The First and Second Years
The department offers a wide array of Reading Seminars structured around specific thematic and disciplinary concerns (colonialism, environmental histories), and along more traditional lines (early modern Europe). These courses provide an opportunity for first and second year students to explore, in depth, the key texts and concepts associated with some of the most exciting areas of contemporary historical practice. Students will take three reading seminars in their first semester, and one in each of the next two semesters. Any student who wishes to do so may, after consultation with his or her advisors, substitute an independent reading course offered by a member of the Department (a History 291 course) or a graduate-level course offered outside of the Department for one of the reading seminars. Students may substitute one intensive or upper level language course for a reading seminar in their first semester. After the first semester, upper level language courses will be taken in addition to the regular program requirements.
After successful completion of the first semester of coursework, students will complete at least two Research Seminars, or their equivalent, over the next three semesters. Research seminars would focus on the craft of writing and research, will allow students to present their work in progress to their peers, and would have as their final product a substantial, possibly publishable, piece of original research. Students would build on interests sparked in the reading seminars, and write a research paper in one of their primary areas of interest. Students may have the opportunity to take a graduate research seminar with their primary advisor. In the absence of a comparable graduate research seminar course, and in order to produce a graduate-level research paper under the close supervision of an advisor, students may satisfy one of the research seminar requirements by completing that faculty member’s undergraduate research seminar (a course in the 197 series).
In addition to the reading and research seminars, the department requires students to enroll in a series of courses in which they will develop the skills and practices of the professional historian. This sequence begins in the first semester with the weekly Practice of History Workshop, taken by all incoming students. The Workshop will host a different member of the faculty each session for a discussion of their own work, published or in progress, selections from which students will have read in preparation for the visit. The Workshop will be graded on an S/NC basis. It is followed in the second semester by the Colloquium, an introduction to the methods and approaches of historical practice, and in the third semester with the Professionalization Seminar. This course explores pedagogy, best practices in the classroom and academic publishing.
This series of courses concludes in the fourth semester with the Prospectus Development Seminar, which provides a shared structure for the process of identifying viable dissertation projects, selecting a dissertation committee, articulating his/her project in the form of a prospectus, and, where appropriate, developing grant proposals based on the prospectus. The dissertation committee, the selection of which is a requirement of the course, consists of a director and two additional members. The Graduate Advisor will verify that the thesis director, who will normally also have been the supervisor of the student's major field examination, accepts the role of the student's major professor and dissertation advisor. At the same time the Graduate Advisor shall nominate, with their written approval, two other professors who have been agreed upon between the thesis director and student. In case of disagreement, the choice will be made by the Department. With the consent of the thesis director and Graduate Advisor, the dissertation committee may include a person from outside the Department. This committee will be responsible for evaluating the student's detailed written thesis proposal, to be presented no later than the end of the fourth semester, and for approving the final version of the student's dissertation.
The thesis topic should normally be defined, with the advice and approval of the prospective thesis director, by the end of the third semester. A detailed proposal is to be submitted to the student's dissertation committee for discussion and final approval no later than the end of the fourth semester. In some cases, and with the permission and/or encouragement of their major field director, students may present the prospectus in addition to their three fields for discussion in the oral examination.
A thesis prospectus should be divided into the following four sections:
- a. historiography -- setting the proposed study in the context of the relevant historical literature,
- b. methodology -- outlining the approach the student proposes to take,
- c. types of sources to be examined,
- d. significance -- the historical importance of the work and why we need such a study.
In addition, there should also be a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. If deemed unsatisfactory, the proposal may be referred back for resubmission by the end of the fifth semester. Students who have not presented their thesis proposal to their dissertation committee by the end of the fifth semester shall be considered not in good standing and may be ineligible for further financial aid from the Department.
Students must petition the Department in writing for any postponement of the submission of their thesis proposal beyond the end of the fourth semester. Petitions must be accompanied by a recommendation of the student's dissertation advisor. Grounds for such an extension include protracted illness, teaching duties beyond those normally expected of second year and fifth semester students, or the discovery of unexpected difficulties with his/her thesis topic (e.g. a recently completed dissertation or book on the same subject).