全国范围内的历史专业结合了对地理时空领域的传统强调（例如19世纪的美国，中世纪的欧洲）与对跨国主义，比较历史和跨学科研究的新强调。USC计划处于这些趋势的最前沿。按照传统的重点，每位研究生必须在申请该计划时声明一个地理时空领域的主要领域。主要研究领域包括：中国，日本，韩国，拉丁美洲，中东，美国/美国，中世纪欧洲，近代欧洲和近代欧洲。主要领域的目的是为学生提供广泛的教学和研究准备。
The history profession nationwide combines a traditional emphasis on geo-temporal fields (e.g., U.S. in the 19th century, medieval Europe) with a new emphasis on trans-nationalism, comparative history and interdisciplinary investigation. The USC program is at the forefront of these trends. Following the traditional emphasis, each graduate student must declare a major field in a geo-temporal area at the time of application to the program. Major fields of study include: China, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Middle East, American/United States, medieval Europe, early modern Europe and modern Europe. The purpose of the major field is to prepare students broadly for teaching and research.