Graduate Program

The Department of History offers Master of Arts degrees in a two-year program. The major areas of study are North America, Europe, and Latin America with emphasis on Aboriginal, northern, gender, and environmental history. Students are encouraged to contact an appropriate supervisor before applying to the program and to develop a research project through this contact with members of the department.

Our MA has two streams. In the first year of the program, all students take three seminars in their areas of interest as well as two courses in historiography and research methods. In the second year of the program, students may choose between writing an MA thesis or carrying out a creative project.

Students who write a traditional thesis may go on to do a PhD in history or a related field or find employment in a number of fields that require advanced research and analytical skills. An MA thesis is based on original research and is between 100 and 120 pages in length.

For the creative project, students must carry out a similar amount of original research using historical sources, but they disseminate this knowledge through a number of different forms. The exact nature of the creative project option is to be determined by the student, the supervisor, and the graduate coordinator.

Admission Requirements

Graduates with a Bachelor of Arts degree from a recognized Canadian university or from another recognized university, and with at least a B+ average in the last two years of study will be considered for the MA program. We accept applicants who wish to begin their graduate studies in either September or January. To apply, visit this page http://www.unbc.ca/apply/graduate. Remember to contact the graduate coordinator in the History Department and a potential supervisor before applying through UNBC's centralized system.

Applicants without a History Background or without a background in the topic that they want to study at the MA level should consult with the graduate coordinator in the History Department. Students will be accepted only in the areas of specialization in the Department of History subject to the availability of an appropriate supervisor.

Language Requirements

MA students must be able to read in French or foreign languages as necessary to carry out primary research and read relevant secondary sources relevant to their research project.


ATTENTION:  Teaching Assistants

Please review the UNBC Teaching Assistant Manual, edited by Dr. Heather Smith. This document contains very useful information and suggestions you may find helpful.


History Master's Theses completed at UNBC

(Click on the author's name to read the abstract)

ANDERSON, Erik   (1996)   
"'Ready for the Religious Relationship':  Carrier Negotiations with Christianity through  Fur Traders, Prophets, and Missionaries to 1885."

ANDREWS, Karen June   (2004)
"A Tortuous History: Federal-Provincial Relations and the Future of Medicare,"

ATKINSON, Donna L..  (2005)
"'Not by oil alone':  A History of Khanty and Mansi Political Mobilization, 1985 to 1996,"

BEACH, Christopher   (1998)
"Beneath the Waters: A Microhistory of Ootsa Lake,  a Northern Eurocanadian Community,"

BOUCHARD, Blake   (2012)
The Resilience of the Babine: The Economic and Social Relations of the Babine to 1830

BUDDLE, Melanie   (1997)
"All the Elements of a Permanent Community:"A History of Society, Culture and Entertainment in the Cariboo,"

BUHLER, Katherine   (1998)
"Come Hell and High Water: the Relocation of the Cheslatta First Nation"

DIAZ, Robert Neil   (1996)
"Reshaping the Land: An Environmental History of Prince George, British Columbia,"

DONOVAN, Kaori   (2002)
"Yamato Nadeshiko in Canada: Experiences of Japanese Immigrant Women, 1868-1941"

JORGENSON, Mica   (2012)
 "It Happened to Me in Barkerville:" Aboriginal Identity, Economy, and Law in the Cariboo Gold Rush, 1862 1900

MATTE, Alison   (2012)
"She's the Queen of Everyone's Heart:" Community, Gender, Morality and Sexuality in the  "Queen Val-Vedette" and "Queen Aurora of the Evergreens"  Beauty Pageants, 1948-1970

NATHAN, Holly   (2009)
"Building Dams, Constructing Stories: The Press, The Sekani  and the Peace River Dam, 1957-1969"

NIEMI, Melanie Ann   (2005)
"The Edmonton and District Stragglers:  Gendered Strategies of Treaty and Scrip,1876-1886"

PUGH, Rhys Alan  (2004)
"The Newspaper Wars in Prince George, B.C. 1909-1918"

REIMERS, Mia  (1999)
"The Glamour and the Horror: a Social History of Wartime Northwestern British Columbia, 1939-1945"

SELL, Gregory Earl  (2007)
"Settler Mythology and the Construction of the Historical Memory of the Indian Wars of the Pacific Northwest"

SHORTEN, Rebecca Jane  (2008)
"The Shapeliest Legs Under the Council Table: Defining The Feminist Influence on Women  in British Columbia Municipal Politics, 1950-1980"

STEVENSON-WALDIE, Laura  (2001)
"The Sensational Landscape: The History of Sensationalist Images of the Arctic, 1818-1920"

TANER, Shona   (1997)
"The Development of Native Studies at Canadian Universities Four Programs, Four Provinces, Four Decades"

TOOMEY, Roy P.   (2006)
"Canadian Indians and the Second World War: The Pivotal Event of the 20th Century for Canadian Indians and Canadian Indian Policy?"

TOWNSEND, Lorna ivy   (2006)
"'I Must Record the Grit of My Little Wife Millie':  Experience, Representation, and Rural Women in Early 20th Century British Columbia"