Bachelor of Arts: History
General College Requirements
The student must fulfill the requirements of the general college program as outlined in Undergraduate Academic Regulations and Information.
History Department Requirements
- Each major shall concentrate in one area: American, European, Latin American or Global, or devise a thematic concentration and have it approved by the chair of the undergraduate studies committee.
- Two prerequisite courses (six hours) are required in either World History (206 and 208) or Western Civilization (201 and 202). These courses may also fulfill the UMKC general education requirements.
- Ten courses in history at the upper division, 300-400 level, are required (30 hours)
- Five of the ten courses, or 50 percent of upper division coursework, must fall into students' field of concentration.
- The other half of upper division coursework must be outside students' field of concentration.
- All history majors are required to complete History 301WI Historiography and Method and 498WI Senior Capstone as part of their 30-hour upper division requirement.
- All majors will take at least one history department course that examines a non-western society. Non-western societies include socio-cultural groups that are not of European origins or that have evolved a distinctive non-European identity. In our department, non-Western courses include those which deal with:
- Africa
- Asia
- Latin America
- Non-European Peoples of the Middle East
- Indigenous North Americans
- History majors are strongly urged to pursue competence in a foreign language by continuing their foreign language training beyond the 13-hour general education requirement.
- All history majors at UMKC are required to establish and maintain a portfolio of their undergraduate work. The portfolio is a measurement tool that will allow students and faculty mentors to monitor intellectual growth, acquisition and sharpening of skills, and mastery of historical knowledge while at UMKC. The online portfolio may include any written or visual assignment completed at UMKC. It must include at least the following:
- One book review
- One historiographical essay
- One exam essay
- History 301WI Research Prospectus
- History 498WI Senior Capstone Research Paper
You should strive to make your portfolio materials as impressive as possible. Choose your best exam essay. If you received back a book review or historiographical assignment with suggestions for editing and revision, make the revisions and polish the paper before submitting it to the portfolio. Your 301WI Research Prospectus and your 498WI Senior Capstone should undergo several drafts before you submit them for grading. Again, make any changes that your professors suggest, and give the papers one last proofread and polishing before adding them to your portfolio.
You will be responsible for managing your portfolio electronically.
Concentrations
The History department's course offerings, all of historical knowledge, can be categorized in any number of ways. The fields of concentration reflect an appreciation for the value of studying the past through multiple lenses. Students may choose to concentrate their undergraduate history education in a particular chronological period and region. Or they may choose course offerings that fall into coherent topics that lend themselves to transnational analysis over extended periods of time.
- Chronological/Regional Concentrations:
- Antiquity
- Medieval and Early Modern
- Modern U.S.
- Modern Europe
- Non-Western
- Topical/Thematic Concentrations:
- Class, Race and Gender
- Global
- Material Culture and Everyday Life
- Science, Medicine and the Environment
Courses by Concentration
In reviewing the following list of concentrations and courses, keep in mind that new courses focused on specific topics relevant to professors' research interests are offered every semester, though they are not listed below.
Antiquity
400CS Clio and the Other Muses: History and
Culture of 5th Century Athens
400CY The Ancient World and the Cinema
468R Archeology and the History of Antiquity
469 Archeology and Biblical History
470 Ancient Egypt
471 Ancient Greece
472 Ancient Rome
475WI Ancient Israel
Medieval and Early Modern
302 America, 1000-1763: The Formative Era
303 America, 1763-1783: The Revolutionary
Heritage
394 African American History to 1877
400CF Courts and Culture in the High Middle
Ages
411A Medieval Civilization I
411B Medieval Civilization II
412A Women and Family in Medieval and
Early Modern Europe
412B The Black Death and Late Medieval
Society
413 Renaissance
414 Reformation
415B 17th and 18th Century Europe
416R The French Revolution and Napoleon
426R The Scientific Revolution, 1500-1700
432R Tudor England, 1485-1603
433R Britain, 1603-1832
476 Medieval Jewish History
Modern United States
300DM Dollars, Culture and America's
Hemispheric Empire
300JH The West in Film: Fact and Fiction
300MBA Missouri and Kansas in the Era of
the Border Wars
300MBB Social History and Material Culture of 19th
Century America
300WY The Sixties
304 America, 1783-1828: The National
Experience
305 America, 1828-1852: The Jacksonian
Period
306 America, 1850-1877: Civil War
and Reconstruction
307 America, 1877-1917: Development of
Industrial America
308A America, 1914-1945: The Era of the World
Wars
308B America, 1945-Present: Our Times
353 Immigrants and Immigration in
American History
354R Women in Modern America
356 Rise of the City
356R Kansas City: History of a Regional
Metropolis
360R Constitutional History
361 American Foreign Relations
366RR American Labor History
395 African American History Since 1877
400CP Silver Screen and the American Dream
400Z Kansas City Labor History
Modern Europe
400CJ Nordic History and Culture, 1750-Present
400CI Culture, Kultur, Civilization: Identity
Formation in Middle Class
417R Nations and Empires: 19th Century Europe
418R The Age of Extremes: 20th Century Europe
419R Contemporary Europe, 1930-2000
427R The Darwinian Revolution, 1650-1900
430R The Ordeal of Total War, 1939-1945
434R Britain, 1832-Present
436AWI Imperial Germany
436BWI Weimar Germany
436CWI Nazi Germany
436DWI Cold War Germany
477 Modern Jewish History
478 The Holocaust and the State of Israel
Non-Western
300JH Indians of the Americas
400CR Latin American Crises and Opportunities
400F Religion and Colonialism in Latin America
400VGA Colonial Latin America
400VGB Modern Latin America
400VGC Women in Latin America
400VGD Environmental History of Latin America
424A Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia
424R Twentieth Century Asia
444R Islam and the Arabs: The Formative Period
445 The Ottoman Empire in the Middle East
to World War I
446R The Middle East From World War I
to the Present
462J Japanese Civilization
Class, Race and Gender
300FBA History of Sexuality
300J History of Sport
300JH Indians of the Americas
300K Masculinity in History
300L Labor and Leisure
300MBB Social History and Material Culture of 19th
Century America
300RH History of Fatherhood
353 Immigrants and Immigration
354R Women in Modern America
366RR American Labor History
368 Girlhood and Boyhood in America
369 Women and Work in Early America
394 African American History Before 1877
395 African American History Since 1877
400B Women in Latin America
400K History of Motherhood
400Z Kansas City Labor History
401A Religion in America
412A Women and Family in Medieval and
Early Modern Europe
428A History of the Body
428B Women and Medicine: Patients and
Practitioners from Antiquity to Present
Global
300DM Dollars, Culture and America's
Hemispheric Empire
300JH Indians of the Americas
302 America, 1000-1763: The Formative Era
361 American Foreign Relations
300CN The World Made Modern: World War I
& Popular Film
400CR Latin American Crises and Opportunities
400F Religion and Colonialism in Latin America
400VGA Colonial Latin America
400VGB Modern Latin America
424A Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia
424R Twentieth Century Asia
430R The Ordeal of Total War, 1939-1945
445 The Ottoman Empire in the Middle East
to World War I
446R The Middle East From World War I
to the Present
467 Myth and Ritual
477 Modern Jewish History
478 The Holocaust and the State of Israel
Material Culture & Everyday Life
300J History of Sport
300K Masculinity in History
300L Labor and Leisure
300MBB Social History and Material Culture of 19th
Century America
300RH History of Fatherhood
368 Girlhood and Boyhood in America
369 Women and Work in Early America
370 Introduction to Material Culture
392A Archival Internship
392B Public History Internship
393 Museum Science
400CC History, Culture and Nature in Sweden
400K History of Motherhood
401A Religion in America
428A History of the Body
428B Women and Medicine: Patients and
Practitioners from Antiquity to Present
436AWI Imperial Germany
436BWI Weimar Germany
436CWI Nazi Germany
436DWI Cold War Germany
468R Archeology and the History of Antiquity
469 Archeology and Biblical History
497 Project in Swedish History and Culture
Science, Medicine and the Environment
300JH The West in Film: Fact and Fiction
357 The American West
365A American Environmental History
400CC History, Nature and Culture in Sweden
400VGD Environmental History of Latin America
412B The Black Death and Late Medieval Society
426R The Scientific Revolution, 1500-1700
427R The Darwinian Revolution, 1650-1900
428A History of the Body
428B Women and Medicine: Patients and
Practioners from Antiquity to Present
473 History of Astronomy
497 Project in Swedish History and Culture