History with Departmental Honors and University Honors Program, BA

The history departmental honors major offers an opportunity for motivated and capable students to engage in more extensive interaction with faculty and to complete challenging individual research projects that will further their personal and professional goals.

Application to the major: To be accepted to the program, students must have a cumulative and major/program grade point average of 3.50 and must have completed the University Honors Program history sequence specific to their track. Interested students should apply to the department chairperson in spring quarter for the following year’s department honors courses. Upon acceptance, a Change of Major, Degree, or Specialization form is submitted to the Office of the Registrar.

University Honors Program  students  may earn a history major with departmental honors by completing one of the three University Honors Program tracks and taking an additional 40 credits in history. These history credits include HIST 3770 , HIST 4790 , five credits of 3000-level non-European history courses, and one five-credit 4000-level history research seminar.

Completion of the major: During senior or junior year, departmental honors students will take the departmental honors sequence (HIST 3770  in fall quarter, a 4000-level history research seminar in winter quarter, and HIST 4790  in spring quarter). Students in the departmental honors program complete 5 credits of course work above the norm for University Honors Program History majors (for a total of 40 credits of HIST courses) and write a substantial thesis under the direction of a faculty member. The thesis will be graded by departmental faculty and presented in an oral defense. In order to complete the requirements for departmental honors and receive a notation to that effect on their transcripts, students must also maintain a cumulative and major/program grade point average of 3.50. In addition, the grade received for HIST 4790  Departmental Honors Thesis Supervision, must be an A or A-. 

The University Honors courses that count towards the history major include:

Intellectual Traditions

• HONR 1210 - Polis, Republic, and Empires  
• HONR 1230 - The Worlds of Medieval Europe  
• HONR 2210 - Early Modern Culture and Global Expansion  
• HONR 2250 - Human Rights in the Modern World  
• HONR 2510 - Capitalism and Its Discontents  

Society, Policy, and Citizenship

• HONR 1210 - Polis, Republic, and Empires  
• HONR 1220 - From Polis to Subject to Citizen  
• HONR 2240 - Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World  
• HONR 2250 - Human Rights in the Modern World  
• HONR 2530 - 18th- and 19th-Century Social Theory  

Innovations

• HONR 1210 - Polis, Republic, and Empires  
• HONR 1240 - Catholicism and Its Global Reach  
• HONR 2220 - History of Revolutions  
• HONR 2510 - Capitalism and Its Discontents