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

Major and Concentration

This section lays out the requirements for the undergraduate major and concentration for students in Columbia College and the School of General Studies. If you are doing a double major, your major requirements for history do not change and must be completed fully. You may not double count one course towards two majors. 

All of our courses are assigned a designation according to 4 distribution groups. 

Course Distribution Groups:

• Group A -- Pre-Modern (before ca. 1750)
• Group B -- Modern Europe (including Russia)
• Group C -- Africa, Asia, Middle East
• Group D -- The Americas

NOTES:

• No more than 12 points of transfer credit or study-abroad credit will be accepted towards the major; no more than 9 points will be accepted towards the concentration.
  
• The seminar requirement must be fulfilled Columbia or Barnard.

The requirements of the undergraduate program encourage students to do two things:

1. Develop a deeper knowledge of the history of a particular time and/or place. Students are required to complete a specialization by taking a number of courses in a single field of history of their own choosing. A specialization usually falls within one of the four groups by which the department organizes its undergraduate offerings, but must be more specific than those groups and may be further defined by geographical, chronological, and/or thematic criteria. A student might choose to specialize, for example, in "Twentieth-Century U.S. History," "European Diplomatic History," "Ancient Roman History," or "Korean and Japanese History." A specialization does not appear on the student's transcript but provides an organizing principle for the program the student assembles in consultation with the UNDED. (Cross-group specializations are also possible and are described below.)
   
   
2. Take a broad range of courses to gain a sense of the full scope of history as a discipline. Students must, therefore, fulfill a breadth requirement by taking courses outside of the group within which his or her own specialization falls. Majors must take at least one course in each of the three groups that do not include their specialization; concentrators must take at least one course in two of those three groups. For example, a student majoring in history and specializing in "Twentieth-Century U.S. History" (Group D: The Americas) must take at least one course from each of the following groups: A, B, and C. A student majoring in history and specializing in "Ancient Roman History" (Group A: Pre-Modern) must take at least one course from groups B, C, and D.
   

Certain courses carry more than one group designation. Such courses are counted as inside your specialization if they carry the same group designation as your specialization, even if they carry another group designation as well. Such courses do not, therefore, fulfill the breadth requirement. For example, if you are specializing in "Twentieth-Century U.S. History" (Group D), the course "World War II" (Groups B, C, and D) will count as a Group D course, not as Group B or Group C. 

You may not use a single course to fulfill more than one part of the breadth requirement: for example, "Europe and the End of Empires" (Groups B, C, and D) could not be counted as both a Group B and a Group C course. Courses on historical theory and method, such as HIST W2901 "Historical Theories and Methods" carry the group designation ABCD. They count as inside your specialization, but not as outside. 

The two-term Senior Thesis Seminar provides 8 credits, but may only be counted as one of the two required seminars, and normally counts as inside the specialization. 

Clarification of Specializations

*A specialization may not merely be the name of a distribution group*
*A group of classes within one distribution group does not necessarily make a specialization*

Below are some examples of acceptable and unacceptable specializations:

Acceptable Specialization:

Ancient Roman History (Group A)

• W1020 "The Romans: 754 BC to 565 AD" (Group A)
• W3024 "Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic" (Group A)
• W4032 "Family and Sexuality in Greece and Rome" (Group A)
• W4045 "Rome: A Pre-Industrial Metropolis" (Group A)

Unacceptable Specialization:

Pre-Modern History (Group A)

• W1020 "The Romans: 754 BC to 565 AD" (Group A)
• W3024 "Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic" (Group A)
• BC3180 "Merchants, Pirates and Slaves in the Making of Atlantic Capitalism" (group A)
• W4083 "Medieval Crime" (Group A)

Acceptable Specialization:

20th Century American History (Group D)

• W3425 "The Presidency Since 1945" (Group D)
• BC3413 "The U.S., 1940-1975" (Group D)
• W3503 "American Labor in the 20th Century" (Group D)
• W4495 "The U.S. in Depression and War: The Age of FDR" (Group D)

Unacceptable Specialization:

The Americas (Group D)

• W3478 "U.S. Intellectual History, 1865-Present" (Group D)
• W3665 "Economic History of Latin America" (Group D)
• W3663 "Mexico from Revolution to Democracy" (Group D)
• W4417 "African-American Urban History" (Group D)

Cross-Group Specializations. The UNDED may approve a specialization that transcends the boundaries of two or more of the four groups; breadth requirements will be adjusted accordingly. Below you will find examples of this type of program. These are only examples and in no way exhaust the possibilities for specializations. Students are encouraged to work with the UNDED to define specializations that meet their intellectual interests.

Women's History

• W3106 "Politics and Gender in Early Modern Europe" (Group A)
• BC3038 "Women in Modern Europe" (Group B)
• W3561 "History of American Women, 1776-Present" (Group D)
• W4886 "Gender, Passions, and Social Order in China" (Group C)

To fulfill the breadth requirement, the UNDED might suggest such courses as:

• W3110 "Renaissance, An Introduction" (Group A)
• W3478 "U.S. Intellectual History, 1865-Present" (Group D)
• W3870 "Japan in the 19th Century" (Group C),

leaving one seminar and one lecture to complete the major. 

Students interested in Women's History should also consult the course listings for the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. 

Intellectual History

• W3478 "U.S. Intellectual History, 1865-Present" (Group D)
• W3311 "Modern European Intellectual History II" (Group B)
• W4106 "Subjects and Objects of Renaissance Knowledge" (Group A)
• W4384 "Tocqueville and Social Theory" (Group B)

To fulfill the breadth requirement, the UNDED might suggest such courses as:

• W3004 "The Mediterranean World After Alexander" (Group A)
• W3878 "Who is the Samurai" (Group C)
• W3222 "The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union" (Group B),

leaving two lectures to complete the major.

Jewish History

• W3603 "Jews in Christian Spain" (Group A)
• W3628 "History of the State of Israel, 1948-Present" (Group C)
• W3630 "American Jewish History" (Group D)
• W4600 "Jewish Rights and Political Emancipation" (Group B)

To fulfill the breadth requirement, the UNDED might suggest such courses as:

• W1020 "The Romans, 754 BC to 565 AD" (Group A)
• W3804 "History of Modern South Asia" (Group C)
• W3330 "Europe Since 1945" (Group B),

leaving one seminar and one lecture to complete the major.

Some graduate courses in Jewish History are open to undergraduates, although these usually require strong Hebrew language skills.

Comparative Empires

• W3020 "Roman Imperialism" (Group A)
• W3220 "Imperial Russia" (Group B)
• W3312 "British History, 1760-1867" (Group B)
• W4310 "Europe and the End of Empires" (Groups B, C, and D)

To fulfill the breadth requirement, the UNDED might suggest such courses as:

• BC3567 "American Women in the Twentieth Century" (Group D)
• W3112 "The Scientific Revolution in Europe" (Group A)
• W3881 "History of Modern China II" (Group C),