The Master of Arts in History & Archival Studies combines training in the researching and writing of scholarly history with the study of archival practice and maintenance, preparing students for careers in special collections, libraries, museums, and other entities that recognize the critical value of keeping and maintaining historical documentation.

The Archival Studies program provides a theoretical and practical framework for creating and understanding archival collections, including why we make them and how we maintain them. Theoretical and scholarly historical work is complemented by experiential learning opportunities, such as internships, in order to ground your knowledge in the current practices of the professional world. Throughout the program, you may take advantage of the many benefits that CGU’s History Department confers: access to faculty-scholars who specialize in U.S. and European history and abundant opportunities to collaborate with students and faculty in other CGU departments as well as at other member institutions of the highly ranked Claremont Colleges. You’ll gain a broad-based, humanistic education that equips you with the research, analytical, and communication skills critical for successful careers.

Program Highlights
  • You will have access to the archives of the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges, one of the largest collections in California. The Huntington Library, one of the world’s finest research libraries for English and American history, is nearby.
  • Students may take archival studies courses as part of any degree program.

Program At a Glance

UNITS
48 units

ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME*
2 years

*This estimate assumes full-time registration and pursuit of the degree. Actual completion times will vary and may be higher, depending on full- or part-time course registration, units transferred, and time to complete other degree requirements.

COURSES BEGIN
Fall | Spring

DEPARTMENT
History

DEGREE AWARDED
MA in History and Archival Studies

Featured Courses

ARCH 310
Introduction to Archival Studies

Introduces archival theory and practice in which you explore professional work through archives, records, and special collections.

HIST 315
Museums, History & Story Telling

Explores the theory, methods, and politics of museum exhibitions through a partnership between the Autry Museum of the American West and Claremont Graduate University.

HIST 367
Nuclear America

Studies the powerful and pervasive effects of nuclear energy—military, commercial, and civilian—on the U.S. from 1945 to the present with an additional focus on such global events as Chernobyl and Fukushima.

HIST 323
Reformation Europe

Explores the Protestant Reformation and its aftermaths and backlashes in Europe and the British Isles, as presented in recent and classic historiography.

HIST 321
Texts & Context: America to 1776

Undertakes a close reading of such primary texts as sermons, diaries, and cartographic records, within the context of recent historiography of Colonial/British America.

ARCH 312
Research Methodologies in the Archive

Provides an understanding of the methodologies of original archival research using such primary sources as manuscripts, letters, photographs, and other “four-cornered” documents, as well as digital materials.

Curriculum

Courses
Required History courses (4 units)

Archival Studies courses (12 units)

History elective courses (28 units)
Open elective courses (4 units)

Research Tools Requirement

Research Paper

Thesis

An original scholarly work written in consultation with a Thesis Committee and based on an array of primary and secondary sources.

Internship

You can gain professional experience in the field through a required internship in archives or special collections at numerous institutions in the L.A. region, including:

Faculty & Research

  • Joshua Goode profile image

    Joshua Goode

    Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and History
    Chair, Cultural Studies (Fall 2022)

    Research Interests

    Modern Spain, 19th- and 20th-century Europe, Genocide and racial thought, Museums and commemoration, Memory

  • JoAnna Poblete profile image

    JoAnna Poblete

    Professor of History
    John D. and Lillian Maguire Distinguished Professor in the Humanities
    Chair, History Department

    Research Interests

    Colonialism and empire, unincorporated territories, migration and labor, comparative ethnic studies, Asian-American and Pacific Islander studies, 20th-century United States, indigenous issues, environmental history, oral history, U.S. expansionism

Where You Can Find Our Alumni

Interdisciplinary Concentrations

As a student in the School of Arts & Humanities, you have the option of completing one of five interdisciplinary concentrations.

American Studies

The American Studies concentration takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of United States culture, society, civilization, and identity through the curricular lenses of history, literature, critical theory, and more.

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Early Modern Studies

The Early Modern Studies concentration undertakes interdisciplinary examination of history, culture, politics, and society within the transitional and transformative period that stretched between Medieval and modern societies, marked especially by the advent of print, Christian confessional war, and the rise of the modern state.

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Hemispheric & Transnational Studies

A comparative analysis of culture in the Americas, the concentration in Hemispheric & Transnational Studies explores how scholarship on the Atlantic, borderlands, and diaspora have reshaped U.S. American Studies, Caribbean Studies, and Latin American Studies, emphasizing the topics of empire, race, religion, and revolution.

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Media Studies

Situated at the bustling intersection of cultural studies, new media, critical theory, and popular culture, the burgeoning field of Media Studies examines the creative and critical practices of media consumers, producers, artists, and scholars, focusing on questions of representation, power, technology, politics, and economy.

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Museum Studies

The Museum Studies concentration investigates the history and political role of museums in society, the interpretation and display of a wide variety of cultural productions, and topics of special concern to museums as cultural organizations, using a multidisciplinary, practice-based approach to understand the historical development of this evolving field.

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These concentrations are available for students pursuing the following degree programs:

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Jill Steggall

Assistant Director of Admissions
T: 909-607-1186
E: jill.steggall2@cgu.edu