Graduate Degrees offered by the History Department, University of Illinois at Chicago

The UIC History Department offers four graduate degree tracks.

  • Master of Arts in Teaching - For information on the Master of Arts in Teaching, see http://www.uic.edu/depts/hist/TeacherEd/index.html
  • Stand-alone MA. -This program is sometimes referred to as a "terminal MA" or the "MA-only program." This is for students whose final goal is to obtain a Master of Arts degree in History.
  • Doctoral-track MA. - This program is for students who intend to obtain an MA in History as a step toward a PhD in History. Applicants to this program should check the box PhD in Box 20C in the Graduate Application."
  • PhD. - This program is for students who already hold an MA in History or equivalent, or will hold one by the time of matriculation into UIC.
    See important related instructions under Personal Statement (Statement of Purpose).

    The UIC History Department offers two formal concentrations within the PhD program :
    Work, Race, and Gender in the Urban World (WRGUW)
    Taking advantage of an uncommon gathering of scholars with overlapping interests and unmatched resources, the WRGUW ("argue") Concentration offers students a foundation in labor, immigration, and business history; race and African American history; and/or gender, women's and gay and lesbian history in relation to the social and cultural environment of city life. Framed largely around a modern U.S. core, the WRGUW concentration encourages in all students a transnational perspective on its core themes. WRGUW offers four colloquia each year, at least one treats a topic in comparative or global scope. Among participating faculty and students alike, we are building a supportive but critical community of colleagues.

    Encounters, Ethnographies, and Empires (Encounters)
    ENCOUNTERS draws upon the expertise of faculty with regional specializations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the United States. The concentration offers students specializing in any one of these areas the opportunity for comparative study and research on topics related to encounters between different peoples, cultures, and continents. Empires from Rome to the imperial nation-states of the twentieth century proclaimed the transformative power of universals such as religion, civilization, or democracy. At the same time empires produced ethnographies of difference, revealing and concealing more complex cultural transformations that affected both colonizers and the colonized. Four courses are linked annually to the concentration. These include two colloquia focused on broad topics; one seminar requiring extensive student research; and a graduate course in World history.

Students interested in working in one of the concentrations should specify that interest on the application.

For more information about the Department of History visit www.uic.edu/depts/hist/

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