Thesis Option

Complete a thesis to fulfill the research requirement of your graduate degree (6 credit hours).

Completing a thesis

A thesis is usually 80 to 100 pages in length, focusing on a topic of your choice, with approval of the professor directing the thesis (the thesis advisor).

To complete a thesis, you need to develop a research project and find a member of faculty within the History Department to serve as a thesis advisor. The thesis advisor must be ranked faculty. Lecturers and adjuncts may not serve as thesis advisors. (It is your responsibility to approach the member of faculty with whom you wish to work. Faculty are not obliged to take on students and any project must be within the thesis advisor’s general field of expertise.)

Acceptance criteria

Please note: If you are considering the thesis option, please ensure that the history department can offer supervision in your area of interest.

Acceptance onto the Thesis track is not automatic, but dependent on:

  1. The ability of the department of offer supervision in the student’s chosen field.
  2. The quality of the student's thesis proposal.
  3. The student’s academic record.
  4. And the feasibility of the student's thesis project.

Approaching a thesis advisor

You'll need to be able to demonstrate the viability of your project to your potential advisor. Most professors will expect to see a preliminary thesis proposal before they agree to supervise a thesis.

A preliminary thesis proposal should contain the following information:

  • A clear outline of the historiographical question with which the student intends to engage.
  • An outline of the primary sources that the student intends to utilize in their thesis.
  • A preliminary bibliography of academic works related to the topic of the thesis.

You should also ensure that you will have access to the source sets that you will use and be able to show that you have any required linguistic and/or technical competencies.

When you a member of faculty agrees to be your thesis advisor, you should arrange with them to register for six hours of HST 799. These should be taken over the course of two semesters (in 3-hour increments), although they do not have to be taken in consecutive semesters.