History Program

The discipline of history embraces a diverse world of ideas, peoples, and events. Our faculty seeks to inform and question, to provoke, and to challenge our students to a higher level of understanding of the past. History at USF St. Petersburg offers the student an opportunity to explore civilizations from around the globe and from the ancient through contemporary eras. We encourage our students to move beyond traditional memorization of material to a critical level of thinking, analysis, and synthesis. Accomplished history majors are attractive to all kinds of employers in any number of fields, as well as to graduate and professional schools. USF history alumni can be found in such diverse professions as law, medicine, business, government, foreign service, politics, and education.

Prerequisites (State Mandated Common Prerequisites)
Students wishing to transfer to USF should complete the A.A. degree at the community college. If students transfer with fewer than 60 semester hours of acceptable credit, they must meet the university’s entering freshman requirements including ACT or SAT test scores, GPA, and course requirements. The transfer student should be aware of the immunization, foreign language, and continuous enrollment policies of the university.

Students at a community college planning to transfer to USF and major in history are encouraged to complete as many of the lower level requirements as possible at the community college level. Courses that fulfill the General Education/Gordon Rule requirement would be especially valuable. The minimum acceptable grade for courses being transferred for history department credit is a “C.” If these courses have not been completed satisfactorily upon enrolling at USF, they must be taken before the degree is granted.

Requirements for a Major in History:

A minimum of 36 semester credits with a grade of “C” or better in each course.*

These include:
12 credits of 2000 level courses, or equivalents. Two must be sequential (AMH 2010, 2020, for example)
24 credits of 3000 – 4000 level courses. Two of these courses, Pro-Seminar and Theory of History, are required for all majors, and can only be taken in the last two semesters prior to graduation. They may not be taken during the same semester.

Students are encouraged to talk with their Academic Adviser regarding other supporting courses in Arts and Sciences.

Requirements for a Minor in History:

A minimum of 18 semester credits, with a grade of “C” or better in each course.*
The courses are contracted by the student and a member of the History faculty and organized around the specific needs of the student’s major program. A minimum of 8 credit hours must be completed at USF and a 2.0 GPA must be maintained in the minor.
One lower-level sequence is required, equal to 6 credit hours.

*Open University courses and exit courses titled “Issues in History” (HIS 3938) and “War and Society” (HIS 3308) are not eligible for credit in the major or minor.