History Major

The major consists of a minimum of 9 full courses (or the equivalent).

Note: Students must earn minimum grades of C- or P for all courses that apply toward the major.

View the catalog page for the history department.

Summary of Requirements

HIST 299 - Introduction to Historical Methods
Minimum One Full 100-Level Course
Minimum One Full 200-Level Course
Minimum One Full 300-Level Course
Minimum One Full 400-Level Course
One Full Pre-Modern Course
Geographic Distribution Requirement
Additional History Major Elective Courses

Note(s) on Requirements

At least five full courses must have the HIST prefix.
No more than three full courses taken from selected courses based on historical methodologies taught in other departments or programs may apply to the major.
Courses that count toward the major but are administered by other departments can be used to fulfill any history major requirement except that of the 300-level course.
Credit earned in first-year seminar program courses taught by members of the history department may be applied toward the major, but cannot be used to fulfill the 100-level course requirement.
HIST 399 does not count toward the 300-level course requirement nor to the geographic distribution requirement. However, it may count as an additional history major elective course.

Transfer of Credit Toward the Major

Students seeking to transfer credit toward the history major for classes not taken at Oberlin must consult with their advisor and/or the chair of the history department in advance, and gain written preliminary approval for courses they wish to take elsewhere.

Students may be eligible to transfer credit toward the major for a maximum of two full courses completed outside Oberlin, including courses completed during study away. Other courses may be transferred for general credit toward graduation. Normally, the history department does not accept toward the major any courses completed at two-year institutions after a student has declared a major in history at Oberlin.

Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Credit

AP/IB transfer credit received for HIST 097, HIST 098, and HIST 099 does not count toward the history major.

Capstone Courses

The history major does not have a required capstone, but majors are encouraged to consider pursuing a senior capstone that focuses on advanced work in their area of interest through either HIST 500 , a one-semester course available to seniors by consent of the instructor, or HIST 501 /HIST 502 , the two-semester honors program sequence open to students admitted to the Honors Program in History.

Honors in History

The Honors Program in History offers the opportunity for recognition of distinguished achievement in historical research and writing. Qualified students apply to enter the program in their sixth semester. Proposals are due in mid-April and should be prepared in consultation with department faculty. Further information is available from the chair or the history honors coordinator.

Visit the department website for more detailed guidelines.

Detailed Major Requirements

History Major Course Lists

100-Level Courses

Return to the summary of requirements.

Note: FYSP courses do not count toward this requirement.

AAST 122 - Caribbean Survey: Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic: Indigenous to 1898
AAST 123 - Caribbean Survey: Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic: 1898-1986
AAST 126 - Archives ReImagined
CLAS 103 - History of Greece ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 130
CLAS 104 - History of Rome ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 129
EAST 121 - China: From Civilizations to Early Modern Empire ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 105
EAST 122 - Modern China ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 106
EAST 131 - Japan: Earliest Times to 1868 ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 159
EAST 132 - Modern Japan ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 160
EAST 163 - Korea and East Asia: From Ancient Times to the Present ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 181
HIST 101 - Medieval and Early Modern European History
HIST 102 - Modern European History
HIST 103 - American History to 1877
HIST 104 - American History, 1877 to the Present
HIST 105 - China: From Civilizations to Early Modern Empire ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 121
HIST 106 - Modern China ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 122
HIST 107 - Russian History I
HIST 108 - Russian History II
HIST 109 - Latin American History: Invasion to Independence
HIST 110 - Latin American History: State and Nation Since Independence
HIST 121 - History of the Middle East and North Africa, from the Rise of Islam to 1800
HIST 122 - Middle East and North African History from 1800 to the Present
HIST 129 - History of Rome ⇒ cross-listed with CLAS 104
HIST 130 - History of Greece ⇒ cross-listed with CLAS 103
HIST 138 - European Empires in Global History
HIST 159 - Japan: Earliest Times to 1868 ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 131
HIST 160 - Modern Japan ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 132
HIST 162 - Premodern India
HIST 163 - Modern South Asia
HIST 181 - Korea and East Asia: From Ancient Times to the Present ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 163

200-Level Courses

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AAST 201 - From Reconstruction to the Information Age: African American History 1865 - 2000
AAST 202 - African American History Since 1865
AAST 220 - Doin’ Time: A History of Black Incarceration
AAST 229 - Radical Thinkers and Movements in the Caribbean
AAST 285 - African American Women’s History
CAST 232 - History of Race in American Cities and Suburbs ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 232
CAST 256 - Immigration in U.S. History ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 256
CAST 260 - Asian American History ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 260
CAST 270 - Latina/o History ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 270
EAST 233 - The Long War in Modern China ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 233
EAST 235 - China on the Global Stage
EAST 241 - Living with the Bomb: A Comparative Study of Gender, Race, and Nationalism in Japan and the U.S.
EAST 249 - Green Japan
EAST 250 - The Great Wave: A Maritime View of Japanese History ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 250
EAST 261 - On the Edges of China ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 261
EAST 280 - The Korean War ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 280
EAST 294 - Eco-Dynasties: China’s Environmental Past, Present, and Future ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 294
HIST 204 - From Gold to Guacamole: Latin American Commodity History
HIST 205 - Heavenly Histories: The Making of Western Cosmology from Antiquity to the Trial of Galileo
HIST 206 - Medieval Foodways and Health
HIST 207 - Cinema, Memory, and Politics in Egypt
HIST 208 - Of Miracles and Microscopes: A History of Science from 1200-1800
HIST 209 - The City in Europe, 1100-1789
HIST 216 - European Socialisms and Post-Socialisms
HIST 218 - The American Revolution
HIST 219 - The American Civil War
HIST 222 - Modern Germany and Eastern Europe, 1848-1989
HIST 226 - WW II
HIST 227 - The History and Practice of Whiteness in the United States
HIST 230 - Jewish Communities of the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1914 ⇒ cross-listed with JWST 281
HIST 231 - The Origins of Modern Diplomacy, 1350-1850
HIST 232 - History of Race in American Cities and Suburbs ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 232
HIST 233 - The Long War in Modern China ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 233
HIST 234 - Bandits, Terrorists, Partisans: Non-State Political Violence in Modern Europe
HIST 238 - Slavery in the U.S.
HIST 243 - The Early Modern Mediterranean
HIST 244 - The U.S. in World War II
HIST 250 - The Great Wave: A Maritime View of Japanese History ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 250
HIST 251 - U.S. Foreign Policy
HIST 256 - Immigration in U.S. History ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 256
HIST 260 - Asian American History ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 260
HIST 261 - On the Edges of China ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 261
HIST 265 - Sacred and Secular in an Islamic Republic: Pakistan
HIST 267 - Islamic Law & Society: From Shari’a to Human Rights
HIST 268 - Incarceration in the Modern MENA
HIST 270 - Latina/o History ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 270
HIST 271 - History of Rio de Janeiro
HIST 274 - History of the Holocaust ⇒ cross-listed with JWST 274
HIST 275 - Latin American History on Film
HIST 278 - The Productive Past: Innovation and the Early Modern World
HIST 280 - The Korean War ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 280
HIST 282 - The French Empire: 18th Century to the Present
HIST 285 - American Indians: Pre-Columbus to the Present
HIST 286 - Jewish Italy from Antiquity through Modernity ⇒ cross-listed with JWST 286
HIST 291 - Antisemitism in European History and Literature ⇒ cross-listed with JWST 291
HIST 294 - Eco-Dynasties: China’s Environmental Past, Present, and Future ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 294
JWST 274 - History of the Holocaust ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 274
JWST 281 - Jewish Communities of the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1914 ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 230
JWST 286 - Jewish Italy from Antiquity through Modernity ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 286
JWST 291 - Anti-Semitism in European History and Literature ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 291

300-Level Courses

Return to the summary of requirements.

Note: HIST 399 does not count toward the 300-level course requirement.

CAST 382 - Afro-Asian America: Intraminority Connections in Historical Perspective ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 382
EAST 307 - Occupied Japan, 1945-1952 ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 307
EAST 327 - Mapping China and East Asia ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 327
EAST 328 - The Great War and Asia, 1914-1925 ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 328
EAST 358 - Memory and Justice in East Asia ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 358
EAST 364 - You Are What You Eat and Wear: Global Crops ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 364
EAST 367 - The Other Great Game, 1860-1905 ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 367
HIST 301 - The Politics of Gender in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
HIST 303 - Seminar: Possession and Property in Medieval Europe
HIST 307 - Occupied Japan, 1945-1952 ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 307
HIST 313 - The Enlightenment and its Critics
HIST 314 - Existentialism
HIST 319 - Muslim Political Thought: Past & Present
HIST 322 - American Contact, 1492-1620
HIST 326 - Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin America
HIST 327 - Mapping China and East Asia ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 327
HIST 328 - The Great War and Asia, 1914-1925 ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 328
HIST 335 - Seminar: Crusades - Contact and Conflict in the Mediterranean World ⇒ cross-listed with JWST 335
HIST 336 - Women and International Relations, 1400-1900
HIST 337 - From the Great War to the Great Depression: America in the 1920s
HIST 340 - Doing Local History–Community-Based Learning in Elyria
HIST 341 - Research Seminar: The Korean War
HIST 347 - The African Diaspora in Contemporary Latin America
HIST 354 - The British Empire and the Indian Ocean
HIST 358 - Memory and Justice in East Asia ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 358
HIST 360 - Constructing the Russian Revolutionary Self
HIST 363 - The Global Sixties in Latin America
HIST 364 - You Are What You Eat and Wear: Global Crops ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 364
HIST 367 - The Other Great Game, 1860-1905 ⇒ cross-listed with EAST 367
HIST 370 - From Conservation to Climate Crisis: The Environment in Twentieth-Century American History
HIST 371 - Muslim Politics in Modern South Asia
HIST 372 - Reckoning with Reconstruction, 1863-Present
HIST 375 - Beyond Indiana Jones: The History, Politics, and Culture of Archaeology
HIST 376 - Westworlds: Research Seminar in Western History
HIST 382 - Afro-Asian America: Intraminority Connections in Historical Perspective ⇒ cross-listed with CAST 382
HIST 383 - Borders, Wars, and Refugees from the Ottoman Empire to ISIS
HIST 388 - Women at War
HIST 398 - Seminar: Archiving Sex - Researching America’s Sexual Pasts
JWST 335 - Seminar: Crusades - Contact and Conflict in the Mediterranean World ⇒ cross-listed with HIST 335

Students must complete at least one course in three of the different geographic areas regularly or occasionally offered by the department. Students may take a class that is global/transnational in focus to substitute for one geographic area. No single class may count simultaneously for global/transnational and a specific geographic area.

Note: HIST 399 does not count toward the geographic distribution requirement.