Objectives
- Training high-level, nationally and internationally renowned researchers and teachers
- Promoting the consolidation of a national academic community of historians with a solid theoretical background in social sciences.
- Contributing to the creation of knowledge and innovative interpretations in the field of History, for a better understanding of the country and the region.
- Promoting and strengthening the formation of internationally recognized national academic communities, characterized by scientific independence, autonomy and creativity in the production of knowledge according to local priorities.
Study Plan
The curriculum is conceived as a three-phase program: Fundamentals, Project Design and Writing of the Dissertation.
The first phase includes theoretical courses and seminars of the Master's Degree in History. In this phase, students take two courses in each area: Theoretical Education, Concentration, and Research. The purpose of the theoretical courses in the first phase of thes the ever-changing forms of construction of historical knowledge. This series of courses will provide students with the necessary theoretical fundamentals to conduct academic research.
Fundamentals
At the outset, students must take two courses in the theoretical area in the second phase of the program: Colombian Historiography and Social Theory.
Project Design
In the second phase, students receive the necessary tools to define their project: theoretical framework, sources, state of the art, Objectives and scope of the research.
Writing of the Dissertation
This is the third and last phase of the program. The main focus is the individual development of research, and therefore tutorial assistance is vital and involves an important responsibility. The project director and the student must meet regularly, agree on work schedules and submit semestral reports to the Graduate Courses Committee on the progress of the research. The project director is responsible for supervising the research in all aspects: project design, identification of sources, preparation of a theoretical framework and definition of Objectives and the methodology to accomplish them.
The doctor's degree entails the production of new knowledge and significant contributions, both empirically and theoretically. Thus, the research must result in at least one international and two national publications. After completion, the thesis must be orally defended and have, apart from the approval from the project director, the approval from two juries of the University, and one external evaluator. This committee must decide whether the dissertation merits the doctor's degree.
Internship abroad
As part of the program, students must enroll in an internship abroad, equivalent to one academic semester as a minimum, which can be completed uninterruptedly or in several phases. This internship can be in a different university or research center, previously approved by the project director and the Graduate Course Committee.
Lines of Research
Contemporary History
History as an area of research has been typically associated with the study of the past. However, since the 1960s a new field of history has emerged: the study of the present. This Histoire du Temps Présent for the French, Zeitgeschichte for the Germans, which we could summarize as an non-conjuncture analysis of the conjuncture, is a legitimate field in international historical production. This field is focus of special attention by professors of the Department in lines of research and studies on: globalization, international relations, culture of illegality, especially in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Colombia in contemporary times.
History of Science
Scientific knowledge and technological development have played a determining role in the creation of the modern world. Any attempt to study and understand history, culture, economy and society in general, must include in their analysis the social processes that bring about scientific and technological changes.
The systematic study of history of science and technology and their close relations with economic, ideological, religious and political factors, is a relatively recent activity. In the last decades, however, the studies about science, technology and society have remarkably expanded and have become a venue for discussion and convergence among areas such as philosophy, history, sociology, natural science and engineering. Particularly the professors in the Department who work along these lines have paid special attention to the relation between science and empire.
Colonial History
The relevance of colonial history revolves around the necessary dialogue between present and past. In this sense, the understanding of colonial past is considered a possibility to enlighten current social processes. The studies on the cultural parameters of the native population, as well as Africans and Europeans, who migrated by force or voluntarily, the mixture of races in the Colombian context, political culture, the development of mining, processes of territory appropriation, organization of territory, as ways to control the population, as well as responses to domination, are some of the expressions of colonial life, whose consequences on social and cultural life can be observed in the present.
Afro-Colombian Studies
This line of research is devoted to research in different realities related to the African diaspora in Colombia. The groups has developed historical and anthropological research, whose topics comprise areas as diverse as: gender, territory, social, geographic, religious and symbolic issues.
Conceptions of Conquest
It is difficult to find an event with as profound and diverse repercussions on Western history as the discovery and conquest of the American continent. Among the multiple approaches through which the subject can be analyzed, it can also be understood as an event that questioned a certain view of the world, of the conquering society, which led to a rethinking based on the basic notion of man, society and political and religious institutions. This had repercussions not only in Europe but it also influenced the general notion of nature of man since the beginning of the Colony.
Intellectuals and Catholicism in Colombia
This line of research focuses on Colombian catholicism, covering a period starting in 1850 and extending to present day. It studies issues like secularism, secularization processes, education, education of intellectuals, cultural history, the Catholic press, and the importance of the Church in current debates.
History, Nature and Race
The geographic axis of this line of research is the Colombian Pacific coast, and focusing on developing a type of history that includes nature and explores how race is a fundamental category in understanding how Latin American nations have been built. The framework is environmental history, political ecology and social history, and it includes the role of marginal regions within nations.
Economic History and Social Protection Systems
The focus of this line of research is to analyze how societies establish their social protection systems. Reflections on this field aim not only at investigate issues related to the way societies answer the questions, what should be protected?, who should be protected? and, with which resources?, but also the interaction among political, social and economic elements that support a specific social protection system.
Model Program
First Semester
| HIST-4700 | History and Social Sciences | 4 |
| HIST-4702 | Significant Problems in History | 3 |
| HIST-4XXX | Elective Seminar in History | 4 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 12 |
Second Semester
Third Semester
Fourth Semester
Fifth Semester
Sixth Semester
| HIST-6004 | Research Tutorial V | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 8 |
Seventh Semester
| HIST-6004 | Research Tutorial V | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 8 |
Eighth Semester
| HIST-6005 | Research Tutorial VI | 8 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 8 |
Alumni Profile
The program is designed for historians and other professionals of social sciences with a genuine interest in historical research. It focuses on education of researchers and teachers in history, especially prepared for the academic and scientific context.