History

York’s Department of History ranks number 4 in Canada and among the top 100 History departments worldwide in the latest QS rankings.

Graduate-level research in History requires learning how to gather information from a variety of sources, how to think clearly when confronted with a range of often contradictory evidence, how to develop one’s own ideas and judgments and how to express these cogently in oral and written form. The skills necessary for success in the twenty-first century – critical thinking, careful reading, energetic researching, analytical writing and effective communication – are all skills emphasized at the graduate level in History at York.

York’s History graduate program is distinguished by the academic excellence of its faculty. Long known for its strengths in Canadian history, African history, British history, European history, social history and the history of women, genders and sexualities, it is also being recognized for its strengths in Caribbean, Latin American, cultural and transnational history, as well as the history of the Ancient World.

The graduate program has more than seventy faculty members conducting award-winning and internationally recognized research, with more than 120 graduate students at the MA and PhD level. The program is committed to providing flexible graduate training both rigorous and lively that engages with traditional areas of scholarship, as well as with innovations in historical research.

 Careers for those with a History degree

History graduates pursue careers in various fields. The program has an excellent record of placing its PhDs in full-time teaching positions at both the college and university level in Canada, the United States and Western Europe.

Those pursuing non-academic careers, as well as many of our MA graduates, are employed as teachers, journalists, lawyers, librarians, editors, university administrators and civil servants.

Some helpful resources for those interested in a career in History include: