MA in History - Africa and the Middle East in Seattle United States | University of Washington

Welcome to the University of Washington's History Graduate Program. We specialize in educating future historians who contribute to academic knowledge while also teaching and connecting with wider audiences. Currently, over 50 students are enrolled in our MA and PhD programs across diverse historical fields, benefiting from our faculty's extensive expertise. We encourage interdisciplinary and comparative historical methods, allowing students to collaborate with faculty both within our department and across other UW programs. Our community actively participates in digital history initiatives that enhance research, education, and public engagement with historical scholarship.

Our African history specialization covers sub-Saharan Africa from around 1500 to modern times, primarily serving as a secondary graduate study focus. Historically, students concentrating on U.S. or European history—particularly those researching the trans-Atlantic slave trade or colonialism—have chosen African history as an examination field to develop non-Western teaching qualifications. Through seminars, independent research, and teaching assistantships in introductory African history courses, graduate students explore key topics including precolonial civilizations, syncretic religious movements, global slave trade networks, colonial impacts, independence movements, and contemporary postcolonial issues.