Graduate Program
The graduate program of the Department of History is a small and select one that offers both the MA and PhD degrees. The program uniquely combines the personal attention of a tutorial system with the resources of a major research institution. While in residence, students have access with the distinguished faculty, a world-class library, and opportunities with one of the premier academic journals, Reviews in America History, which is edited here.
The graduate program revolves around the research and writing interests of the faculty. These fall into three spheres of inquiry — the world of nations, which emphasizes the complications of government, nationalism, war, and power, the world of goods, which concentrates on commerce and trade, the supporting institutions and the consequence of various modes of production and consumption, and the world of ideas, which focuses on the production and uses of knowledge. Because these areas of inquiry are not confined to a single nation-state, the department strives to provide opportunities for transnational and comparative study and encourages dissertations with that emphasis.
PhD students will adopt programs of study with four (4) fields or spheres— two of which will be teaching fields and two of which will be research fields. Teaching fields are those fields that qualify students to teach basic introductory or survey courses. They may be national, regional, or global in scope. Examples include US I, Southeast Asia, Western Civilization. Students will generally acquire their knowledge through 592 Independent Reading courses and any undergraduate courses they chose to audit. Students may obtain reading lists for teaching fields from faculty members’ websites.
Research fields are specialized and concentrated interests that should support dissertation work. These normally will be met through 400-level courses and Directed Readings courses (usually demarcated History 591). Examples of research fields are the Enlightenment, African-American migration, or history of psychology. At least one of these fields must be transnational or comparative in nature. Students may find offered research fields and associated readings lists on faculty members’ individual pages and on the research fields webpage.
Please consult the Graduate Handbook for the most updated requirements of the graduate program, including comprehensive exams, language requirements, major fields, teaching assistantships, and adviser selection.