Undergraduate Handbook Preface Introduction Curriculum Major and Concentration Undergraduate Schools What Counts as a History Course What Counts as a Seminar Historical Theories and Methods Advisors Procedures Study Abroad Departmental Honors Senior Thesis Prizes & Fellowships Guidelines for Papers Academic Honesty

Introduction

Columbia undergraduates, regardless of major, tend to include history in their curriculum. The History Department wants to encourage and expand that interest. Thinking historically is an analytical skill of increasing value in an epoch dominated by short-term perspectives. Everyone can and should do some history at Columbia. We welcome you to do so. 

In that spirit, the Department offers a very wide range of courses on periods and topics of past significance and of persistent interest and relevance. Whether you are interested in global inequality or Medieval law, the evolution of drug trafficking or the history of human rights, the American West or Tokugawa Japan, you will find courses that speak to your interest and complement your other studies. Most of our courses are open to undergraduates from all majors and programs, and all programs of study will be enriched by some courses in history. 

The Department also offers a major and a concentration in history. The history major or concentration enables students to achieve a deeper and broader knowledge of a particular field of history, while also developing the kinds of analytical and writing skills that are important in so many areas of life. The heart of the undergraduate major is the seminar, a small-group course in which students work closely with an individual faculty member on some subject of common interest. The Department, in conjunction with related programs, now mounts more than fifty seminars each year on a wide range of topics. Undergraduate majors are also encouraged to consider writing a senior thesis on a subject of particular interest, and the Department offers special seminars for thesis writers. Happily, an increasing number of students now write senior theses.

Our commitment to undergraduate history is expressed institutionally in a strong faculty advising committee. The Undergraduate Education Committee (UNDED), collaborating closely with the independently elected Undergraduate History Council, is in charge of developing the history curriculum, while also handling advising and questions concerning requirements and credits.