The track described below culminates in a terminal MA degree. Terminal MA students who wish to pursue doctoral degrees must apply to the Ph.D. program upon completion. Terminal MA students do not receive department based funding.
Master's Degrees
- Dual Masters: History and Library Science
A dual program for the M.A. in History and the Master of Library Science (M.L.S.) is available to students interested in careers in libraries, archives, historical societies, museum collections, and other related fields. Study for these two degrees can be combined for a total of 56 credit hours rather than the 66 credit hours required for the two degrees taken separately. Students take 26 credit hours in history and 30 credit hours of library science. For the history credit hours, at least 20 must be in the Department of History; the remaining 6 are electives that may be fulfilled with further history courses or with library science courses, including those counting for requirements in that program. Students are required to complete H601 and at least one seminar and two colloquia. Graduate students will be allowed to receive credit for undergraduate courses only in special cases (such as in the study of fields not commonly available at the undergraduate level, or in small fields). For specific library science requirements, see the entry for the Department of Information and Library Science in the Indiana University Graduate Bulletin.
To pursue this degree, students must apply and be admitted to both the History Department for the M.A. and the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering for the M.L.S. Sometimes students who have already begun in either the History program or the Library Science program wish to move into the dual degree program. To do this, application to the second unit must be made and admission must be granted before the completion of the first program.
Please see the Graduate Guide to History and the Graduate School Bulletin for more detailed information on these degree requirements.
You may also be interested in the following History-related degrees. Please note: the Department of History does not administer these programs. Please click the box below for contact and other information.
- IU Online’s MA and MAT in History
Our department in Bloomington participates in a collaborative online MA program administered through IU Online. Students can enroll through IU-Bloomington and get access to both our library databases and a range of asynchronous graduate courses offered by IU faculty, including some in Bloomington and others across the IU system. The degree requires 30 credit hours, including 9 credits of core courses (Historical Methodology, Digital and Public History, and a Research Seminar) and a choice between a US History Track and a World History Track. Students complete the program with a capstone research project which either involves a traditional thesis or a public-facing project in digital and/or public history. This is a good choice for those seeking an asynchronous degree to prepare them for the world of K-12 teaching, librarianship, public history, or publishing.- Interdisciplinary Curatorship M.A.
IU’s interdisciplinary M.A. in Curatorship offers valuable skills for students who are ready to research, interpret, and share the objects and images of human culture—and to apply those skills to the cultural, environmental, and social challenges of the future.
Rooted in IU Bloomington’s rich holdings, including the renowned Lilly Library, Eskenazi Museum of Art, the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and more than 50 other unique campus collections, the Curatorship M.A. grounds motivated graduate students in an IU discipline of their choice—from Librarianship, Informatics, and Arts Administration to Art History, Anthropology, History, and Folklore—alongside real work experience, carried out under the supervision of IUB’s expert curators and archivists.
Learn about the Curatorship program Find academic requirements
The College of Arts + Sciences