Graduate program history

Learn more about our MA Program by exploring the topics below, or by contacting us via email. Graduate Program in History. This means that historians can be valued members of many organizations.

Historians help people gain insight into the past by studying and analyzing its events and characteristics through available sources and documents. A museum curator collects, displays, and manages historical objects and archives, allowing the public to interpret them to understand the past. A high school teacher gives classes in history and related subjects to students in the 9th to 12th grades. An archivist collects, preserves, and manages archives and records of high value for reference and research.

A librarian is a professional working in a library to take care of and organize information sources such as books, documents, and other records. A historian can also work in various other capacities in the media, education, research, and government sectors.

Different universities have distinct requirements for rewarding a master in history degree, which can take one or two years to complete. However, most programs have the following requirements for degree completion. History professionals develop the ability to critically analyze large amounts of information. They also need to be imaginative, as they have to reconstruct the past rather like a jigsaw puzzle, using bits and pieces of information to paint a full picture.

Instead, it deals with intangible concepts and so is perfect for people who love to immerse themselves in pure research. This is an area that is not taught much in other branches of the social sciences or humanities but has significant demand in public policy and the business sector.

A historian acquires specialized knowledge in history and works in specific fields, so they may find it more difficult to transition to other sectors. Compared to other fields like business management or science, historians have fewer options if they want to start their own business. There is less scope for starting any kind of consultancy related to the field of history. You can also secure these types of roles with qualifications in:. You do not need to have a well-defined dissertation topic when you enter the Ph.

The readings you do in your seminars and exam preparation, and the major research paper that you produce within the first two years, will help you to hone in on a topic.

Students begin full-time dissertation research and writing after completing A-exams. Access to libraries and archives is a major concern for any prospective dissertation writer. Cornell's boasts a superb research library, with a rich and growing set of digital databases and superb special collections in among many other things witchcraft, Iceland, History of Science, and the History of Sexuality. For travel to other libraries and archives, the department and the graduate school actively mentor students in identifying and applying for research travel grants.

The Graduate school maintains a searchable database of grants for researchers. Cornell's Einaudi Center for International Studies is a clearing house for information about international research grants, administers FLAS programs and awards internal long and short term travel grants. Link to: Einaudi Center funding information.

Your teaching experience at Cornell will prepare you for a career in academia, or for any other career that requires communication skills. Your first experiences, in your second and third years will be as a teaching assistant in a lecturer course, where you will have a chance to run a discussion section.

Once you have some experience, you will be ready to design and teach your own First Year writing seminar. Link to: Knight Institute Writing Program.

Admitted Ph. What is History ? History Lectures and Outreach. Footnotes — The Newsletter of the Department of History.