Picking a masters program as a History/Social Studies Educator - Part III
Some additional alternatives to the M.A. in History
This essay is Part III of a series on graduate education for history and social studies educators. You can read Part I here, and Part II here. In this part, I’ll discuss a few more alternatives to history graduate programs. In Part IV, I’ll make some recommendations for each category of graduate programs.
So, after publishing Part II, I received some great feedback from readers about alternatives that they chose to the M.A. in History. These were interesting enough that I thought it worth it to extend the series to include some of these additional alternatives.
One reader commented on facebook suggested a masters focused on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which is a great idea! I originally learned GIS when I was working in public safety in the early 2000s, and I’ve gone on to use it in my historical work. One thing that GIS is very useful for is in creating digitized historical maps, which allow you to overlay present day features over historical one, in order to aid in visualization. But GIS can be used for historical and geographical research, as well. GIS also forms the backbone of many Digital Humanities initiatives as well.
Speaking of geography, an M.A. in Geography can also be an excellent alternative to an M.A. in History. Some readings might balk when they think back to being quizzed on various types of landforms in 4th grade social studies, but geography is much more than the simple study of land! The discipline of Geography includes Human or Cultural Geography, which studies human cultural relationships to locations and places. While similar in ways to anthropology and sociology, geographical research methods always involve place in some way or another. Geography is also one of the original disciplines of the social studies.
Another reader suggested an M.A. in Humanities. This is also an excellent idea. While an M.A. in Humanities will prepare you broadly to engage in all types of Humanities based research and teaching, it can also allow you to specialize in one area that you are passionate about. And, if you are a social studies teacher that would like to move into teaching literature, an M.A. in Humanities is a great way to do that while also studying some history as well. Finally, the right program in Humanities can also provide some interesting opportunities for study. The academic study of mythology and folklore is often located within humanities departments, as can programs in the history of ideas and philosophy.
In Part IV, I’ll make some recommendations both positive and negative regarding some specific graduate programs, both in-person and online.