The department offers a track in the History of Science for History majors. Those pursuing the HOS track have slightly different requirements from other students in the History major. The number of those pursuing the track varies from year to year, but it is generally around a dozen students, quite a few of whom are also pre-med (the track is designed to take advantage of the pre-med requirements, reducing the overall course load for pre-meds who want to study history).

The HOS track combines many of the advantages of a small major (close work with faculty, a strong sense of community), with all the virtues of a large department (since students can draw on the resources of the whole history department as well). If you are interested in science and/or engineering, but also enjoy the humanities, history of science could be for you. For more information about the major, please contact the Undergraduate Program Director for History of Science.

History of Science Track Curriculum

History majors wishing to major in the history of science are required to meet the thematic requirements (4 courses) and geographic requirement (2 courses, which can overlap with the thematic) among their ten to twelve courses. They must also take courses that satisfy the following requirements:

• Two courses in science, engineering, or mathematics in addition to those used to fill the University’s science distribution requirement.
• Four of the HOS courses listed below.
  • These specific courses can and almost certainly will also serve to at least partially meet the geographic and thematic requirements.
  • With the permission of the Undergraduate Program Director for History of Science, one of these courses may be replaced by a cognate course from another department, for example, in philosophy or sociology of science.
• Four additional history courses.

The independent work and senior departmental requirements are the same as for all other departmental majors.