MA in History - Comparative History - Historiography 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 about the past while also teaching and connecting with wider audiences. Our program currently has over 50 students working toward MA and PhD degrees across diverse historical fields, supported by faculty with extensive expertise. We encourage interdisciplinary and comparative historical approaches, allowing students to collaborate with faculty across multiple disciplines and affiliated UW programs. Both our faculty and graduate students participate in numerous digital history initiatives aimed at enhancing research, education, and public engagement with historical scholarship.

Historiography encompasses two interconnected concepts: the practice of writing history and the analysis of how historical writing has evolved. Our program explores both through courses taught by specialists covering eras from ancient times to modernity and regions spanning from the Mediterranean to the Pacific. In these seminars, students investigate historical research methods and frameworks, analyzing how history intersects with other academic fields and how social science approaches and literary theory inform source interpretation. Course topics vary by instructor and may cover subjects like oral tradition, timekeeping systems, and the influence of historicism, Marxism, poststructuralism, feminism, and globalization on historical studies. Students develop customized reading plans in coordination with their faculty advisors.