Graduate Curriculum

The Master of Arts degree in history

The Master of Arts degree in history combines an intensive project of research with an orientation to contemporary modes of historical interpretation. A program attentive to developing the craft of historical research, writing and analysis, the graduate program prepares students equally for continuing with academic studies in history at the doctoral level and for a variety of other careers where the knowledge and skills of the historian are valued.

The graduate program has been designed to make all the courses offered relevant to all students. Courses are geared to the knowledge level and analytical ability of students emerging from a Canadian undergraduate programs in history (or equivalent) with a strong academic record.

Geographical specializations of faculty include:

• Canada
• United States
• Britain
• Europe
• Latin America
• Northwest Africa
• Middle East

Thematic specializations include:

• social history
• cultural history
• intellectual history
• history of the state and society
• history of women, gender, and sexuality
• black history
• history of the book
• history of medicine
• postcolonial history
• labour history
• Aboriginal peoples

Each thematic course allows students to come to terms with a number of modes of interpretation of a single historical problematic, and then apply historiographical analysis to their chosen nation-state situation and chronological period.

The program takes as its starting point the assumption that most students enter graduate work in history with an orientation to the history of a particular nation in a specific time period. The program's objective is to enable students to expand upon those initial interests and incorporate in their understanding a sophisticated critique of contemporary modes of historical interpretation. To that end, the five courses are thematic in focus; within the framework of each one, students have the opportunity to explore historiographical debates ranging outside the usual boundaries of time and place. When it comes to the Major Paper, the factors of specialization based on geography and chronology will converge with an appropriate interpretive mode and a suitable body of sources to generate the topic for a sophisticated research paper.

Full-time candidates for the Master of Arts degree will take:

• two required graduate courses (43-503 and 43-504)
• three other graduate courses (offered from the range 43-506; 43-507; 43-508; 43-509; 43-510; 43-511; 43-597; 43-598).

Each student will develop a research plan in conjunction with the required seminars 43-503/43-504, and embark on a Major Paper under the supervision of two members of the history faculty.

A student may, with the consent of the Graduate Advisor or AAU Head, take one course in another University of Windsor graduate program or in History at Wayne State University.

Graduation Requirements

Students must successfully complete 5 courses and a Major Paper; each course is a two-hour seminar held over a 13-week semester, evaluated with a letter grade based on a combination of written work and oral participation. The Major Paper is evaluated by the student's Advisor and a second Reader.

Graduate Faculty

The following faculty members are able to supervise Major Papers. Click on a name for research interests and contact information:

• Christina Burr
• Leslie Howsam
• Shauna Huffaker
• Guy Lazure
• Mohamed Mohamed
• Robert Nelson
• Steven Palmer
• Christina Simmons
• Peter Way
• Miriam Wright