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.

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.

Department Chair / Staff

Faculty