Programs

Historical Studies

  • Degrees offered: MA, PhD
  • Application deadline: December 15; applications recieved after this date will not be accepted.
  • Study options: Thesis / Report (MA); Dissertation (PhD)
  • Duration: 1-2 (MA) to 4-5 (PhD) years
  • Entry term: Fall

Established in 1785, UNB has a long history of helping students interpret the past. Our history department’s graduate programs examine diverse narratives about societies, institutions and cultures to help make sense of the complex world in which we live today. Students develop invaluable critical reading, professional writing and advanced analytical skills while exploring this endlessly fascinating discipline.

Roughly half our graduate students choose to study Canadian History, and many focus on regional topics in Atlantic Canada. These subjects are facilitated by access to our associated research centres, The Atlantic Canada Studies Centre and the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society. UNB history graduates go on to find rewarding careers in archives, museums, cultural institutions, public service, the private sector and in tenured faculty positions at universities. Currently, the Department of Historical Studies has approximately 50 MA and PhD candidates.

Research areas

  • Canadian history
  • Canadian and Atlantic region history
  • Early modern history
  • International and military history
  • Social history of medicine and health
  • Twentieth-century American history

Current faculty and research areas

Fredericton campus

  • Cindy Brown: Military History, the impact of war on the people who live in the battlefield, particularly Italy.
  • Jeffrey Brown: United States, Transatlantic Modernism/Modernity, American Therapeutics 
  • Wendy D. Churchill: Early Modern Britain and its Empire, Social History of Medicine, Early Modern Atlantic World, Early Modern Women's and Gender History 
  • Sarah-Jane Corke: Post 1945 American History, US Foreign Relations, History of the CIA
  • Stephen Dutcher: Canadian and American History, Indigenous Peoples, Popular Culture
  • Bonnie Huskins: Loyalists of the American Revolution, Early Modern British Atlantic World, History of Atlantic Canada
  • Sean Kennedy: Modern European, French History, the far right and Intellectual History
  • Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy: The Caribbean and the Atlantic World, Slavery and Emancipation, Disability History, African Diaspora, Histories of Race
  • Carolyn MacDonald: Latin Literature, Roman Art, Roman cultural memory, Cross-cultural interactions, Responses to imperialism.
  • Sasha Mullally: Canadian and American history with a specialization in the social history of medicine and health.
  • Janet Mullin: Early-modern European and British history, Eighteenth-century social history, Eighteenth-century leisure culture
  • Matthew Sears: Ancient Greek and Roman History, Greek and Latin historiography, Ancient Warfare and Society, Commemoration
  • Lisa Todd: Modern Germany, European History, Gender and Sexuality, and War and Society 
  • Lee Windsor: History of Warfare in the Modern World  

Saint John campus

  • Cheryl Fury: Early Modern Europe, Tudor-Stuart England, Social History of the Navy, Women and Gender, the Holocaust, and Fascism 
  • Heidi MacDonald: Twentieth-Century Canadian History with Specializations in Atlantic Canada, the Great Depression, Women Religious (Nuns), Suffrage, and Youth. 
  • Gregory Marquis: Atlantic Canada, Law and Society, Crime and Policing, Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco
  • Erin Spinney: History of Nursing, History of Medicine, Environmental History, Early Modern Britain, Social History of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Royal Navy, Women's Labour in the British Atlantic World.

Application requirements

  1. MA applicants should hold an honours degree in history, or equivalent. Priority is given to those with first-class standing.
  2. PhD applicants should hold a masters degree in history with high and first class standing.
  3. Prior to applying, applicants must contact a prospective advisor to secure research supervision.
  4. All applicants are expected to submit:
    • Résumé
    • Research plan of approximately 250-500 words
    • Academic writing sample
    • Three references (at least two academic)
    • Complete application form
  5. International applicants whose first language is not English must submit language scores that meet or exceed International English language testing system (IELTS) band 7.

Funding

MA-level assistantships are valued at approximately $15,000 over 12 months. Outstanding students, such as those who hold a first class honours degree, are eligible to receive a top-up merit award (Board of Governor Merit Award, or the Magee-Third Century Postgraduate Merit Award ) valued at approximately $3000.00 over 12 months. A maximum of five semesters of funding is possible. 

At the Ph.D. level assistantships are currently valued at $19,000 per year with merit awards going to the top candidates in the Arts Faculty. Students at both the MA and PhD level are eligible and encouraged to apply for SSHRC funding. UNB History graduate students have been very successful over the years in winning these prestigious fellowships.

Contact us

For more information on our program, contact Dr. Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy, Acting Director of Graduate Studies, or contact Elizabeth Arnold, Graduate Program Assistant.

Office: Tilley Hall, Rm. 120

Phone: 506 453 4621

Related: Department of Historical Studies