Department of History

The Graduate Program

The History Department's Graduate Program offers both a Ph.D. in History and a Master of Arts in Global, International, and Comparative History. There are two joint-degree programs: Arab Studies, leading to an M.A. in Arab Studies/Ph.D. in History; and German and European Studies, leading to an M.A. in German and European Studies/Ph.D. in History. There is also the M.S.F.S./M.A. in History offered jointly with the School of Foreign Service.

 

The Undergraduate Program

The Georgetown History Department offers a rich choice of  courses to undergraduate students. The Department is unusually  varied in the areas it covers: our large Faculty includes  specialists on virtually every major region in the world, and we  offer courses at both the introductory and the advanced levels on  all periods of history and most areas of the world.  We also offer  many courses that present thematic, comparative, and global  perspectives.  Majors and minors enjoy considerable freedom to  focus their work on their own areas of interest and to design  programs that complement the rest of their academic work; students  from all other majors can also easily link history courses with  their studies in politics, international affairs, literature, world  cultures, the arts, and the social sciences. You can read about our aims and pedagogical methods for the undergraduate program here.

To find out more about the structure of the major, read the instructions for History Majors and Minors and the most current information about regional distribution requirements for majors. For information about applying non-Georgetown history courses to the undergraduate history major or minor, please read the instructions for transfer credit.

The Department of History encourages excellent students to participate in its Honors Program. Junior majors apply and are selected for the Program on the basis of their GPA and research project. The Program consists of a two-semester Senior Honors Seminar, in which students produce a distinguished research thesis. For a list of students and theses in recent years, see here. Beginning in 2009, the theses will also be available electronically through the Lauinger Library catalogue, see here. The Department also bestows a number of awards; for details see here.

 

Phi Alpha Theta
 

Phi Alpha Theta is the National History Honor Society. Georgetown's Chapter, Beta Pi, was founded in 1948. We invite all students--undergraduate and graduate--interested in history to learn more about Phi Alpha Theta and Beta Pi.