History

Return to: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

The Department of History offers courses in ancient, medieval and modern European history, including Russian history; in both North and Latin American history; in the history of East Asia; and in world history. Some of the department’s courses are chronological, some national or regional and some are thematic, with special strengths in gender, race and ethnicity, popular culture, medicine and urban history. The faculty is committed to continuous review and revision of the department curriculum, as student needs and professional emphases shift. Many departmental courses meet general education requirements, and various programs for majors and non-majors are available. The department offers an honors program for qualified seniors. Honors programs are individually arranged through consultation with the honors director, and completion of an honors thesis is required. The Department of History offers the BA, a minor, and PhD in History; the BA in Law, History, and Culture; the BA in History and Social Science Education; and the minor in Resistance to Genocide; and, the minor in the History and Culture of Business.

Social Science Building 153
(213) 740-1657
FAX: (213) 740-6999
Email: history@dornsife.usc.edu
dornsife.usc.edu/hist
Chair: Philip J. Ethington, PhD

Faculty

University Professor: Kevin Starr, PhD

University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature and Professor of English and History: Leo Braudy, PhD

Gordon L. MacDonald Chair in History and Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Cultures: Joan Piggott, PhD

Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History: Wolf Gruner, PhD

Turpanjian Early Career Chair in Contemporary Armenian Studies and Assistant Professor of History: Richard Antaramian, PhD

Myron and Marian Casden Director and Professor of History: Steve Ross

Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Linda and Harlan Martens Director of the Early Modern Studies Institute and Professor of History and Anthropology: Peter C. Mancall, PhD

Barbara Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies and Professor of History and Gender Studies: Alice Echols, PhD*

Professors: Elinor A. Accampo, PhD; Lisa Bitel, PhD; William Deverell, PhD*; Philip J. Ethington, PhD; Richard W. Fox, PhD; Ariela Gross, PhD (Law); Karen Halttunen, PhD; Kyung Moon Hwang, PhD; Daniel Klerman, PhD (Law); Carolyn Malone, PhD (Art History); Paul Lerner, PhD*; John Pollini, PhD (Art History); Azade-Ayse Rorlich, PhD*; Steven J. Ross, PhD*; George J. Sanchez, PhD* (American Studies and Ethnicity); Mary Sarotte, PhD (International Relations); Vanessa Schwartz, PhD; Nayan Shah (American Studies and Ethnicity); Brett Sheehan, PhD*; David Sloane, PhD (Public Policy); Jacob Soll, PhD

Professor (Teaching): Deborah Harkness, PhD*

Associate Professors: Marjorie R. Becker, PhD; Bettine Birge, PhD (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Daniela Bleichmar, PhD (Art History); Jason Glenn, PhD; Joshua Goldstein, PhD; Sarah Gualtieri, PhD*; Lon Kurashige, PhD; Ramzi Rouighi, PhD; Francile Wilson, PhD (American Studies and Ethnicity)

Assistant Professors: Gerard Clinton Rainier Godart, PhD; Edgardo Perez Morales, PhD; Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, PhD; Diana Williams, PhD

Assistant Professor (Teaching): Lindsay O’Neill, PhD

Adjunct Professor: Richard Hovannisian, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor (Research): Peter Westwick, PhD

Professor Emerita of History and John R. Hubbard Chair in British History Emerita: Judith Bennett, PhD*

Professor Emerita of History and John R. Hubbard Chair in British History Emerita: Cynthia Herrup, PhD

Professor Emerita and John R. Hubbard Chair Emerita in History: Carole Shammas, PhD

Emeritus Professors: Lois W. Banner, PhD*; Gordon M. Berger, PhD; Roger Dingman, PhD; Charlotte Furth, PhD; Paul W. Knoll, PhD; Franklin D. Mitchell, PhD; D. Brendan Nagle, PhD; Edwin J. Perkins, PhD; John E. Wills, PhD

Associate Professor Emeritus: Terry L. Seip, PhD*

*Recipient of university-wide or college teaching award.

Undergraduate Degrees

Advisement

The Department of History has one full-time staff adviser available to provide academic advisement, assist in the navigation of department and university requirements, review progress and future plans. Students interested in a major or minor in the department should contact the adviser to schedule a meeting. Faculty advisers are also available to offer guidance on pursuing the field of history both within and beyond USC.

Honors Program for History (BA)

The department offers a two-semester honors program, in which qualified students spend their first semester in an honors track in an upper-division seminar or take HIST 490x Directed Research in their concentration. During the second semester, all honors students are required to take HIST 492 Honors Thesis in which each completes a thesis project on a topic of his or her choosing under faculty direction. Contact the department honors director for further information. To graduate with honors, department majors must have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in their major course work.

Honors Program for History and Social Science Education (BA)

The department offers a two-semester honors program, in which qualified students spend their first semester in an honors track in an upper-division seminar on HIST 490x Directed Research in their concentration. During the second semester, all honors students are required to take HIST 492 Honors Thesis in which each completes a thesis project on a topic of his or her choosing under faculty direction. Contact the department honors director for further information. To graduate with honors, department majors must have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in their major course work.

Honor Society

The department sponsors its own local chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society. Phi Alpha Theta provides opportunities for students to take their interest in history beyond the classroom and to cultivate their intellectual pursuits in a community setting.

Membership is open to history majors and other interested students with a 3.33 GPA in history courses and a 3.0 overall GPA. For more information contact the honors director.

Teaching Credential Requirements

Credential requirements in California and elsewhere are complex and changeable. Students interested in preparing for public school teaching should contact the Credentials Office, Rossier School of Education, and the undergraduate adviser, Department of History, for up-to-date information.

Interdisciplinary Minor in Early Modern Studies

This minor brings together the resources of the departments of English, History and Art History to study the literatures and cultures of Europe and the Americas from the late medieval period to 1800. For a complete listing of requirements, see Department of English .

Graduate Degrees

The graduate program in History offers a rigorous course of study that balances depth in particular fields with a broad, transnational, and interdisciplinary perspective. We train our students in historical methods, research, critical analysis of written and visual sources, historical writing, and historical pedagogy through intensive reading courses, seminars, and tutorials. This training culminates in the PhD dissertation, a significant scholarly and historiographical contribution to the study of a field.

Admission Requirements

Prerequisites

An applicant should have an undergraduate degree or an MA degree in history or a related discipline. Promising students trained in other fields will also be considered.

Criteria

All applicants must take the general test of the Graduate Record Examinations. The subject test in history is not required. In addition, applicants must submit at least three letters of recommendation from college-level instructors and a sample of written work from a college-level history, social science or humanities course. This material should be submitted to the director of the graduate program for the Department of History.

Procedure

For complete information on the doctoral program, prospective applicants should address inquiries to Graduate Admission, Department of History, SOS 153, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0034. Information on the programs is also available online at http://dornsife.usc.edu/hist/doctoral-program/.

Degree Requirements

These degrees are under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Requirements for Graduation section and The Graduate School section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by the Graduate School.

Advisement

Students should seek advice on their program of studies from the Director of Graduate Studies, a professor in their major field of study and other members of their qualifying exam committee.