2018-19 Pomona College Catalog 
    
    Dec 12, 2024  
2018-19 Pomona College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG] Use the dropdown above to select the current 2024-25 catalog.

History Major


Requirements for the Major in History


The major in history requires a minimum of eleven history courses, distributed as follows:

  1. Depth: Five courses, including the two core courses, from within one of the following department fields:
    1. Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean
    2. Europe Since the Renaissance
    3. United States
    4. Africa/African Diaspora, South Asia and the Middle East
    5. Asia
    6. Latin American and Caribbean
    7. Self-designed comparative, transregional, and/or thematic
    8. Environmental History
  2. Breadth: Three courses from at least two other departmental fields.
  3. Elective: One additional history course in any field.
  • The above nine courses must represent both western and non-western fields, with at least one, in any field, concentrating on any period before 1800. At least one of the above must be a 101-level course.
  1. Senior Exercise: A two-semester, senior exercise culminating in either a senior thesis, senior essay or a senior tutorial, reflective of the field of specialization.
    1. By the end of the spring semester of the junior year, students submit a one-paragraph senior exercise proposal specifying a possible topic, potential sources and their preparation for the exercise.
    2. All majors must enroll in HIST190 PO - Senior Seminar  in the fall of senior year.
    3. In the spring of the senior year majors enroll in either HIST191 PO - Senior Thesis , HIST192 PO - Senior Essay , or HIST193 PO - Senior Tutorial .
    4. A senior thesis should make extensive use of primary sources and original research. It should normally be 50-100 pages long. A senior essay should be approximately 25-35 pages long. It may be primarily a research paper of an historiographical essay. It may use a combination of primary and other sources.
    5. Note: The Senior Exercise concludes undergraduate study in history and may only be taken during the senior year.

Additional information, rules, and requirements:

  • All history majors must have a Pomona College history faculty advisor.
  • History courses taken at other Claremont Colleges may count toward the major, unless they are cognates of courses available at Pomona.
  • History courses not taken at the Claremont Colleges may count toward the major. Requests should be made to the chair.
  • All courses must be taken for a letter grade to count toward the major.
  • No more than two courses for the major in history may satisfy requirements for another major.
  • Students who waive a core course in a field through placement examination or some other method approved by the department, must substitute another course from that field.
  • Students opting to make self-designed comparative, transregional and/or thematic (CTT) the primary field must develop a proposal by the end of the first semester of the junior year in consultation with their advisor and subject to approval by the department.
  • Students concentrating in Environmental History must take five environmental history courses and may opt to take an environment-related course in Anthropology, Environmental Analysis, Geology, Philosophy, Politics, etc., as their elective course. Selection of all coursework should be done in consultation with their major advisor.