Academic Catalog - 2024-2025

College of Arts and Letters

Department of History

History, Master of Arts


Academic Information

The history graduate program provides students with cutting-edge training in historical and historiographical knowledge and professional debates. Our curriculum emphasizes the inevitable connections between the local and the global through small seminars and close faculty guidance of student scholarship. Our strengths in the U.S. West and Borderlands are complemented by expertise in theoretical and thematic fields such as gender, environment, and race.

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Academic Catalog - 2024-2025

College of Arts and Letters

Department of History

History, Master of Arts


Careers

What Can I Do with a Master's of Arts in History?

The Master of Arts in History prepares students for careers in academia as well as the public and private sectors. Many of our students have continued for the PhD and now serve on university faculties across the country. Others have pursued careers as foundation or government historians.  Still others have used their degree to excel as public historians, including museum curators and cultural interpretation specialists at historic sites and parks.

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Academic Catalog - 2024-2025

College of Arts and Letters

Department of History

History, Master of Arts


University Requirements

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Academic Catalog - 2024-2025

College of Arts and Letters

Department of History

History, Master of Arts


Overview

In addition to University Requirements:

Minimum Units for Completion 36
Additional Admission Requirements

Individual program admission requirements over and above admission to NAU are required.

Fieldwork Experience/Internship Optional
Thesis Thesis may be required by chosen emphasis or offered as an option.
Comprehensive Exam Comprehensive Exam may be required by chosen emphasis or offered as an option.
Oral Defense Oral Defense may be required by chosen emphasis or offered as an option.
Foreign Language A foreign language may be required by chosen emphasis or offered as an option.
Research Individualized research may be required by chosen emphasis or offered as an option.
Progression Plan Link View Program of Study
Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Plan Optional

Purpose Statement

Located on the beautiful Colorado Plateau, our focus begins by understanding the relationship between this area and the history of the larger U.S. West and the thematic areas of Borderlands, Environment, and Indigeneity as well as broader connections of race, class, gender, and colonialism across the Americas and the world. Small seminars and close faculty-student mentorship ensure that students recognize the connections between local and global historical processes. Students also benefit from access to NAU’s Cline Library Special Collections, which offers unique research materials that document the diverse human and natural history of the Colorado Plateau and Northern Arizona, and Flagstaff is within driving distance to major research collections in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque.

The history MA provides students with knowledge and skills that prepare them for diverse careers in historical interpretation, including academia, public history and cultural management, K-12 education, public administration, pre-law, and library science. There are three main paths – or tracks – to obtaining the degree. The research “track” prepares students for academia with close faculty mentorship of an extended, independent research project that culminates in a thesis. The extended coursework track allows students to deepen their content knowledge and hone their critical thinking and research skills for a wide variety of careers in the nonprofit and private sector; it is particularly popular with pre-service and in-service teachers who become qualified to teach dual-enrollment courses in high school. The public history track trains students for careers in historical and cultural interpretation and management through internships with the National Park Service, the Arizona Historical Society, Arizona State Parks, the Museum of Northern Arizona, and Lowell Observatory, among other institutions.

Whatever their career goals, all MA graduate students learn the key theories, methods, and debates of the historical discipline; learn how to evaluate historical arguments within a field of study; develop their research skills through collecting, analyzing, and interpreting primary and secondary sources; and learn how to craft well-supported historical narratives and arguments. Students on the public history track further learn the methods and ethics of gathering, preserving, and disseminating historical knowledge in public settings.

We are a student-centered program designed to start careers in a variety of professions. Regardless of student emphasis, all three tracks are designed to nurture close student-faculty relationships. Most full-time graduate students receive some type of departmental funding and are eligible for competitive teaching assistantships and department research grants for travel, research, and conferences. Students planning to teach for two years after obtaining the MA may be eligible for the Arizona Teachers Academy, which offers scholarships to cover fees and tuition. Our accelerated 4+1 program allows top-performing NAU undergraduates to enter the MA program in their junior year and complete a BA and MA in five years.


Student Learning Outcomes

Core History Learning Outcomes

Public History Learning Outcomes

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Academic Catalog - 2024-2025

College of Arts and Letters

Department of History

History, Master of Arts


Details

Graduate Admission Information
Additional Admission Requirements
Master's Requirements
Accelerated Bachelor's to Master's Program
Additional Information
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Academic Catalog - 2024-2025

College of Arts and Letters

Department of History

History, Master of Arts


Campus Availability

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