History, MA
Prepare for a variety of careers with advanced training in historical research with a Master of Arts in History from UT. By furthering your education in history, you will acquire the tools necessary to analyze historical patterns and address contemporary challenges through a historical lens. The MA program is ideal for teachers wanting deeper content expertise, or students curious about a PhD but wanting an introduction to professional historical study. We offer teaching and research assistantships to the most competitive MA students. Learn how we prepare you to connect dots across time and place to inform solutions for the present and future.
Program Overview
The History MA program teaches students to understand the world globally, equipping them for historical research, doctoral study, teaching, and more.
Whether your interests lie in political history, social movements, environment, public history, digital humanities, or global historical perspectives, our program offers the academic rigor, mentorship, and flexibility needed to pursue meaningful research and professional growth. Working closely with distinguished faculty, students develop advanced analytical, research, and communication skills while contributing original scholarship to the field.
MA students choose to specialize in American history, premodern Europe, or modern Europe. Students benefit from taking courses outside the department in areas ranging from anthropology to world languages and cultures, giving them an interdisciplinary edge. Students select a thesis track or exam track for the MA, based on their unique career goals. There is no foreign language requirement for the MA program.
Our program is a great fit for students who are deeply curious about the past and its implications for the future.
Thesis and Non-Thesis Options
Our flexible thesis and non-thesis (exam) options allow students to choose a track that best fits their needs. If you’re interested in pursuing doctoral study, our thesis track would help prepare you for the pursuit. You will conduct original research in the form of a thesis and present and defend that project.
Our non-thesis option involves completing coursework and a comprehensive exam. This track is a great fit for students who are interested in pursuing careers in museums, teaching, and a wide range of other areas.
Whatever your path, our flexible options give you a clear path forward, preparing you for impactful research or meaningful careers.
Why Study History?
At UT, a Master of Arts in History means you will have a range of opportunities. With competitive research and teaching assistantships, a degree you can tailor anyway you see fit, and plenty of experiential learning opportunities, you will have the resources needed to make an impact and to create a professional DNA unique to you.
Graduate Research and Teaching Assistantships
With competitive graduate research and teaching assistantships, students can receive generous funding in the form of tuition waivers, health insurance, and stipends. Plus, you will have opportunities to work on specialized research with expert faculty or gain teaching experience for the future.
A Degree You Can Tailor
Whether you want to pursue a specialized research area or a non-thesis option, our wide range of courses means you can choose to study topics like military history, late antique and medieval history, as well as the history of foreign relations.
Immersive, Experiential Learning
Our program offers plenty of opportunities to travel to conferences and present research, allowing you to network and learn from a range of diverse perspectives. The Department of History also offers funding for students’ travel, meaning you will have the space to pursue your academic interests with purpose.
What Can You Do with an MA in History After Graduation?
A degree in history from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, opens up avenues for students to have careers in disciplines that interest them, giving them the opportunity to make an impact in the field of their study. Students in this program will gain a deep understanding of the past in order to be builders of a strong future, and the faculty, individualized mentoring, and internships this program offers helps them to do so.
With a history major, many of our alumni go on to work in museums, archives, and cultural institutions, as archivists, curators, or site managers. In similar institutions, many go into information sciences, like acquisition, arrangement, preservation, administration, and exhibition. In local and state government, you could work in regional planning, public policy, community affairs, or social services. You could even work for nonprofits as a program assistant or development director, or with local libraries, as public historian or librarian.
Many graduates also go into media and communications, as a writer, editor, or documentarian. There are a multitude of directions you can go as a history major, but this diverse, resource-heavy program will guide you in tackling the big questions history asks, while giving you hands-on historical experience and preparation for your career.
Featured Courses
HIST 517 Classic and Contemporary Readings in African-American History
This course introduces some of the most recent as well as standard scholarship in the field of African-American history from slavery to the present. It also examines the relationship of African-American history to United States history and other “minority” histories.
HIST 545 US History, Reconstruction to Present
This course is a reading seminar that covers major historiographic debates in American history, from Reconstruction to the recent past.
HIST 552 Topics in Military History
In this course, students will engage in a reading seminar on military history, military operations, social impact of war, and naval strategy in foreign policy.
HIST 585 Topics in World History
This course is a reading seminar in transnational themes involving analysis of two or more world cultures. Focus varies.
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