Pittsburg State University

What you'll study

The programme combines broad foundational training in historical methods and U.S./world history with specialised courses on medieval and early modern Europe. Core work emphasises close analysis of primary sources, historiography, and research skills while electives allow you to concentrate on cultural themes such as religion, visual and material culture, literacy and manuscript studies, legal and intellectual history, gender and family, and urban and social life.

• Foundations and methods: courses in historical methods, historiography, research design, and archival practice to build skills in source analysis and argumentation.
• Medieval Europe: surveys and specialised classes covering topics such as the early and high Middle Ages, medieval political and ecclesiastical institutions, crusading and cross-cultural contact, and manuscript culture.
• Early modern Europe: classes on the Renaissance, Reformation and confessionalisation, state formation, early modern intellectual history, and the cultural transformations of the 16th–18th centuries.
• Cultural and thematic modules: courses in art and visual culture, music and performance, gender and family, law and society, print culture and literacy, and material culture and consumption.
• Language and technical skills: opportunities to develop reading knowledge of Latin and modern European languages, palaeography and digital history tools for analysing texts and artefacts.
• Capstone and experiential learning: senior seminar or capstone project requiring an extended research paper; internship placements with museums, archives, historic sites or public history projects; and options for study abroad in Europe to work directly with collections and sites.

Entry requirements

Admission to Pittsburg State University follows the university's undergraduate admissions policies; prospective students should meet general university standards for a bachelor's degree. For the History major, you will normally declare the major after matriculation and complete departmental requirements to remain in good standing. Typical expectations include a high school diploma or equivalent, submission of official transcripts and any materials required by the university admissions office. Transfer students should provide college transcripts and have transferable credit in introductory college-level courses. Some departmental courses may expect competency in college-level reading, writing and, for specialised modules, introductory language study (for example Latin or a modern European language).

Students intending to pursue teacher certification should consult the Department of Education and the History department for additional requirements specific to certification pathways, including practicum and state licensure criteria.

Career prospects

A specialised undergraduate grounding in medieval and early modern European cultural history prepares graduates for a wide range of careers. Common pathways include:

• Education: secondary teaching (with appropriate certification), adult education, and curriculum development.
• Museums, archives and cultural heritage: roles in collections management, curation, interpretation, archival work, and public programming.
• Public history and heritage management: site interpretation, historic preservation, and community history projects.
• Research and writing: publishing, editing, heritage interpretation, and content development for cultural institutions.
• Related professional fields: law, public service, non-profit management, librarianship, and information management, where strong research and critical thinking skills are valued.
• Graduate study: many graduates go on to master's or doctoral programmes in history, medieval studies, museum studies, library and information science, or related humanities fields.

Why study at Pittsburg State University

Pittsburg State offers a supportive, student-centred environment with small class sizes that allow close faculty mentorship—important for developing original research projects in a specialised field like medieval and early modern cultural history. The History faculty bring a range of research interests in cultural, social and intellectual history and often supervise independent study and capstone research. Students benefit from hands-on learning through local internships and partnerships with regional museums and historical societies, plus opportunities to participate in study abroad programmes that provide direct access to European archives and sites.

The department emphasises practical skills in archival research, source criticism and written argument, preparing students both for careers outside academia and for competitive postgraduate study. Advising is available to help align elective choices, language study and experiential placements with career goals such as teaching certification, museum work or graduate research.