrs
HIST 5351 - World War I 3 hrs
HIST 5352 - World War II 3 hrs
HIST 5353 - The Korean War 3 hrs
HIST 5354 - The Vietnam War 3 hrs
HIST 5362 - History of Latin America 3 hrs