Overview
Emory's History Department offers multiple paths for you to deepen your study of the past and its significance to the present and future. Find the right track below.
The Major
Declaring a history major allows students to pursue their intellectual curiosities and professional aspirations through concentrated historical inquiry. History majors may choose a broad frame of study through the General Studies in History track or they may concentrate in a geographically-based or thematically-focused approach. View these options below and read more about the requirements of the major.
One course each (for a total of five) in: U.S. History before 1860; U.S. History after 1860; European History before 1750; European History after 1750; and Africa, Asia, & Latin America.
United States History
This concentration permits majors to study American history in depth, by taking more courses offered by our faculty's U.S. specialists. Students take advanced courses on pre-Civil War history as well as post-1860 America, enabling them to develop a fuller sense of the contours of the nation's history.
European History
This concentration offers students the opportunity to study the transformative social, cultural, and political experiences of European states, societies, and civilizations from ancient Greece and Rome, through the medieval, Renaissance, and early modern periods, to the modern age of revolution, colonialism, total war, and European Union.
Africa, Asia, and Latin America
This concentration allows students to focus on the histories of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East through a rich variety of classes offered by our area specialists. Topics of interest include: the rise and fall of empires and civilizations, European colonialism, anti-colonial movements, inter-ethnic and sectarian politics, and globalization.
Women, Gender, and Sexuality
This concentration allows students to focus on the history of women, the social construction of masculinity and femininity, and the making of sexual identities across different societies and eras. Topics include: marriage and the family, definitions of male and female roles by religious institutions and the state, histories of feminism, and changes in notions of sexuality over time.
Empires, Nations, and Citizenship
This concentration lets students explore the social, cultural, and political tensions that have historically shaped relations between societies, and relations within the same societies. Topics include: the rise and fall of empires, from ancient to modern; the growth of nation-states and of related internal or international conflicts; and the problems of liberty, equality, and diversity that have made questions of citizenship so contested.
Law, Economics, and Human Rights
This concentration allows students to examine issues of law, economics, and human rights in historical contexts from ancient to modern periods. Topics include: race and slavery; the origins of capitalism, industrialism, colonialism, and imperialism; diplomatic history; gender regimes; family history; legal and constitutional history; environmental history; medical history; the Holocaust; totalitarianism; and civil rights history.
The Minor
The History minor allows students to pursue intensive historical inquiry alongside their major area/s of concentration. Minors are not required to select a geographic or thematic concentration. The requirements of the minor include the following:
- Students complete seven courses (a minimum of 22 credit hours) of history. A least five of those courses must be at the advanced level (300-level or above), including a 400-level junior/senior colloquium.
- The S/U (satisfactory/unsatisfactory) option may be exercised for one course applied to the minor.
- A maximum of two study abroad courses may apply to the minor.
- The completion of a minor in History requires a minimum of a C average in the minor.