Areas of Study
The History and Culture program does not offer formal concentrations, but it does have special strengths in the following academic areas:
- Modern European and American Intellectual History
- The History of the Book and Print Culture
- The History of American Religion
- The History of Science and Medicine
- The Cultural History of Modern Literature
- Modern Britain and Ireland
- American Studies
- Modernism and Modernity
- The 1960s
- Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- Memory Studies
- Utopian Studies
This is not an exhaustive list: in consultation with their advisors, students can custom-design individualized courses of study. In a given semester, should courses in a student's area of interest not be offered by the program, students are encouraged to request a tutorial from appropriate faculty.
Curriculum
The History and Culture program offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in History. At the end of their first year terminal M.A. students may apply to translate to the Ph.D. program, but we will accept only a few candidates who have achieved an exceptional academic record.
The M.A.
The M.A. degree provides a solid foundation for careers in education, for nonacademic work, or for further graduate education. The degree requires 27 credits (9 courses), including the Foundation Seminar and the Interdisciplinary Seminar. The ninth course should be the Research Tutorial, in which the student will write a publishable research paper that will qualify as an M.A. thesis.
The Ph.D.
The requirements for the Ph.D. include 36 credits (12 courses), a student portfolio, and a dissertation, all of which should be completed in five years. Students admitted directly into the Ph.D. program will receive an M.A. when they satisfactorily complete the Research Tutorial and eight other courses. Doctoral students will normally be expected to teach undergraduate courses and participate in the Ph.D.@Work internship program.
Required Courses
- All Ph.D. and M.A. students are required to take the Foundation Seminar, normally in their first semester. This seminar will introduce students to the history, methods, and philosophy of historical writing.
- All Ph.D. students will take an Interdisciplinary Seminar, which is team-taught by two instructors from different departments. The instructors and the course topics change from year to year.
- All Ph.D. and M.A. students must take a Research Tutorial; normally in their final semester of course work, where each student will produce an original and publishable scholarly paper. The tutorial introduces students to archival research, the apparatus of scholarship, and the art of presenting papers at conferences and publishing them. Students in this tutorial work mainly independently but under faculty supervision.
- All Ph.D. students must take at least two courses outside of the History department. These may be graduate courses, courses in the Arts and Letters program, or upper-level undergraduate courses with augmented reading and research assignments.
- All Ph.D. students will take part in a Writing Workshop, offered annually and taught by a professional nonfiction writer, which will teach academics how to communicate topics in history and culture to a general audience.
Foreign Languages
Ph.D. students specializing in Continental Europe must pass an examination in one foreign language. Normally the language will be either French, German, or Spanish, but another language may be substituted if it is deemed useful to the student’s research. Foreign language examinations are not required for M.A. students or for Ph.D. students specializing in the United States, Britain, or Ireland.
Student Portfolios
Each Ph.D. student must, in the third academic year, demonstrate his/her preparation as a teacher and scholar by satisfactorily completing a portfolio which will consist of the following:
- Three capstone essays.
- A public lecture.
- Two book reviews.
- Two course syllabi.
- An essay on an academic topic addressed to a nonacademic audience.
- A dissertation prospectus.
The capstone essays will each survey and analyze a large body of academic literature. One will deal with general American or European history, one with American or European intellectual/cultural history, and one with an interdisciplinary field. The reading lists for the essays will be suggested by faculty advisors, who will also assess the finished essays. While reading for and writing their essays, third-year students will consult regularly with their faculty advisors. Any student who does not satisfactorily complete all parts of the portfolio by the end of his/her sixth semester must leave the program.
Dissertations
At the beginning of the third year each student will select a dissertation committee consisting of three faculty, one of whom may be based at another university. The prospectus will consist of a ten-page research plan plus a detailed bibliography, and it must be approved by all three members of the dissertation committee.
Each dissertation must ultimately undergo an oral defense and must be unanimously approved by the dissertation committee. When the student has prepared a final draft and is ready to defend, the committee will consult with the student to invite a fourth reader from another university.
