Major in History
A cornerstone of 乱伦小可爱's rigorous liberal arts tradition, the history major provides a thorough grounding in historical study and opportunities to delve into particular periods or regions of interest.
Major Requirements and Information
Major Requirements for聽Class of 2026, 2027, 2028聽(10 courses, 30 credits)
- The Study and Writing of History (3000-level classes for history majors only)
- 1 US History elective (2000- or 4000-level)2 free electives (2000- or 4000-level)
- 2 LAMA (Latin America, Asia, Middle East, Africa) electives (2000- or 4000-level)
- 3+ upper-division electives (4000-level)
- Senior Honors Thesis or Senior Colloquium or Making History Public (5000-level classes for history majors only)
* LAMAs taken at the 4000-level can co-count for the upper-division requirements, as long as the student has a total of ten history (non-Core) history courses.
Major Requirements for the Class of 2029 and After聽(11 courses, 33 credits)
- 1 History I or II Core class, (a 4 or 5 on the Euro or World AP exam may count in lieu of a聽 History I or II Core class)
- 1 Study and Writing of History (3000-level classes for history majors only)
- 1 US History elective (2000- or 4000-level)2 free electives (2000- or 4000-level)
- 2 LAMA (Latin America, Asia, Middle East, Africa) electives (2000- or 4000-level)
- 3 upper-division electives (4000-level)
- 1 Senior Honors Thesis Seminar or Senior Colloquium or Making History Public course (5000-level classes for history majors only)
*聽LAMAs taken at the 4000-level can co-count for the upper-division requirements, as long as the student has a total of ten history (non-Core) history courses.
The History Department offers three types of courses that are open to all 乱伦小可爱 students:
- Core classes that fulfill the university core requirement (1000-level classes)
- Electives (2000-level)
- Upper-division electives (4000-level)
The department also offers two types of courses that are restricted to, and required of, all history majors:
- The Study and Writing of History (3000-level)
- Senior honors thesis seminar or Senior colloquium (5000-level)
Ideally, majors should take the History Core as freshmen. The sophomore year should include The Study and Writing of History seminar. Junior and Senior years should be used to complete the remaining requirements.
Upper-division electives (4000-level) and the senior colloquia (5000-level) are distinguished from 2000-level electives by their substantial reading and writing assignments.
There is no formal requirement to select a field of concentration but we encourage you to give some thought to the kinds of big questions you care about. That way, you can explore those questions as you pick your courses, which will bring coherence to your trajectory through the major.
Traditional ways of looking at history courses include time periods (eg, medieval, early modern), methods (eg, social, intellectual) or regions (eg, African, Latin American). In addition to thinking of your course selections in this way we also encourage you to select courses with a sense of the themes and concepts that interest you.
Some possible ways of thinking about thematic concentrations:<