History

It is your responsibility to take steps to establish residency immediately upon arrival in Colorado and before the start of the first semester to avoid being charged out-of-state tuition starting in the second year.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships provide full-tuition remission at the non-resident rate for first year (semesters 1-2) and at the resident rate for the second year (semesters 3-4). If you are a domestic student who is not a resident of Colorado, the difference between resident and non-resident tuition will be provided as an additional benefit for the first year only through the Tuition Premium Program. Domestic students are expected to establish residency by the beginning of their second year at CSU. Information on establishing Colorado residency can be found through the Office of Financial Aid.

If you are an international student, the Tuition Premium Program covers the difference between resident and non-resident tuition during your tenure in the graduate program.

If you do not establish residency by your second year of enrollment, you will be required to pay the difference between non-resident and resident tuition during the second year and thereafter.

Your graduate program should consist largely of “regular course work,” courses other than independent or group studies, thesis credits, supervised college teaching, practicum/internship, etc. Regular courses include: 501, 503, 505, 511, 512, 516, 520, 521, 530, 531, 532, 533, 534, 539, 611, 621, and 640. Additionally, no more than nine credit hours of undergraduate level courses count towards completion of the degree program. You must achieve a B- or better in all your coursework.

You should to refer to the appropriate programmatic check sheet - Liberal Arts Plan A (Thesis), Liberal Arts Plan B (Non-Thesis), and CRM/Historic Preservation Plan B (Non-Thesis) – for guidance on course options and the Regularized Graduate Course Rotation for the timing.

Internship credits are required for the CRM/Historic Preservation Plan B program and are strongly encouraged for those students taking general public history. All internships require a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and you will need to work with your primary advisor to set up. The internship designation is HIST 587 Internship and can be for up to six credit hours. Each credit hour constitutes 60 of hours of work.

Other special courses include HIST 586 Practicum, HIST 684 Supervised College Teaching (only one credit per semester allowed), HIST 695 Independent Study, HIST 697 Group Study, and only three credit hours of any one of these courses may be counted towards the degree. Students on the Liberal Arts Plan A (Thesis) track may take up to six credit hours of HIST 699 Thesis. All grades for work in HIST 684 and HIST 699 will be recorded as S or U.

If taking a special studies course, such as an internship, practicum, supervised college teaching, or thesis credits, you must fill out a Special Studies form [link to the Special Studies form same as what is under the Internship section of the Graduate page and on the Internship and Independent Studies page] and have it approved by both your primary advisor and the department chair.

The Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) discourages students from making course substitutions. Course substitutions require you to make a written request to the GSC and petition for an exception with the support of your primary advisor. Substitution requests have to be made at least two weeks before registration and approved before you enroll in the course.

You are encouraged to complete all your coursework on time to stay on track for graduation in four semesters. Incomplete grades, a grade of an “I” require the instructor to specify in writing the requirements that you must fulfill to complete the course. You have one year to complete the requirements before the grade defaults to an “F.” All degree requirements must be completed within ten years in order to graduate. You must be registered or enrolled in Continuous Registration (CR) the semester in which you graduate.

By the end of your second semester, you should have identified the three members of your Graduate Advisory Committee (GAC). I addition to your primary advisor, who oversees your first field of study, you should select another graduate faculty as a committee member to oversee a second field of study. The fields of historical study are based on reading seminars and readings you completed in other history courses taken in the course of your study in World, Europe, U.S., and Public History.

You also need to choose an outside committee member, a faculty from another department. Review the Graduate School’s guidelines for more information about the structure of Graduate Advisory Committees. Once you have your committee in place, fill out the GS6 form through RamWeb. You will report the names of your GAC and all your coursework on the form.

Towards the end of your second semester, you will be formally evaluated to determine if you are making satisfactory progress in your degree program and if you are performing satisfactorily in your GTA position. The Department of History is committed to advising and mentoring that identifies and praises strengths and areas where students may be struggling to provide resources for their improvement. To identify such needs, the instructors of record in all History graduate classes for each academic year, the advisors of all first-year graduate students, GTA instructors, and the Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) provide evaluations of first-year graduate students.

Satisfactory progress includes the following: meeting the academic standards outlined in the Graduate and Professional Bulletin; maintaining a 3.00 grade point average (GPA) in courses required for the Master of Arts degree; taking classes directly relevant to your degree program; selecting an advisor by October 15 if their first enrollment is the fall semester and March 1 if their first enrollment is the spring semester; participating in the intellectual life of the department (attending events, professionalization workshops, etc.); and (if relevant) performing satisfactorily as Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA). You will not receive credit toward the M.A. degree for any course where the grade is lower than a B-.

You and your primary advisor will receive a letter from the GSC evaluating your progress at the end of your second semester. This letter is part of your graduate student record. If the GSC determines that you are not making satisfactory progress, the committee and your advisor will help you create a progress plan to help you improve your performance.

Your Master of Arts in History program culminates with a final product and an oral exam. Liberal Arts Plan A (Thesis) students produce theses. Liberal Arts Plan B (Non-Thesis) students produce body of work portfolios. These products reflect your training in two fields of study—World, Europe, U.S., or Public History—and contain additional elements that reflect your additional skills. All students sit an oral exam to defend their final product. You should plan on consulting your primary advisor about your final product before the end of your second semester. Theses and body of work portfolios are usually due to your Graduate Advisory Committee before the midterm of your final semester.

LIBERAL ARTS PLAN A (THESIS)

Writing a thesis means engaging in a long-form research project and writing a long-form historical interpretation. Master of Arts theses in History are generally based on primary source research and use secondary sources to interpret those primary sources. History theses make arguments about the meaning and significance of the research findings. A History thesis is not as long as a book but constructed similarly; usually a History thesis has an introduction, several chapters, and a conclusion followed by a bibliography of sources. One of these chapters should be a historiographic essay on your thesis field. Chapters should be about 20 pages double spaced. The thesis itself can range between 90 and 120 pages. The purpose of a History thesis is to demonstrate proficiency in the traditional use of the historical method and in historical interpretation. You should consult recent theses produced by History MA students available through Mountain Scholar for examples. The Graduate School prescribes the formatting of your thesis; see their formatting guidelines for details.

In addition to the thesis, a historiographic essay, some of which is produced outside of class in a non-thesis field is required. The non-thesis field will be based on reading seminars and readings completed in other history courses taken at Colorado State University. You are also encouraged to submit any additional scholarship and professional materials to your committee for consideration alongside your thesis and second historiographic essay.

LIBERAL ARTS PLAN B (NON-THESIS) AND CRM/HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLAN B (NON-THESIS)

The body of work portfolio consists of the array of work you produced during the course of your graduate program. There are two major categories of work: Historiography, and Research (traditional, applied, and public history). Most of the work in your portfolio comes from your methods, reading, and research seminars. Additional categories in the portfolio include job materials, professional statements, and additional elements that showcase specific skills. The purpose of the portfolio is to demonstrate proficiency in the traditional historical method and in the additional skills that applied and public historians need to do their work.

As part of your body of work portfolio, you will write two historiographic essays, one on each of your two fields of study. These historiographic essays are about 20 pages double spaced in length and will require substantial reading and writing outside of your classes but may be based on work you have done in reading seminars and research seminars.

Oral Exams: You will present and discuss your thesis and any additional elements or your body of work portfolio with your committee. Please check the Graduate School deadlines to make sure you are aware of when you must file your GS24 form (non-thesis) or GS30 form (thesis). The oral exam may take up to two hours and will be built on the material in your thesis or portfolio, and any additional materials submitted to your committee.  You will present your work to the committee and the committee will discuss your work with you. At the end of the discussion, your committee will excuse you and then decide by majority vote if you have failed or passed.

All Liberal Arts Plan A (Thesis) students must meet a language requirement for their degree. You must demonstrate reading knowledge of a foreign language appropriate for your historical studies. Work closely with your primary advisor to determine which language you choose. For students with little experience in a language other than English, we suggest starting work on this requirement in the first semester, because language acquisition is a gradual process.

You have a couple of ways in which to fulfill your language requirement:

1. A language exam in which you translate one or more passages of a primary historical document or secondary work of history from the selected language, totaling approximately 250 to 300 words, into English. The translation must be completed within one hour. You can use a print dictionary on the translation text. The text to be translated may be chosen by a faculty member of the Department of History or the CSU Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLC). You are not permitted to participate in the selection of the text and will not be given the text before the exam. You are encouraged to contact the faculty member who will administer the exam before the end of your first year.
2. Completion of a language course in which you either: 1) earned a B or better in a college language course at the second-year level (L 200 series) or above offered by the Department of Languages Literatures and Cultures (and a grade of B or better in any first-year level (L 100) courses taken at CSU to meet pre-requisites). OR 2) earned a B or better in an upper-division course offered by the Department of Languages Literatures and Cultures on the culture and literature associated with the language selected (L 300, L 400 series). The work in this course must be primarily in the foreign language, not in English. OR earned a B or better in a fourth semester (2nd year) college level language course at another academic institution.

Once you have met your language requirement, submit the Graduate Program Language Requirement Fulfillment form [link to form] with the appropriate documentation to the Graduate Studies Committee.