All history majors learn advanced research methods, internet and traditional based research, and gain experience in the interpretation and use of archival evidence, and in the construction of written arguments. By their third year, history majors are prepared to do advanced historical research and writing, where research faculty engage students in their primary research fields.
The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) is the broadly based liberal arts degree in history. Students who pursue the B.A. degree must satisfy general requirements and take courses from across the social sciences and humanities core curriculum, in addition to required and elective history courses. These requirements help students develop their historical knowledge and skills within the contexts of the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences that together comprise the disciplinary sources of historical knowledge. They enable historical understanding to be culturally and linguistically sensitive to the subjects of historical inquiry.
Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
The Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree emphasizes greater specialization in history, either in public history or in a minor field outside of history, and a course in statistics. These programs are designed for students interested in either public history or in quantitative analysis and the mastery of social science models and methods. Students who plan to go to graduate school in history should consider the possibility of taking language courses as electives, since most graduate programs continue to require foreign language competence. Many history majors are double majors. Most work in adjacent fields and programs including education, international affairs, sociology, political science, journalism, art, and architecture. The B.S. also has an optional concentration in public history.
History Seminars
History is the heart of undergraduate research at Northeastern University. History majors take three required seminars during their undergraduate study. In these seminars, students learn how to do research, and become skilled at finding, interpreting, and analyzing historical documents and scholarships. They also learn how to build original arguments based on sound evidence, how to write sophisticated and compelling essays, and how to communicate their ideas in other media. In the first-year seminar, HIST 1200/1201, students practice research skills through intensive study of a shared topic. A writing seminar, HIST 2300/2301, introduces students to historiographical methods in greater depth through a major research paper. In the capstone course, HIST 4701, students undertake substantial original research projects in close consultation with faculty.