Faculty members in the Department of History offer a wide variety of courses based on their periodic, topical, and geographical research expertise. Department faculty are engaged in cutting-edge research in their respective fields and regularly engage in individual and cooperative research projects that enhance their ability to teach relevant and timely topics to their students. The M.A. Program is designed to offer students the ability to take a wide array of courses to build a competency in general historical knowledge.

Each student in the program takes HIST 600: Historical Theory and Practice, which offers an introduction to research methods, historiography, and the various practices of historical inquiry.

Students also take a variety of electives in American, European, and global history.

The following elective courses have been offered in the recent past:

• The Military in America
• The Holocaust and Memory Landscapes
• Individual and Society in Ancient Greece
• African American History
• The Atlantic Slave Trade
• The British Empire
• International History
• Making Sense of a People's Contest: The Civil War and Reconstruction
• Edible History: Food and Drink in U.S. and Global History
• Environmental History
• Making Modern India: the Mughals and the British
• The Global 1960s
• Race, Identity, and the European "Heritage"
• Native American and Indigenous Histories