History 591UU: Uncovering UMass History: A Critical Research Seminar
Kevin Young | Monday/Wednesday, 2:30-3:45pm
This research seminar examines the University of Massachusetts through the lens of the 2026–2027 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, titled "Oligarchy." Like most other US institutions of higher education, UMass embodies contradiction. It is a public university ostensibly geared toward serving the working class, but tuition hikes have made it less and less accessible. It aims to serve the public good, yet it also serves institutions that have undermined human welfare and the nonhuman environment. Its leaders tout the free pursuit of knowledge but sometimes repress those who express unwelcome ideas. The course explores the roots of these contradictions, with particular attention to the role of capital and capitalists. The semester will begin with several weeks of common readings that place UMass in national and global perspective. Students will then develop and carry out individual research projects on various aspects of UMass’s history. Research topics may include, but are not limited to, the history of UMass’s trustees, endowment, funding structure, budgetary decisions, curriculum policies, academic labor, fossil fuel use on campus, connections to business and government agencies, respect for free speech and academic freedom, policing on campus, state-level policymaking, institutional policies for addressing exclusion and oppression, campus-community relations, and the many movements of students, faculty, and staff that have promoted democratic and emancipatory visions for the institution. Assignments include a short historiographical essay, a research paper of 15–20 pages, and a public-facing translation of the research paper such as an op-ed column or a short podcast. Students’ research will serve as source material for the Exhibit Design graduate course to be offered in spring 2027.
History 605: Approaches to World History
Matthew Wormer | Thursday, 2:30-5:00pm
This seminar asks: what is global history, why has it developed into a major intellectual endeavor in the last twenty years, what has the global turn accomplished, what are the possibilities of writing across the boundaries of modern nation states, what new types of intellectual formations are needed to think across linguistic, cultural and political divides, what are the subjects that lend themselves to a global analysis, and what critiques need to be addressed when thinking globally?
Students will discuss several key examples of global historiography to address these and other questions.
History 612: Professional Lives of Historians
Alice Nash | Tuesday, 5:30-7:00pm
"I say this to my past self, and maybe to some of you: the more you take charge of your career during graduate school, the better off you'll be. You can get away with some passivity in undergrad (just get a degree) but grad school, esp PhD, is entirely different."--Jennifer Polk (From PhD to Life)
In this 1-cr pass/fail course, students will explore the many identities of professional historians. Historians are professors, preservationists, administrators, teachers, archivists, journalists, museum professionals, policy analysts, publishers/editors, and more. In this course, students will learn about these different fields and careers; meet with invited guests and potential mentors; and connect with resources on campus that support students during and after graduate school. Through readings, discussions and events, students in this course will 1) gain familiarity with the range of ways to contribute to the historical profession; 2) identify and develop skills that will serve them in any future career as a historian, in academe and beyond; and 3) explore their own goals as professional historians and public intellectuals.
History 646: Topics in Early American History
Asheesh Siddique | Monday, 5:30-8:00pm
This semester, the early American historiography seminar will focus on the theory and method of the 'Black Atlantic' to understand the cultural, intellectual, social, and political space produced by Africans and African-descended people in the early modern Atlantic world and its legacies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will explore interdisciplinary approaches to writing and reckoning with these histories in the works of scholars such as W.E.B. DuBois, Jennifer Morgan, Christina Sharpe, Saidiya Hartman, C. Riley Snorton, John Keene, and others. Open to both graduate students and advanced undergraduates.
History 690SK: Approaches to Gender History
Elizabeth Jacob | Wednesday, 2:30-5:00pm
This graduate course offers an introduction to the field of gender history, from its origins in the 1970s to the present day. By approaching gender as a historically specific, dynamic, and socially constructed category that varies across time and space, this course will consider how societies throughout global history have imagined and contested masculinity, femininity, and sexual difference. In doing so, this course will survey the wide range of analytical frameworks and methods available to scholars of gender history.
History 659: Public History
Martha McNamara | Tuesday, 2:30-5:00pm
This course introduces you to public history theory and practice. A fundamental premise of the course is that practicing public history well requires an outlook, ethical stance, and set of skills that go beyond what is usually required of historians. Public historians intervene responsibly in the memory streams of the communities in which they practice. During the course of the semester, we will analyze how these interventions take place in community oral history projects, archives, museums, and historic sites; on the internet through digital history projects and podcasts; and in the environment through historic preservation and landscape conservation. We will consider how various versions of the past are created, institutionalized, and communicated as the public history, as well as the relationship of those public histories to more private versions of past communicated among family and friends. By the end of the semester, you will have read some of the most significant past and contemporary literature in the field of public history, and, through discussions in and beyond the classroom, have formed your own answers to the questions that drive and shape public history practice. Each student in the course will also contribute to a semester long, team-based field service project, completing a Public History project for a community partner. Through our shared readings, conversations with guest speakers, and your own public history fieldwork you will have a clearer idea of what it means to work in a variety of public history settings.
History 691P: Intro to History
Jennifer Heuer | Wednesday, 2:30-5:00pm
In this course we explore with a curious and critical eye the contours of academic history and how these have changed in recent decades. We also consider the interconnections and continuities between history and other, related disciplines. What kinds of concepts, theoretical frameworks, and methods have gained prominence in historical research and writing since the mid-20th century? In what ways might a historical interpreter’s contemporary contexts influence their approaches to researching and writing about the past? We discuss how historical interpretation is influenced by the varied array of sources with which researchers engage and think about the role of institutional archives, their structures, and accessibility in shaping whose stories can be told, and in what ways. In addition, we consider the varied forms and registers in which historians communicate with different audiences and think about how the research trajectories of individual historians shift and change over the course of a career.
Course requirements include active participation in discussion, short papers and peer commentary, presentations on academic journals, and a historiographical paper that will be developed over the course of the semester.
History 783: Dissertation and Research Design
Jon Olsen | Monday, 2:30-5:00pm
This course is designed to assist advanced graduate students design and write a dissertation prospectus. While the dissertation design is the core aim of this course, it is also open to students drafting a master's thesis, a grant proposal, or a content chapter for a dissertation. A dissertation prospectus is a living document and as such it will evolve over time. However, having a strong document to guide the launch of one's research and prepare you for a strong defense. Students will work closely with the course instructor, but also with their advisors, to craft their prospectus. This will provide an opportunity for students to discuss their project with experts in their field as well as those outside the field. The point of this process is for students to develop the questions they are probing in a manner that helps them articulate the methodological and theoretical perspectives as well as the historical content of their project.
Additional Options
Taking Undergraduate Courses for Graduate Credit
Under the University Numbering System, M.A. students wishing to enroll in an upper-level undergraduate course may do so under the special topics number, History 597, with signed permission from the faculty member teaching the course (turn this in to Mary Lashway in Herter 615) and also with the understanding that instructors will require additional work of graduate students in those courses. Check SPIRE for the listings of undergraduate courses.
There are forms available in Herter 615 describing the additional work to be performed for graduate credit; these must be signed by the instructor. Students will be responsible for discussing the course requirements with instructors. Please see the Mary Lashway about registration to ensure that a grade will be submitted for you at the end of the semester. Only two 597 courses may count as topics courses towards completion of the MA degree.
Independent Studies
Students may enroll in independent studies as either History 696 (reading independent study) or History 796 (research/writing independent study) with a faculty member overseeing the plan of study. To enroll in History 696 or 796 pick up an independent study form from Mary Lashway in Herter 615. This form must be filled out including name, student number, course number (696 or 796), credits, a detailed description of the plan of work for the independent study (e.g. research paper, book reviews, historiography, essays, etc.), and signed by the professor overseeing the independent study. After it has been filled out and signed it needs to be returned to Mary Lashway to be entered on Spire. Only two independent studies may be counted towards completion of the MA degree.
Enrollment Information
The history department welcomes graduate students from across campus to enroll in our graduate classes. Advanced undergraduates are invited to inquire about enrolling in graduate courses. Such enrollment depends on the permission of individual instructors who should be contacted directly. Questions can also be directed to the Graduate Program Coordinator, Mary Lashway, at @email.
History graduate students may take two courses outside the department for degree credit. Check SPIRE to see graduate course offerings beyond our department. Students often find relevant courses in Anthropology; English; the W.E. B. Du Bois Department of African American Studies; Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning; Public Policy; Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, and other programs around campus.