History & Social Studies

History has just one specific course requirement and a distribution requirement (one course each in history before 1750, history outside Europe and the U.S., and one course on Europe or the U.S.). History gives students great flexibility within the History department offerings. Students may focus their courses in one area or explore many areas and types of history (social, political, economic, intellectual etc) and may count multiple cross-listed courses and one related field course for concentration. The concentration is unified by its emphasis on historical methods of analysis in coursework and the senior thesis, which is optional.

Social Studies students take six semesters of small tutorials (Social Studies 10, a year-long course in social theory, 2 Social Studies junior tutorials, and Social Studies 99, a year-long one-on-one senior tutorial in preparation for writing a thesis) and three methods courses (Social Studies 40 or an equivalent methods course and one course each in statistics and economics).  Students develop an individualized focus field of four to six courses which may be drawn from social science offerings across the college and some of the graduate schools. The senior thesis is required and usually involves an interdisciplinary study of a social problem or topic.