Master's ProgramField: History of Women and Gender
New York University’s Department of History MA program includes a field in the History of Women and Gender. The field encourages students to explore the social, cultural, and political meanings and uses of gender constructs and to challenge traditional narratives about men and women across history. Our field draws its strength from our faculty’s commitment to investigating the history of women and gender, and from a long tradition of feminist scholarship.
Our field brings together faculty and graduate students from a wide range of geographical, chronological, and thematic fields, and is strengthened by departmental fields in African Diaspora and Atlantic World, as well as by joint degree programs with Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and the Institute of French Studies. NYU also has a strong Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, and our graduate students are encouraged to take courses with scholars of gender in other university departments. Admission to the program is highly selective.
Earning an MA degree in the History of Women and Gender field prepares students for a variety of careers, including working in museums, historical societies, and historic houses; working with archives and historical papers; working in film and television; and preparation for teaching at the secondary-school level. The degree can also serve as a foundation for graduate study at the PhD level.
Curriculum for the MA field in the History of Women and Gender
Students in the History of Women and Gender field complete a 32-credit program of study consisting of the following courses:
1. The MA Pro-seminar (G57.2022), required of all MA students in the Department of History, providing students with an introduction to the professional study of history (4 credits).
2. At least three courses that focus substantively on gender, offered either by our core faculty or, with approval, by faculty from across the university and beyond (12 credits).
3. Three topical history courses intended to deepen historical expertise in chronological or geographical fields (12 credits).
4. The MA thesis in the student’s field of specialization (normally determined by the end of the first semester), which will consider gender as a central category of analysis; students select a faculty advisor to direct the thesis and register for an independent study with the advisor (4 credits).
Core Departmental Faculty
Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, Medieval history; France; prescholastic culture and society; sign theory; sigillography, diplomatics, and paleography.
Hasia Diner, American Jewish history, American immigration history and women's history.
Nicole Eustace, Eighteenth-century North America in the Atlantic world; gender, culture, and politics.
Linda Gordon, Twentieth-century U.S. social, political, and social policy history; women and gender; family; U.S. Southwest.
Manu Goswami, Nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Asia, British Empire, political economy, nationalism and gender
Fiona Griffiths, Monasticism; medieval libraries and book production; twelfth-century Renaissance; friendship.
Martha Hodes, Nineteenth-century U.S., race in transnational perspectives, American Civil War; gender and sexuality.
Rebecca Karl, Modern China, theories of nationalism, Marxism, modernity; gender and radicalism in modern China.
Karen Kupperman, Early modern Atlantic history, especially encounters, and construction of new societies.
Michele Mitchell, Gender and sexuality; U.S. history 1860-1940; African American history; African diaspora; nationalism; feminist theory.
Maria Montoya, American West, labor history, gender, Latina/o history.
Jennifer Morgan, Early African American history, comparative slavery, racial ideologies, gender and sexuality
Mary Nolan, Modern German history, European women’s history, post-World War II order.
Leslie Peirce, Early modern Ottoman history, gender, law and society, comparative empires.
Barbara Weinstein, Modern Latin America, Brazil, labor history, slavery and emancipation, race and gender, regionalism and nationalism.
Marilyn B. Young, U.S. foreign relations, U.S.-East Asian relations, Third World women and gender.
Additional Information: Consult the home page of the History Department website.
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