Program

Applications for September admissions normally will be accepted until January 15.

ProgramExpected LengthProject and/or thesisCourse based
M.A.2 years
Ph.D.5 years

The Department of History has thesis-based M.A. and Ph.D. programs. We specialize in eight signature research areas, but can accommodate a wide range of topics.

Signature research areas:

  • Indigenous history
  • Environmental history
  • Prairies and the North American West
  • Health, medicine, science, and occultism
  • History and politics of memory
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Colonial and post-colonial histories
  • Twentieth-century politics, culture, and foreign relations

Graduate students in our department have access to opportunities found nowhere else in the world. We boast an Ethnohistory Field School, Collaboratorium, Digital History and HGIS Lab, and embedded support structures for community engaged research. The specifics of our program can be found in our M.A. Handbook and Ph.D. Handbook.

Research supervisors

Before applying, please contact a faculty member in your area of research interest who could serve as a potential supervisor for your thesis. Once you have contacted a faculty member who is willing to supervise your thesis research, begin the formal application process. Please indicate the results of this communication in the statement/letter of intent.

Name Research areas
19th Century; 20th Century; Aboriginal; Alberta; British Columbia; Canada; Collective Memory; Communalism; Cultural Pluralism; Doukhobors; Empire Building; Ethnicity; Gender; Health; Identity; Indigenous; Land Tenure; Law; Manitoba; Medicine; Migration; Multiculturalism; Nation Building; Oral Culture; Politics; Religion; Russia; Saskatchewan; Settler Colonialism
Active History; British History; British World; Canadian History; Cities; Commodities; Digital Humanities; Digital Methods; Environmental History; Forest History; GIS; HGIS; History of Public Health; London; Nineteenth Century; Public History; Spatial History; Timber Trade; Urban; Urban History
HGIS; North America; agricultural landscapes; digital humanities; environmental history; historical geography; history
20th Century China; China; Eugenics; One Child policy; birth control; culture; gender; gender history; hygiene; intellectual history; medical history; population; sex; venereal disease
17th Century; 18th Century; Scotland; gender; persecution; urban history
20th Century; Canadian medicine; Eugenics; Human Experimentation; Psychedelics; Psychiatry and Mental Health; Remembering Covid
18th century; Aboriginal; British North America; Canada; Colonialism; French; Fur Trade; Governance; Illinois Country; Indigenous; Law; Louisiana; Merchants; Métissage; Pre-Industrial Quebec; United States; Upper Louisiana; Voyageurs; cross-cultural research
19th Century Capitalism; Central America; Guatemala; Latin America; Peasant dispossession; community; development; environmental history; human rights
Aboriginal; Africa; HIV/AIDS; South Africa; colonialism; health; indigenous; oppression
Borderlands History; Canada; Demography; GIS; History; Indigenous history; Race; United States
Roman Architecture and Archaeology; Roman History and Culture; Roman Inscriptions (epigraphy)
Buddhism; China; Japan; Shinto; religion
Book History; Gender and Masculinity; History of Science; Magic; Manuscripts; Palaeography and Codicology
Canadian culture; food studies; gender; popular culture; prairie; sexuality; social justice
Aboriginal; Wendat; colonialism; indigenous; north America; women
Arab decolonization; Arab-Israeli Conflict; Edward Said; Occidentalism; Orientalism; Palestine; Postcolonialism; U.S.- Middle East relations; UNESCO
Cultural History; Culture; Fascism; Feminist Theory; France; Gender; Homosexuality; Intellectual History; Literature; Mass Media; Memory; Postmodernism; Sexuality
Early modern Britain; early modern Europe; healthcare; naval and maritime history; peace building; war; war and historical memory; war and imperial state formation; war and society
Modern European History; Italian History; History of Sexuality ; Queer History; Transnational History; History of Fascism ; History of Youth
20th Century U.S. History; Cold War History; Environmental History; Nuclear Proliferation; U.S. Foreign Relations; United States and the Asia Pacific
Gender; Indigenous; Metis; Oral History; Place Making; Research Methods; Road Allowance; Saskatchewan; Saskatoon
Canada; Muskoka; agriculture; agroecosystems; coal; commodities; energy; environmental history; farm systems; history; irrigation; leather; social metabolism; sustainability
Conflict and Violence; Manuscripts; Medieval England; Medieval Women; Middle Ages in Film
Classical Receptions; Early Christianity; Hagiography; Late Antiquity; Later Roman Empire; Latin Literature

Tuition and funding

Funding

Potential funding for eligible students may be available from your department.

Graduate students at USask can receive funding from a variety of sources to support their graduate education.

Tuition

Thesis or project-based master's program

Graduate students in a thesis or project-based program pay tuition three times a year for as long as they are enrolled in their program.

Term Canadian students International students
September 1 - December 31, 2024 $1,726.00 CAD $3,883.50 CAD
January 1 - April 30, 2025 $1,726.00 CAD $3,883.50 CAD
May 1 - August 31, 2025 $1,726.00 CAD $3,883.50 CAD
Total per academic year $5,178.00 CAD $11,650.50 CAD

Doctoral program

Doctoral students pay tuition three times a year for as long as they are enrolled in their program. Both international and domestic Ph.D. students pay the same rate.

Term
January 1 - April 30, 2025 $1,726.00 CAD
May 1 - August 31, 2025 $1,726.00 CAD
September 1 - December 31, 2024 $1,726.00 CAD
Total per academic year $5,178.00 CAD

Student fees

In addition to tuition above, students also pay fees for programs like health and dental insurance, a bus pass, and other campus services. The amount you need to pay depends on if you are taking classes full time or part time, and if you are on campus or not. The table below assumes you are on campus full-time.

Fall 2024 Winter 2025 Spring 2025 Summer 2025
Student fees $504.45 CAD $666.08 CAD $35.00 CAD $35.00 CAD

Tuition information is accurate for the current academic year and does not include student fees. For detailed tuition and fees information, visit the official tuition website.

Admission requirements

  • Language Proficiency Requirements: Proof of English proficiency may be required for international applicants and for applicants whose first language is not English
  • A completed on-line application, the application fee and all supporting application documents.
  • A cumulative weighted average of at least a 70% (USask grade system equivalent) in the last two years of study (i.e. 60 credit units)
  • A four-year honours degree, or equivalent, from a recognized college or university in an academic discipline relevant to the proposed field of study
  • At least 75% GPA of History courses

  • Language Proficiency Requirements: Proof of English proficiency may be required for international applicants and for applicants whose first language is not English.
  • Master’s degree, or equivalent, from a recognized university in a relevant academic discipline
  • A completed on-line application, the application fee and all supporting application documents
  • A cumulative weighted average of at least a 80% (USask grade system equivalent) in the last two years of study (i.e. coursework required in master’s program)

Application process

Find a supervisor

Use the list above to find a potential supervisor in our area of research interest. Before applying, please contact a faculty member in your area of research interest who could serve as a potential supervisor for your thesis. Once you have contacted a faculty member who is willing to supervise your thesis research, begin the formal application process. Please indicate the results of this communication in the statement/letter of intent.

Submit an online application

Before beginning your online application, be sure that you have carefully reviewed all program information and admission requirements on this page.

During the application, you'll be asked for:

  • Personal information such as your name, address, etc.
  • Contact information of your three referees
    • For your letters of recommendation, two of your referees must be academic contacts, and the third may be academic or professional
  • Your complete academic history from all previous post-secondary institutions

The application takes about 30 minutes to complete. You may save your application and return to it later.

At the end of the application, you will need to pay a non-refundable $120 application fee. Your application will not be processed until payment is received.

Submit required documents

Once you've submitted your online application, you will have access to upload your required documents, and provide the contact information for your references. To do this, go to the "Supplemental Items & Documents" tab in your application, and upload the documents outlined below.

Preliminary Statement of Marks

  • Once you have submitted your application for admission and paid the application fee, you will be required to upload unofficial PDF copies of your academic transcript(s) from each post-secondary institution attended. This requirement will appear as Preliminary Statement of Marks or Additional Prelim. Statement under admission requirements on your Application Summary when you check your application status.
  • The uploaded transcript can be an unofficial copy of the transcript issued by the university or college, and must include a grading key/legend.
  • All pages of a transcript must be uploaded as a single PDF document.
  • Uploaded transcripts will be considered unofficial or preliminary. Official copies of your transcripts will be required only for applicants offered admission. This requirement will appear as Post-secondary Transcript under admission requirements on your Application Summary when you check your application status.

Uploading documents

Post-secondary Transcripts

If you receive an offer of admission, you will then be required to have your official post-secondary transcripts sent (by mail in a sealed envelope directly from the institution) to the address below. Please do not send official documents until we request them.

College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Room 116 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place 
Saskatoon, SK CANADA S7N 5C9

  • Transcripts usually indicate the institution’s name, grading scheme (typically on back of transcript), your name, course names, numbers, credits, and the grades you have received. Depending on the country or institution, some features may not be available.
  • Transcripts in languages other than English must be accompanied by a certified translation.
  • If you are a current University of Saskatchewan student completing your undergraduate program then a letter of completion of degree requirements will be required from your college.

Proof of English language proficiency may be required for international applicants and for applicants whose first language is not English.

For students who are required to provide proof of English proficiency:

  • It is your responsibility to have completed an official and approved test with the appropriate score before the application deadline.
  • Tests are valid for 24 months after the testing date and must be valid at the beginning of the student's first term of registration in the graduate program.
  • Applicants will be required to upload a PDF copy of any required language test score. Uploaded test scores will be considered unofficial or preliminary.

Uploading documents

If you receive an Offer of Admission you may be required to have your official language test scores sent to the address below. Please do not send official documents until we request them.

College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Room 116 Thorvaldson Building - 110 Science Place
Saskatoon, SK CANADA S7N 5C9

In addition to the above official documents, please upload the following documents:

  • A curriculum vitae or resume, including a brief written description of previous relevant course work, grades, employment, and relevant training and life experience
  • Statement/letter of intent (two to three pages) that should include some discussion about your relevant academic background, your proposed thesis research topic and your potential supervisor
  • Writing sample: a maximum of 20 pages for M.A. applicants, and 35 pages for Ph.D. applicants

Contact

Graduate Admissions
Department of History
9 Campus Drive - Room 518 Arts
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5

Graduate Chair
Robert Englebert
Email: robert.englebert@usask.ca

Application Admin Support
Anna McKenzie
Email: asg.gradapplications@usask.ca

Program Admin Support
Nadine Penner
Email: asg.graduateprograms@usask.ca