The three major areas in the Master of Arts program and corresponding fields are:

• European History – Medieval, Early Modern or Modern
• United States History – Early U.S. or Modern U.S.
• Global Studies 

MA Expectations

Candidates for the MA degree must demonstrate mastery of the two fields of study that they select for examination in the master's degree examinations. That field mastery must surpass the level of simple factual knowledge and must include familiarity with the salient issues of historical interpretation in the student's fields of study and a working knowledge of the secondary literature pertinent to those issues. In addition, all candidates for the degree must, in the context of their examinations and course work, give evidence of their ability to assess and employ the primary source material in their fields and their capacity to present, in coherent and well-written form, the results of their research in both seminar papers and the MA essay.

MA Requirements

All master’s students must complete 30 credit hours of course work, a master’s essay and a comprehensive examination. At least 18 credit hours must be in history courses numbered 6000 or above, and at least six of those credits must be in research seminars. There is no foreign language requirement, although students wanting to go on for a doctoral degree are encouraged to work on their linguistic skills. A typical sequence of classes for a full-time MA student will look something like what is shown in the table below.

For an extensive history master's course work guide, please visit the Marquette Bulletin.

MA Resources