Students and their families visited the History Dept. table to learn about studying History at UCSB.
On Saturday, April 11, the History Department’s information table at the Spring Insight Open House offered information and advice about the History major at UCSB.
Why study history at UCSB instead of at another UC campus? Besides the obvious advantages of our climate and location, UCSB’s History program offers a broad array of courses from all eras and most geographical regions. Some of our special strengths are visible in the Affiliated Programs section at the bottom of our homepage: Borderlands, Cold War and International Relations, Gender Studies, Labor Studies, Medieval, and Middle East. Public Policy, in which we offer a separate major, and History of Science are also specialties.
You may also take a moment to view our Fields of Study.
Our website’s Undergraduate page also has a Factsheet about the History major, and a handout on Why study history? that our faculty put together.
The best History majors are selected each year to participate in the two-quarter Senior Honors Thesis seminar. Students in this seminar conduct original research in archives across the country, write a 60-100 page thesis, and present their findings at a university-wide research colloquium each spring. You can browse a list of nearly 200 senior honors theses since 1981 that are shelved in our department reading room.
The course requirements for the History major are listed on our Undergraduate Program page. In short, they are:
1. Two 3-quarter sequence courses, chosen from World, Western Civilization, and US History.
2. Two lower division (freshman/sophomore level, no prerequisites; numbered 1-99) elective courses
3. Ten upper division (numbered 100-199) courses, at least one of which is a seminar (P or DR in course number).
In the case of double majors with other programs or departments (Global Studies, Political Science, for example), up to two courses from one dept. can be used to fulfill requirements in the other.
For a History Minor 3 lower division and 5 upper division courses are the required minimum.
A special feature of this website allows you to view course syllabi of current and past courses, to find out the requirements (readings, papers, exams) and daily topics of most courses.
For more information on the open house, see the:
Spring Insight homepage with a schedule of events and a map.
hm 4/8/15, 4/18