MA / MSc in International and World History

Columbia University und London School of Economics

What makes us different

An innovative curriculum comprises a two-year series of reading and research seminars, interdisciplinary electives and intensive foreign language training. Esteemed lecturers offer our students a new framework and the tools to understand the transnational forces that have shaped our world. The heart of the program is the two-year dissertation, an original scientific paper based on empirical research and analysis.

Students spend the first year at Columbia University in New York City and the second year at the London School of Economics and receive degrees from both institutions. Embedded in the vibrant intellectual communities of two of the world's great cities, graduates are prepared for careers in government, journalism, think tanks, NGOs, and academia.

The world is more connected than ever. Join leading historians to examine how we got here. Potential applicants are encouraged to read our eligibility section for information on how to apply.

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Academics

Find out more about our two-year curriculum, courses, and language requirements.

Admissions

Are you ready to apply? Submit an application through Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (GSAS).

Faculty

The dual MA / MSc is taught by outstanding historians at Columbia and the LSE. With two supervisors, students benefit from the intellectual communities on both sides of the Atlantic.

social work phd programs

The dissertation

The dissertation is the most important part of the dual study program and also the most rewarding for many students. The program is structured so that students have sufficient time and access to funding to take on unique and ambitious projects. MA / MSc students have the opportunity to work with lecturers from both institutions, as well as great freedom in choosing topics and methods. After graduation, many students publish their dissertations. View all previous dissertations here .

The Watchdog Without Bite: Argentina, Brazil, OPANAL, and Nuclear Non-Proliferation in Latin America, 1973–1990 .

meat stations and meat trading

'A New Israel': The Policy of Comparisons in the Decolonization of Algeria 1958-1962.

Charitable Imperialism and the San Ciriaco Hurricane: Ideology, Humanitarian Partnerships, and the Formation of an American Aid Policy (Puerto Rico, 1899-1901)

Idealism, Imperialism, and Internationalism: Opium Policy in the Colonial Philippines, 1898-1925

“Nests of Resistance”: The Policy of UNRWA and the Refugee Camps in the West Bank, 1967-87

chaplinsky v. new hampshire (1942)

Sample courses

Here is a selection of courses offered at Columbia and the London School of Economics.

Jane Blankenship Gibson, Spektroskopikerin bei Lockheed Aircraft, 1961. Quelle: Smithsonian Institution Women as Cold War Weapons

Cold War ideological campaigns for the hearts and minds bordered hot war confrontations between 1945 and 1991, and women engaged in both. This seminar explores the history of the state and private sector mechanisms used to export national ideals by and about women to enforce American Cold War foreign policy agendas.

Marketplace, source: MA / MSc program Borderland

This course will argue for a broader spatial history of the empire by looking at places like 'borders' and 'frontier areas' from a theoretical and comparative perspective.

Lyndon B. Johnson and Prime Minister Harold Wilson, 1966. Source: Wikimedia Commons Anglo-American Relations from World War I to the Cold War, 1939-91

This course analyzes the change in the Anglo-American “special” relationship from its creation against the backdrop of World War II in Europe to the end of the Cold War.

Migrant workers at the US border, 1971. Source: U.S. National Archives Transnational Amerika

This course will address the implications of the so-called transnational turn in American hemisphere studies. The ultimate goal of the course is to get students to conceptualize America as a broader American, interconnected cross-border space, rather than as a hemisphere of diverse nation-states.

What: MA / MSc-Programm East Asia in the Age of Imperialism, 1839-1945

The course looks at the origins and political, strategic, economic and cultural consequences of the arrival of Western imperialism in East Asia.

What: MA / MSc-Programm Racial Violence and Colonial Rule in Africa

This course examines the nature of colonial rule in Africa and its effects. It focuses on the violence inherent in this encounter, its various forms and origins. It is essentially a political story, but encompasses cultural, social, and economic aspects.

Arthur Asseraf

Lecturer in French History, University of Cambridge.

Joshua Clement

Associate, Goldman Sachs

Rachel Cox

Communication and Research Assistant, Global Witness

Dawn Whitehead

Consultant and Agile Business Analyst, Excella

Sara Cosemans

dr of public health salary

PhD student, Flanders Research Foundation

Roberto Velasquez

Lehrbeauftragter, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Daria Rouholamin

Associate Representative for Donor Relations, UNHCR

Alumni-Spotlight

MA / MSc graduates lead successful careers in academia, government and public services, nonprofits, journalism, finance, and more. Explore our alumni profiles to see what our graduates are doing today. To see all of our alumni, click here.

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