Department of History

Main Departmental Office
Wooten Hall, Room 225

Mailing address:
1155 Union Circle #310650
Denton, TX 76203-5017
940-565-2288
Fax: 940-369-8838

Richard McCaslin, Chair

History encompasses all aspects of past human endeavor; it encourages students to think broadly and to integrate all of their knowledge into a meaningful whole. From history a person develops a better understanding of current events and a better appreciation of art, architecture, ideas, politics, and fellow human beings and their activities. It also provides a guide for the future. The study of history is important for journalists, teachers, business people, theologians, politicians, scientists, lawyers, librarians, archivists, museologists and those in many other professions. Students planning any career could benefit from majoring or minoring in history or from choosing history as the lead subject in the social science major or for elective credits. History is an interest students may retain for life.

U.S. History Requirement

Texas state law requires that the university may not award a baccalaureate degree or a lesser degree or academic certificate unless the student has credit for 6 semester hours in American history. A student is entitled to submit as much as 3 hours of credit, or its equivalent, in Texas history in partial satisfaction of this requirement. The university may determine that a student has met the requirement by work transferred from another accredited college or upon successful completion of an advanced standing examination. The student may satisfy the entire 6-hour United States/Texas history requirement by advanced standing examination. Most students meet this requirement by taking the survey of U.S. history courses (HIST 2610 -HIST 2620 ), but advanced U.S. history courses (courses numbered 3000 and 4000) may be used to satisfy the legislative mandate, and Texas history (HIST 4700 ) may substitute for 3 hours of U.S. history.

Programs of Study

The department offers an undergraduate program in the following area:

Bachelor of Arts with a major in history

The department offers minors in history , African-American studies , Asian studies , classical studies , Jewish studies and Mexican-American studies . The department also offers a series of courses designed to prepare student to sit for the certification examinations in history .

Scholarships

The Department of History offers the following undergraduate scholarships: the Howard H. Schultz Scholarship and Watt Family Scholarship in Jewish Studies, the Harry and Ruth Kamman Scholarship, the Gus Seligmann History Scholarship, the Ledbetter Family Scholarship, the CBS Mechanical Inc. History Scholarship, the National Heritage Scholarship, the Benjamin Lyon Chapter DAR Scholarship and the Kingsbury-Thomason Scholarship (for students who intend to major in history and to teach history in Texas public schools). History majors who are entering freshmen, transfer students or continuing students may apply. The application deadline is March 1. For information and application forms, contact the department chair, associate chair or administrative assistant.

Graduate Degrees

The department offers graduate programs in the following areas:

Master of Arts,
Master of Science, and
Doctor of Philosophy, all with a major in history.

Concentrations under the history major at the master’s and doctoral level are available in United States history, European history and military history.

For additional information, consult the Graduate Catalog.

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