History Department
Proposed Curriculum Changes Overview, 2010-11
The department has voted to divide the course objectives of the former HSTR 300, The
Historian’s Craft, into two separate courses. It will require majors to take both courses
instead of HSTR 300.

First, the department will require majors to take a 1-credit foundational course (HSTR
200, Introduction to Historical Methods) to introduce students to foundational aspects
of the historical discipline. The skills introduced in this course will be built upon in
subsequent coursework. Two sections of this course will be offered each semester.

Second, the department will require majors to take a 400-level approved history
upper-division writing course. Students must have taken HSTR 200, Introduction to
Historical Methods, before taking a course that fulfills this requirement. Several of
these courses will be offered each semester.
Please note that the addition of this 1-credit HSTR 200 course does not alter the total
number of credits required for History Majors. It does increase the number of history
credits required for History Education and Comprehensive Social Science Education
majors by one credit. Jean Luckowski (ED) and Paul Haber (PSci) have approved this
change.
To effect these changes, the following course forms will be submitted:
Program Modification Form w/ signatures of affected program chairs (ED and PSci)
New Course: HSTR 200 Introduction to Historical Methods 1 cr.
New Course: HSTR 400 Historical Research Seminar 3 cr. (UD Writing)
Course Deletion: HSTR 300 The Historian’s Craft 3 cr. (UD Writing)
In addition, the department adds the following new courses to the graduate curriculum:
New Course: HSTA 501 Early American History 3 cr.
New Course: HSTA 502 Modern American History 3 cr.
New Course: HSTR 501 European History 3 cr.
These new graduate courses are intended as foundational temporal courses for all graduate
students. Ultimately some existing courses will be deleted once the success of these new courses
is established.
The department also request approval of the following new courses, which will increase options
for students to meet the new UD writing requirement:
UG 471 Writing Women’s Lives 3 cr. (UD Writing; new course)
UG 461 Research in Montana History 3 cr. (UD Writing; new course)
UG 437 U.S.-Latin American Relations 3 cr. (UD Writing; new course)
UG 415 Black Radical Tradition 3 cr. (UD Writing; course number change)
UG 418 British History 3 cr. (UD Writing)
Each of these courses is to be capped at 20 students and be consent required to allow the
department to serve its own graduating seniors first.
Note that all new course numbers have been selected after referring to the MUS course
numbering matrix to avoid any conflicts and maintain internal consistency on the UM-Missoula
campus.
The department further recommends the following changes to existing courses:
Change HSTA 345 to 415; add UD Writing designation
Change HSTA 270-271 to 370-371; maintain Gen Ed designation (H)
Change title of HSTA 374 to “Voodoo, Muslim, Church”; apply for Gen Ed designation (E)
Change course descriptions of HSTR Western Civ. survey (101-102, Honors 103-104) to reflect
new temporal divisions, i.e. dividing at 1648 instead of 1715.
Finally, the Curriculum Committee recommends approval of Program Modification proposals
from AAS, Russian Studies, and LS after consulting with affected faculty members.
Please direct any questions or concerns to Anya Jabour, Chair, Curriculum Committee, History
Department, ext. 4364 or anya.jabour@umontana.edu.
September 17, 2010