Concentration in History        

• prerequisites to the concentration
  
• 8 additional history courses of 3 or more credits
  
• cognate courses

Concentrators must complete all these requirements, history and cognate courses, with at least a 2.0 grade point average and no course can be taken pass/fail.

Prerequisites to the Concentration

Concentrators must complete both courses in one of the 6 possible introductory survey sequences. Higher level history courses may be elected before completing the sequence.

    History 110 & 111 - Medieval and Modern Europe 
    History 200 & 201 Ancient Greece and Rome
    History 204 & 205 - East Asia
    History 206 & 207 - South and Southeast Asia
    History 246 & 247 - Africa
    History 260 & 261 (previously 160 & 161) - United States

Concentration Program

The concentration program consists of 8 additional history courses of 3- or more credits.

5 of the 8 additional history courses must be upper-level, numbered 300 or above;
the other 3 must be at least 200-level. Introductory survey courses numbered at the 200-level
may be counted among these 8 courses only if they are not used to satisfy the prerequisite.

4 of these 8 courses must be taken at the U of M Ann Arbor campus.

Courses must be selected to fulfill two distribution requirements, one geographical, one chronological, and a colloquium requirement, but the program allows for many electives.
To see which courses fulfill distribution requirements each term, please use the link to
Courses for Concentration Requirements.

The geographical distribution requires that 4 history courses must be selected in the following manner. Courses taken as prerequisite and colloquia may be used to satisfy the geographical distribution.

• one must be in U.S. history,
  
• one must be in European history,
  
• two must be in non-Western history (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East, or Pacific).
  One of these two may be a transregional history course.

To satisfy the chronological distribution requirement, one of the 8 concentration courses must focus on pre-1800 history.  Courses used for the prerequisite sequence cannot satisfy the pre-1800 requirement.

Additionally, one of the history courses must be a history colloquium, either History 396 or 397,
or completion of the entire History Honors sequence, History 398 and 399.

A history concentration requires 6 credits (usually 2 courses) of cognate courses

• numbered 300 or higher;

Cognate courses are intended to broaden a student's knowledge of history or deepen one's understanding of history from the perspective of another discipline. Courses from a second concentration may fulfill this requirement, depending on the field.

Many upper-level courses in the social sciences or humanities are acceptable. If students take courses outside these areas, they should have a historical element. More on cognates.

Some common cognate areas are African and Afro-American Studies, American Culture, Classical Studies, English literature, Economics, History of Art, Philosophy, Political Science, Social Anthropology, Social Psychology, Sociology, Religion, Women's Studies, and literature or culture courses in language departments. The many programs in area studies offer a wealth of cognates: i.e. Russian and East European Studies, Asian Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Middle Eastern and North African Studies, programs in Near Eastern Studies (ACABS, AAPTIS, HJCS, NEC).

EXCEPTIONS: In many of these departments, not all courses are cognate. For example, English literature courses are cognate, but creative and expository writing courses in the English Department are not. In foreign language departments, literature or culture courses are cognate, but courses that teach one to speak a language are not. Psychology and Sociology courses that are based on community projects, labs, and practicum may not be used as cognates, but classroom-based theory courses are generally acceptable.

Please discuss cognate courses with a history advisor when declaring the concentration.

NOTE about AP credit: A revised policy was adopted for students entering the U of M beginning in Fall 2001. If your transcript shows generic AP credit (History 101x or 102x), you CANNOT use AP credit in place of the survey courses. Students who were admitted to the UM before Fall 2001 and received AP credit for specific courses (History 111, 160, or 161) may use that credit in place of the same survey courses. Please talk to an advisor to confirm your situation.