History Major              History Minor

Undergraduate History Major

(Note: This document has been reproduced from the OSU Department of History's Undergraduate History Office Student Handbook.)

The Major Program in History will consist of at least 50 credit hours.  Two courses, 398 and 598, will be required, and at
least 40 more hours will be chosen within the Geographical and Chronological categories outlined below.

Once a student has earned a grade of C in History 398, s/he may then declare a Major in History.  The student should go to
the Undergraduate History Office (UHO) where the staff will interview the student and assign a regular member of the Faculty
to be the student's Major Adviser.
    **On the Lima Campus, students should contact a history faculty member.

Students should design their Major Program in History in consultation with their Major Adviser, who must sign the Major
Program form, and a counselor in the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences.  They should choose their History courses to
compliment the choices they have made in meeting the requirements of the General Education Curriculum (GEC).

Required Courses

Two courses will be required of all undergraduate History Majors:

    History 398 – Introduction to Historical Thought--Students must pass History 398 with a minimum  grade of a C before being admitted to the Department as a History Major.  They should take 398 as soon as possible after completing the GEC history sequence.

    History 598 – Senior Seminar-- This course should be taken during the student's senior year.

History 398 introduces prospective majors to the methods historians use to explore the past.  Because History 398 is intended to emphasize active student participation in class discussion, enrollment in each section is limited to twenty.  Readings help students to develop an understandable and persuasive account of past events.  In addition to acquiring experience in critical methods for the analysis of documents, students improve their expository writing skills through extensive practice.  Written assignments may include digesting and summarizing the views of a particular historian on an important subject of historical controversy, preparing critical book reviews, developing bibliographies, and constructing brief histories by analyzing primary sources.

History 598, the Senior Seminar, is required of all History Majors.  It caps the undergraduate study of history by investigating the different ways in which historians have analyzed a particular event or phenomenon.  In a small-group setting emphasizing student discussion under the guidance of a faculty member, seniors compare other historians' analyses of an historical problem with their own.

History 598 has two versions (plus a third honors version).  In History 598.01, students compare and try to reconcile the differing interpretations of a particular issue by reviewing what historians have said about it.  Examples of issues investigated in recent years include "Revolution or Counterrevolution: The Struggle over the U.S. Constitution" and "Disaster in May: Responsibilities for the Fall of France in 1940."

History 598.02, recommended for students who plan to go on to graduate work in history, requires each student in the seminar to do research in primary sources to investigate one aspect of the historical problem on which the class is focused.  Students learn how to compile a research bibliography, to confront methodological problems, and to arrive at credible conclusions.  A recent 598.02 drew on the archives of the Ohio Historical Society to investigate "Major Historical Themes in Columbus, Ohio."

The geographical requirement is met by choosing courses representing the two geographical groups (A and B).

These groups are further broken down into areas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6), and courses must be taken to represent at least three different areas.

Group A:                                                                           Group B:
Area (1) Africa                                                                   Area (5) Europe
Area (2) East Asia                                                             Area (6) North America
Area (3) Latin America
Area (4) Near East, Middle East, and South Asia

Specifically:
 

The student must choose a minimum of 20 credit hours from one geographical area.  This is known as the student's Primary Geographical Area.

The student must choose a minimum of 15 credit hours from two or more geographical areas other than the primary geographical area.  At least 10 of these 15 credit hours must be chosen from the geographical group different from the group in which the primary geographical area is located.

Example:

If a student wished to study Europe as the Primary Geographical Area, he or she would have to take at least 20 credit hours of European History courses.  Additionally, at least 15 credit hours must be taken from two or more areas.  At least 10 credit hours (from either one or two areas) must represent group A.  The remaining 5 hours could represent area (6), but could not represent area (5).

A minimum of 10 credit hours of courses must represent chronological periods falling predominately before 1750 and a minimum of 10 credit hours must represent periods falling predominantly after 1750.

Note: History 398 does not apply to either the geographical or chronological requirement.  History 598 will apply to both the geographical and chronological requirements (which area and time period will depend upon the subject of the particular 598 the student takes).

Although a course can meet more than one requirement, in no case does a course count for more than 5 credit hours.  Example: History 533.05, the History of Mexico, would meet the geographical requirement in Group A, Area 3, and would meet either the pre- or post-1750 chronological requirement, but would only count as 5 credit hours toward the 50 credit hour minimum for the major.

For each history course, the Department of History's Undergraduate Student Handbook will indicate which geographical group the course is in and which chronological requirement it meets.

Additional Options and Limitations

With the Major Adviser's approval, up to 10 hours of courses from other Departments may be designated as part of the Major Program in History.

No more than 5 hours of 593 may be counted towards the Major Program.

Courses counted as part of the student's College GEC requirements may not be used as part of the major program, with the exception of History 598, which meet requirement I. C. of the GEC.

Although a grade of C- will be permitted in courses comprising the major program, the minimum overall cumulative grade point average of the major must be 2.0.  (A minimum grade of C is required for History 398 only).

Courses taken Pass/Non-Pass may not be applied to the major.

Click here for the History Major Worksheet.

The Undergraduate Minor in History
(Note: This document has been reproduced from the OSU Department of History's Undergraduate History Office Student Handbook.)

The Minor in History is designed to provide a student with substantial understanding of the human past.  It should be organized to assure some depth of study in one particular field of history, but it may also contain work in another field to allow for some breadth of treatment.

Geographical Groups and Areas

Group A:    (1) Africa, (2) East Asia, (3) Latin America, (4) Near East, Middle East and South Asia

Group B:    (5) Europe, (6) North America

The Minor Program in History consists of 20 hours of courses in History.  Of those 20 hours:
 

1. a minimum of 10 hours will be chosen from one of the 6 Geographical Areas. This will be the student's Primary Geographical Field.
2. a minimum of 5 hours will be chosen from one of the Geographical Areas in Group A, if the students primary Geographical Area is in Group B, or from one of the Geographical Areas in Group B if the student's Primary Geographical Area is in Group A.
3. students may organize their Minor around a thematic field, such as Military, World, Women's or Business History, within the broad categories of Group A  or Group B.  For thematic courses crossing geographical boundaries, the adviser and the student will decide under which geographical group the course will be counted.
4. courses counted as part of the student's College GEC requirements may not be used as part of the minor program.

All proposals for an Undergraduate Minor Program in History must be submitted in writing to the Undergraduate History Office and approved by that office.
    **On the Lima Campus, students should contact a history faculty member.

General Information on Minors in the Arts & Sciences
 

1. Minor programs are not required for graduation.
2. A student may not take a major and minor in the same subject.
3. Courses used for the minor may not be used for a major unless prior approval has been given by the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee.  Overlap between GEC and minor is permissible unless specifically disallowed for an individual minor.
4. Students need not file their minor programs until they file their graduation applications; that is, two quarters before they plan to graduate.
5. Once a minor is on file with Arts and Sciences, any change must be discussed with the faculty advisor and/or the ASC counselor.
6. No more than ten hours of transfer credit may be applied to the minor.
7. Although a grade of a C- will be permitted in courses comprising the minor, the minimum overall cumulative grade point average of the minor shall be 2.0
8. Courses taken Pass/Non-Pass may not be applied to the minor.

Click here for the History Minor Worksheet.