Graduate Degree in History

The History Department is able to offer a limited number of Graduate Teaching Assistantships. Students selected to serve as GTAs receive a substantial stipend plus a partial tuition waiver for up to two years.

Graduate Teaching Assistantship Application

Besides Teaching Assistantships, several scholarships and grants are available to incoming or existing graduate students on a competitive basis.

Graduate School Scholarships

For more information, please contact our Graduate Program Director, Dr. Chau Kelly at chau.kelly@unf.edu . You may also contact Dr. David Sheffler, Chair, at david.sheffler@unf.edu.

All M.A. History students must meet with the graduate coordinator during their first term of graduate work in order to plan their course of study, and discuss any questions they may have.

Students shall take no more than four graduate history courses with one faculty member. This does not include thesis students' continuous registration in Master's Thesis Research.

No course in which a student earns below a B will be counted in the student's program of study. Graduate students are expected to maintain at least a 3.0 average, and no student may be awarded a master's degree unless the graduate average is B or higher. For additional information on academic policies and regulations, graduate students should consult the UNF Graduate Catalog.

Thesis Option:

Students in the thesis option may take no more than one HIS 6905 Directed Independent Study or HIS 6946 Internship in History course. Directed Independent Studies, Internships, and courses taken outside the department will not substitute for the Readings courses or the Research Seminars.

Students who choose the thesis option must take:

1. Readings courses (three) in any 6000-level readings course: AFH, AMH, ASH, EUH, HIS, and/or LAH (9 hours total).
2. Research Seminars (three) in 6000-level Research Seminars (9 hours total)
3. Elective Courses (four courses) at the 5000 or 6000-level, two of which need to be non-Western history (AFH, ASH, or LAH)
4. A minimum of six and a maximum of fifteen credit hours of HIS 6971 Thesis Research

The Thesis

Admission to the thesis track/approval of the Prospectus:

Students interested in writing a thesis should begin in their first year to discuss thesis possibilities with the history faculty member with whom the student hopes to work. The faculty member may impose any language or methodology prerequisites deemed necessary before acceptance of the thesis proposal. Admission to the thesis track is formally complete when the student has prepared a prospectus, and the prospectus has been approved by the thesis advisor and the other two members of the committee. The prospectus should contain a clear exposition of the working hypothesis, the approach and materials the student intends to use, and some indication of the significance of the work. Approval is indicated by the committee members' signatures on the cover sheet of the prospectus, which must include the student's name, the tentative title of the thesis, and the statement "This prospectus has been approved by the advisor and committee members whose signatures appear below." The original goes to the graduate coordinator, with copies to the student and the thesis committee members.

Committee

At least three graduate faculty members, at least two of them historians, shall serve on the thesis committee. The thesis advisor, always a historian, will be selected by the student at the time the student chooses the thesis option. Other committee members will be chosen by the student in consultation with the thesis advisor.

Timetable

A thesis option student will have two years following completion of regular course requirements to write and defend the thesis. Continual enrollment in HIS 6971 Thesis Research will be required (summer terms excepted). Thesis students must complete at least 6 hours, but no more than 15 hours, of HIS 6971. A student who has not finished the thesis two years after completion of course work may be required to transfer to the non-thesis option, and will have a third year for the additional course work and the final oral examination.

Thesis Preparation

Master's theses prepared for the department of history must use footnotes (rather than endnotes). Footnote form must follow the Chicago Manual of Style (current edition), available in the library and in the department office. This is also the style reflected in Clifford's Advice on Doing History. Theses must conform to the general manuscript guidelines spelled out in the University's policy, which can be found on the UNF Library website here.

Defense and Acceptance

Upon completion of the thesis, the student should submit it to the committee, and ask the supervisor to schedule a public oral defense before the committee. The oral defense should be scheduled at least four weeks before commencement in order to graduate in that term. If the thesis is passed by the committee, it is sent to the department chair, and the Graduate Dean for approval. At any point after the defense, the thesis committee, the chair, or the Graduate Dean may reject the thesis entirely, or request revisions to the thesis before final approval is given. After the thesis has been accepted, the student is responsible for fulfilling the university's requirements regarding the final electronic submission of the thesis.

Students in the non-thesis option may take no more than a total of nine credits in HIS 6905 Directed Independent Study and HIS 6946 Internship in History courses, combined. Of those nine credits, students may take a maximum of six credits in either HIS 6946 Internship in History or HIS 6905 Directed Independent Study. Directed Independent Studies, Internships, and courses taken outside the department will not substitute for the Readings courses or the Research Seminars.

Students who choose the non-thesis option must take:

1. Readings courses: three courses in any 6000-level readings course designated AFH, AMH, ASH, EUH, HIS, and/or LAH (9 hours total).
2. Research Seminars: three courses in 6000-level Research Seminars (9 hours total)
3. Elective Courses (six courses) at the 5000 or 6000-level, two of which need to be non-Western history (AFH, ASH, or LAH) and two of which must be at the 6000-level (18 hours total)

Examination/Presentation for the Non-Thesis Option:

The student will submit a research paper of at least twenty pages in length written for a UNF graduate course from the student's program of study (the paper may be revised before submission). A committee of three faculty members, selected in consultation with the graduate program director and consisting of the faculty member who taught the research seminar, will review the paper to determine its readiness and direct an oral defense of the paper, which includes a formal presentation followed by questions and answers with the faculty panel. The student should be prepared to present and defend the paper's findings and place the work in an appropriate historiographical context. The results of the defense will be graded either Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory and will be communicated to the student and the graduate program director.