Ph.D. Program Overview

The Doctoral Program in History combines innovative teaching with rigorous seminars in American, British, and Global history. Within the broader focus on religion and culture, concentrations are offered in American Revolution, Intellectual, Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Twentieth-Century America, Women and Gender Studies, Medieval England, British Empire, the North Atlantic World, and Global history from Africa and the Middle East to Global Christianity.  We accept 3-4 highly qualified students per year.

Minimum Admissions Requirements

1. GPA and  GRE predictive of success in the program
2. Three Letters of Recommendation
3. Personal Statement outlining why the student wants to study in the Ph.D. program, what research and teaching interests the student intends to pursue, and which faculty he or she intends to have as a mentor and eventual dissertation advisor.
4. Brief writing sample—undergraduate or master’s-level paper at least fifteen pages in length.
5. Transcripts
6. Interview with proposed major professor before admissions deadline is recommended.

These minimum requirements do not ensure that an applicant will be accepted into the program. The graduate committee will consider each applicant individually in light of several factors including the student’s academic preparation, proposed area of interest and suitable faculty mentor willing to take that student, the applicant’s recommendation letters, university funding and availability of financial support, and the quality of the applicant pool in a given year.

Degree Requirements

1. Three years residence (minimum on-campus time)
2. Course Work
   1. Students entering with a bachelor’s degree
      54 hours of course work. For these students, the M.A. thesis will be waived, and the student will be granted an M.A. degree after successfully completing course work and written examinations over their preliminary examinations reading lists (see #4 below).
   2. Students entering with a master’s degree                    
      39 hours of course work
   3. All entering M.A. and Ph.D. students will be required to take HIS 5369 The Historian's Craft and HIS 5370 Advanced Graduate Research and Writing, the historical research and writing/historiography course, during their first semester.
   4. All students must take at least one American, one European, and one Global (i.e. non-western) course.
   5. Ph.D. students may take up to 6 hours in the following departments: English, Museum Studies, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Psychology, Social Work (6000-level only), and Sociology.
3. Languages                            
   Demonstrated intermediate proficiency in one modern foreign language by one of the methods listed in the Specific Degree Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the General Information section of this Catalog.
4. Preliminary Examination Readings (6 hours)                    
   Following course work, students will enroll in 6 hours of HIS 6V85 Preliminary Readings. Students will develop three prelim reading lists of roughly 50-100 books and major articles for each list.  It is expected that the reading list for the student’s dissertation field will be longer than the other lists (see dissertation field below). Each list will be developed in consultation with a professor on the student’s reading list committee. The lists should comprise the following fields:
   1. Major field
   2. Minor field (must be on continent other than student’s major)
   3. Dissertation field (field within the major field in which the student anticipates his or dissertation work)
5. Dissertation (12 hours)                            
   The capstone of the Ph.D. degree is the dissertation.  Students will enroll in a total of 12 hours of HIS 6V99 Dissertation as they write the dissertation.  The dissertation must make an original scholarly contribution to the student’s chosen area of study. The student will be required to orally defend the written dissertation to a dissertation committee composed in accordance with Graduate School regulations.
6. Teaching experience for students                        
   All Ph.D. students will be required to complete a teaching mentor program.