Department of History | Additional Information

Home > Degrees and Programs > Graduate Programs > Additional Information

Additional Information

Graduate Advisor :
Dr. Mary Brennan
Graduate Advisor
Office: TMH-209
Email: mb18@txstate.edu
Phone: (512)245-2110

Fields of Study :
In addition to Public History, the Department offers three broadly defined areas of concentration for graduate study: the United States, Latin America, and Europe.
Students in Public History will complete 18 hours in that field and 18 hours in graduate courses in US history (including Historiography). Other students will complete 9–21 hours (in addition to Historiography and the Research Seminar) in one of the three major fields of historical study listed above. The remainder of their courses in history must be in an area of concentration outside of the major field. Students must register their major area of study with the director of graduate studies.

Graduate Advisor :
All students should choose an advisor in their major field of study in their first or early in their second semester. Students must obtain the consent of the faculty member they would like to have serve as their advisor and, by the end of the second semester, inform the director of graduate studies of the name of their advisor once that consent has been granted. The advisor will assist the student in designing research projects for the general research seminar and in choosing the courses which make up the student's program. The advisor will also supervise the thesis for students selecting that option. Students may change advisors upon notifying the director of graduate studies and obtaining the consent of another faculty member to serve as advisor.

Historiography :
The History Department believes that its graduate students are best prepared to undertake serious graduate study by a general introduction to the discipline of history. This introduction will be provided in the historiography classes taught each fall semester. The department offers American Historiography for students choosing U.S. History as their major area of concentration, and General Historiography for students with major fields in Europe or Latin America . All new graduate students are expected to enroll in one of these offerings. Both courses contain a methodological component and a formal paper designed to help the student prepare for future reading and research projects in other courses. The formal paper required in this course may serve as the introductory analysis of an area of history to be pursued in the student's master's thesis or major field.

General Research Seminar :
The general research seminar meets each spring semester. M.A. students not participating in the Public History program (MEd. candidates are also exempted) are required to take the General Seminar after accumulating 15-18 or more graduate hours. Thesis students participating in the General Seminar normally enroll in History 5399A or 5399B simultaneously. The seminar convenes early in the spring for one or more class sessions to establish the ground rules for the seminar or to attend to other matters the seminar director considers useful. The principal purpose of the seminar is to provide students the opportunity to compose a thesis chapter or a research project of thesis chapter quality and to have that work read and critiqued by fellow students, the seminar director, and, in some cases, their advisors. Students choose their topics or chapters in consultation with their advisors and the seminar director. The early part of the semester will be devoted to individual research and writing, and the latter part of the semester to the critiques of student papers. The papers produced in the seminar are expected to be based on substantial research in primary source materials and to be of thesis quality. A grade of incomplete will not be issued in the general research seminar.

Courses :
Other than historiography and the general research seminar, all graduate level courses are classified as either colloquia or research seminars. Colloquia emphasize broad reading in a particular area and do not require a research paper.
Research seminars combine topical readings with a research project.

Optional outside minor or cognate :
Students may take all of their graduate work in history or include up to 6 hours (15 hours for MEd. students) of work in an optional minor in another department, with the approval of the director of graduate studies, and, when appropriate, the director of the public history program. Keep in mind that most departments require more than 6 hours to complete a minor. The History Department would only count 6 hours toward your degree, but you would have to take whatever number the minor department required. Your other option would be to get a cognate in an outside field. This would only require taking the 6 hours. This must be noted on your degree outline and so must go through the director of graduate studies and the Graduate College.

Foreign Language :
Students working in areas outside of U.S. or British history may be required to pass a foreign language reading examination. All students planning to pursue a Ph.D. are encouraged to pass a foreign language reading examination as this competency will be required of them in their doctoral programs .

Incompletes :
Students with two or more incomplete grades in history will not be allowed to enroll in any graduate course in history.
In extraordinary individual circumstances the student may request from the graduate committee specific variances to any of the History Department's internal policies relating to the graduate program. Such requests should be addressed to the director of graduate studies, who will convene the Graduate Committee to rule on such requests.