Web page: http://www.umsl.edu/~history/
Degrees and Areas of Concentration
The department offers work in Asian, African, European, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and United States history from ancient to modern times. At the bachelor's level, the department offers the B.A. in history, and, in cooperation with the College of Education, the B.A. in history with teacher certification and the B.S. in education with an emphasis in social studies.
At the graduate level, the department offers an M.A. in history with work in European, Latin American, East Asian, Middle Eastern, African, African-American, and United States history. The department also offers the option of an M.A. in history with a concentration in museum studies.
Departmental Honors
Students majoring in history may be awarded departmental honors upon graduation if they have achieved the following: a) at least a 3.2 overall GPA; b) at least a 3.5 GPA for all hours attempted in history courses; and c) an outstanding research paper in the Senior Seminar as certified by the faculty member responsible for directing it.
Career Outlook for B. A. and M. A. graduates
An important rationale for the discipline of history is its centrality to the university curriculum and to the life experience. The ability to put events or developments into the context of the past is useful as well as pleasurable. Responses to a questionnaire sent to history graduates have indicated that alumni in a wide variety of fields are as conscious of and appreciative of their training in history as those who have chosen it as a profession. Men and women in business, lawyers, bankers, librarians, and foreign service officers have all found it relevant to their careers. Study and research in history sharpens organizational and writing skills important to success in business and the legal profession. A growing interest in local history has created employment opportunities in museum, archival, and preservation work.
Career Outlook for M. A. with Concentration in Museum Studies
There are more than 8,000 museums in the United States. History museums constitute more than half of that total, and employ approximately one-third of the 150,000 paid staff working in U. S. museums. While job requirements vary widely among individual museums and specific professional roles, the M.A. degree offered by this program qualifies graduates for a wide range of career opportunities, in history museums and in other types of museums as well. The Museum Studies Program provides students with placement assistance and counseling and with access to a wide range of information on career opportunities in the field, and program faculty use their extensive networks in the field to help identify opportunities and to place students.