History

Return to: Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences  

Social Science Building 153
(213) 740-1657
FAX: (213) 740-6999
Email: history@dornsife.usc.edu
dornsife.usc.edu/hist
Chair: William Deverell, 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 (English)

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

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

Turpanjian Early Career Chair in Contemporary Armenian Studies and Assistant Professor of History: Richard Antaramian, 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; Deborah Harkness, PhD*; Daniel Klerman, PhD (Law); Carolyn Malone, PhD (Art History); 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

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*; Kyung Moon Hwang, PhD; Lon Kurashige, PhD; Paul Lerner, PhD*; Ramzi Rouighi, PhD; Francile Wilson, PhD (American Studies and Ethnicity)

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

Assistant Professor (Research): Peter Westwick, PhD

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

Adjunct Professor: Richard Hovannisian, 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.

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.

Degree Programs

The Department of History offers the BA, a minor, the MA 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.

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.

Undergraduate Degrees

Advisement

All history department majors should consult with the department student adviser and with one of our faculty advisers. Students should seek an appointment early in each semester so that an advisement file may be established for each student. The file will be kept current.

Bachelor of Arts in Middle East Studies

See the Department of Middle East Studies  for a complete listing of requirements.

Honors Program

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.

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 .

Interdisciplinary Middle East Studies Minor

See the Department of Middle East Studies .

Interdisciplinary Race, Ethnicity and Politics Minor

See Department of Political Science .

Interdisciplinary Russian Area Studies Minor

See Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures .

Interdisciplinary Law and Society Minor

See Department of Political Science .

Graduate Degrees

The graduate program in history provides advanced training in historical research and writing leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Once admitted to the PhD program, a student in exceptional cases may work for a Master of Arts degree, but the department does not accept applicants for an MA. For further information, contact the director of the graduate program for the Department of History.

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 programs, prospective applicants should address inquiries to Graduate Admissions, Department of History, SOS 153, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0034. Information on the programs is also available online at usc.edu/schools/college/history/programs/graduate.

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 the graduate program, the professor in their major field of study and other members of their qualifying exam committee.

Programs

• History (BA)
• History and Social Science Education (BA)
• Law, History, and Culture (BA)

• History and Culture of Business Minor
• History Minor
• Resistance to Genocide Interdisciplinary Minor

• History (MA)

• History (PhD)

Courses

• HIST 585 Studies in 20th Century American History
• HIST 587 Studies in the Politics of American Popular Culture
• HIST 590 Directed Research
• HIST 592 Historiography
• HIST 593 The Art of Historical Writing
• HIST 594a Master’s Thesis
• HIST 594b Master’s Thesis
• HIST 594z Master’s Thesis
• HIST 595 x Practicum in Teaching the Liberal Arts
• HIST 602 Seminar in Ancient History
• HIST 605 Seminar in Medieval European History
• HIST 608 Seminar on Premodern Europe
• HIST 610 Seminar in Early Modern European History
• HIST 615 Seminar in Modern European History
• HIST 617 Seminar in Russian History
• HIST 620 Research Seminar on Modern Visual Culture
• HIST 630 Seminar in Japanese History
• HIST 635 Seminar in Chinese History
• HIST 650 Seminar on Women’s and Family History
• HIST 655 Seminar in Western American History
• HIST 660 Research Seminar on Transpacific Studies
• HIST 670 Illness and Healing in the Modern World
• HIST 673 Seminar in Early North American History
• HIST 675 Seminar in 19th Century United States History
• HIST 680 Seminar in 20th Century United States History
• HIST 700 Historical Explanation and Research Design
• HIST 790 Research
• HIST 794a Doctoral Dissertation
• HIST 794b Doctoral Dissertation
• HIST 794c Doctoral Dissertation
• HIST 794d Doctoral Dissertation
• HIST 794z Doctoral Dissertation