Boston University offers students the opportunity to combine the study of law with coursework in history. The dual degree program facilitates inquiry at the two fields’ intersection in legal history. Students must be admitted and begin the JD program at BU Law before applying to the MA program in History.
Successful candidates receive both the Juris Doctor (JD) degree and a Master of Arts (MA) degree. The dual degree program ordinarily can be completed in six semesters, rather than the eight semesters required to obtain each degree independently, because some courses can be credited toward both degrees.
The dual degree can significantly benefit a student, regardless of his or her career path. For students who intend to practice law, the program provides a broader array of coursework that enhances their analytical and writing skills, which are essential to legal practice. Similarly, the program can benefit students who pursue academic careers in law and/or history (particularly legal history). Possession of both degrees can improve students’ chances of securing academic appointments in law schools and, for those who pursue the PhD in history, in history departments.
Course Requirements
Students must take 4 required law school courses; at least 2 School of Law classes in legal history during their second and/or third years of law school.
The Department of History aims to familiarize graduate students with historiographical and methodological paradigms in fields beyond their own area of interest. All students in the MA program are thus required to take the following four courses:
- GRS HI 800: European Historiography
- GRS HI 850: American Historiography
- GRS HI 870: African Historiography
- GRS HI 801: The Historian’s Craft
HI 800, 850, and 870 are reading and research courses on historiographical issues and approaches in the areas where the department has special strengths. In contrast, The Historian’s Craft (HI 801) is a research seminar designed to help students move from the original conception of a problem to a publishable article.
Students must also take two additional courses chosen with their advisor’s approval from graduate courses in history, LAW courses in legal history, or other graduate courses approved by the student’s advisor. If the two additional courses are approved LAW courses, the student receives credit for those courses both at GRS and at the School of Law.
Major Research Paper Requirement
The core requirement of the joint JD/MA in History program is the major research paper. Students must write a research paper that is a work of original scholarship and research and that substantially engages both legal and historical subjects, methods, texts, and/or analysis. This paper must:
- satisfy the School of Law’s Upperclass Writing Requirement;
- be jointly supervised by a faculty member in the School of Law and in the Department of History;
- be approved, in its final form, by a faculty member in the School of Law and in the Department of History (the research paper supervisor may also approve the paper on behalf of his or her school or department).
The research paper project begins with a detailed proposal for study, submitted to a member of the Joint Advisory Board. Students are strongly encouraged to submit proposals before the final year of law study, or, at the latest, by the beginning of that year. No proposal may be submitted after the end of the second week of the student’s final semester. Ordinarily, the joint major research paper will be a minimum of 30 pages (excluding notes).
A student who writes the research paper in the context of a course or directed study in the Department of History may not also receive law school course credit for the paper. Similarly, a student who submits the paper in partial or full satisfaction of a law school course or independent study may not also receive GRS course credit for the paper.
Language Requirement
Given the increasing globalization of research and the significant secondary literature produced outside the English-speaking world, the Department believes it is important for all of our students, including Americanists, to demonstrate a genuine ability to read research in foreign languages. To this end, we require that all MA candidates demonstrate a reading knowledge of one relevant foreign language.
Students can demonstrate reading proficiency in a foreign language in one of three ways:
- Language examinations. Students are given an excerpt from a scholarly text and asked to translate as much as they can as accurately as they can into good English (a dictionary is permitted). These exams are administered during the semester in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. Exams must be scheduled with an administrator at least 2 weeks in advance.
- Language courses. The Department of Romance Studies offers reading courses for graduate students in French (GRS LF 621), Italian (GRS LI 621), and Spanish (GRS LS 621). The Department of World Languages & Literatures offers a reading course for graduate students in German (GRS LG 621). Passing one of these reading courses fulfills the department’s requirement for the language in question. Note that these courses may not be taken for credit toward the degree.
- Prior graduate school certification. If the candidate has passed a reading examination at another accredited graduate school and submits evidence to that effect to the Director of Graduate Studies, the departmental requirement will be waived in most instances.