Program Structure
We believe that all our graduates, whether Majors or Honours, must possess the ability to undertake self-directed intensive research, to be familiar with a wide range of past societies and to be aware of the interpretive and methodological options for analyzing them. Our programs are constructed to allow students to acquire this knowledge and develop these skills in a coherent, step by step fashion, gradually building confidence in their intellectual, research and communication skills. Faculty members constantly monitor the progress of students and are ready to address the weaknesses and develop the particular strengths of each individual in the program.
Additionally, we provide opportunities for students to apply their skills through public history or research practica. All of our faculty are active researchers and have access to grant money that can be used to hire students to conduct academic research. Additionally, we have a pubic history stream which, through course-work, practical assignments and voluntary or paid placements, will give students the opportunity to experience history in the work-world outside of academia.
In the first year of the program, students learn about the main currents and major phases of history; they acquire the skills necessary to contextualize primary documents and to analyze them in order to extract usable historical data. At the same time, they are introduced to the major interpretive approaches of historians, developing an ability to read secondary sources in an efficient and critical manner. Finally, students learn to construct significant research hypotheses, to design a viable research plan and to present the results of their research in a reasoned and coherent manner.
In the following years students gain a deeper familiarity with the histories and historiography of Europe (especially Western Europe), of North America and the developing world, through more intensive chronological/geographic surveys. In the 200 and 300 level courses, discussion and debate begins to form a larger portion of the instructional method than in the introductory surveys. The 300 level courses approach the past from a thematic and comparative perspective, providing an introduction to a number of historical subdisciplines, as well as to their unique methodologies and rich theoretical literature.
The 400 level seminars are our capstone courses. In these courses, students have an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of a particular period or theme through a more thorough reading of relevant literature. The seminar format also fosters student participation and contribution to an ongoing communal research effort through debate, discussion, oral presentations and commentary. Finally, seminar participants engage in intensive research (including primary sources) on a specific topic within the area, present their research program and findings to colleagues and learn to revise their final papers or reports in light of commentary and criticism from the instructor and their peers.
