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History Department Courses 

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

Fall/Winter/Spring/Summer Courses

Visit these pages when you're planning to enroll in courses. They include a list of all the courses that will be offered, course descriptions for topical courses, and instructions for enrolling in our colloquia.

Course Archive

Lists of courses we have offered in the past.

DEI Approved Courses

Visit this site for the details of the DEI Requirement and the current list of DEI approved courses.

UCDC

Visit this site for couses offered through the UCDC program. All courses listed are accepted as an upper-division history elective.


Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I find course descriptions?

Course descriptions can be found on the Courses page of the History Department's sections of the UC San Diego Course Catalog (see below). Topical course descriptions can be found on the Current Courses page of this website. 

What is a Colloquium?

Colloquia are courses numbered 160-190 for undergraduate students, and 260-290 for graduate students. They are run more like graduate seminars than undergraduate lectures in that enrollment is capped at 20 (usually 15 undergraduate seats, and 5 graduate seats) to facillitate small group disscussions of the many assigned readings. The course culminates in a final research paper that for undergraduate students usually fulfills the Significant Writing Requirement for their college. Undergraduate majors are required to take one colloquium but may take more. Ungraduate students in the Honors Program are required to take two colloquia in addition to HITO 196-Honors Seminar.

Enrolling in a Colloquium

To enroll in a colloquium you will need to request Department Approval by using the Course Pre-Authorization Request tool. In the justification field please answer the following questions:
  • Why are you interested in taking the class?
  • Have you taken any history classes before?
  • Have you taken any other course on this period?
  • How heavy is your schedule? -- we will have a lot of reading and writing.
  • What kinds of papers have you written before?