Master of Arts in History (2 Year and ABM)
Overview
The URI Department of History offers a master’s program with two major areas of study – General History or History, Anthropology and Archaeology.
Graduate students enrolled in the history program will declare a primary concentration in General History or in our History, Anthropology and Archeology concentration. Students require 30 credits for the degree in either concentration. In the General History concentration, at least 24 of these credits must come from the History department. Three of those credits must be HIS 500. The History, Anthropology and Archaeology has separate requirements that are cross-disciplinary; HIS 500 is optional, but recommended for these students.
Students may take two courses (six credits) outside the History department. Those can be in URI departments with graduate programs such as English, Marine Affairs, Political Science, Gender and Women’s Studies, or Labor and Industrial Relations. They may also be graduate courses taken elsewhere, such as an online summer course that some programs offer. If the courses are at Rhode Island College, the courses automatically count. Students will need to petition the Graduate School to count graduate work from another institution. Students should discuss these substitutions with the Director of Graduate Studies.
How to Apply
Traditional 2-Year Program
There are two ways to apply to the program. Most students will apply for the two-year program. This offers you the opportunity to complete a thesis or a non-thesis option, and develop your skills as a historian. If you are applying for the General History degree, you do not need to take the GRE. If you are applying for the History, Archaeology and Anthropology track, you do need to take the GRE.
Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s (ABM)
The second way to apply is for current History majors at URI. This is a five-year bachelor’s-to-master’s degree that allows current undergraduates to earn a master’s degree with just one extra year of study. This is done through counting three courses twice. You may apply for this program after completing 75 credits toward your bachelor’s degree and you may begin the program after completing 90 credits. Each student begins this process in a different place and should consult Professor Miriam Reumann, Director of Graduate Studies, at mreumann@uri.edu.
You may apply for either the General History or History, Archaeology and Anthropology track in this program and applicants for either do not need to take the GRE. Moreover, there is no application fee for the Bachelor’s to Master’s program. Most students in the ABM program will complete a major research paper rather than a full-length thesis.
Both paths start with applying at through the Graduate School.
When Do We Offer Courses?
Advanced topics and graduate seminars are held once a week, usually in the late afternoon, so that students who are working or teaching in area schools will find it easier to attend. About half of our students attend full-time, and the other half take a class or two per semester. We welcome students from other graduate programs, such as Education, English, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Political Science. We also welcome non-degree students who need graduate work for professional development or wish to take courses for personal enrichment. Students attending school full-time generally take two years to complete the M.A. in History.
The department typically offers two graduate seminars and two sections of HIS 401, 441 or 481 per semester. Graduate students in 400-level courses will do additional work to qualify for graduate credit.
The department offers between two and three graduate seminars each semester and it offers two 401/441/481 level each semester. Topics vary and the course numbers may be repeated for credit so long as the topics are different.
Funding Opportunities?
We have limited funding opportunities for students.
Faculty sometimes have funding they can offer students on a case-by-case basis, but this is not guaranteed.