history phd titles

Department of History

Ph.d. programs.

The Department of History’s doctoral degree program seeks to train talented historians for careers in scholarship, teaching, and beyond the academy. The department typically accepts 22 Ph.D. students per year. Additional students are enrolled through various combined programs and through HSHM.  All admitted Ph.D. students receive a  full  financial aid package  from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. 

History of Science and Medicine

The  Program in the History of Science and Medicine  (HSHM)  is a semi-autonomous graduate track within the Department of History. HSHM students receive degrees in History, with a concentration in the History of Science and Medicine.  There is a separate admissions process for students interested in the History of Science and Medicine. For more information, please see the  HSHM website . 

Combined Doctoral Programs

Joint ph.d. programs.

History PhD

First awarded by the University of Maryland in 1937, the Doctorate in History is conferred for superior achievement in historical research, writing, and interpretation.

Additional Information

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PhD Program Overview

The Doctorate in History (PhD) is an essential component in the training of professional historians. The most significant requirement of the PhD degree program is the dissertation, an original and noteworthy contribution to historical knowledge. In anticipation of dissertation research, students spend several years mastering bibliographical tools, research and writing methods, and general, special, and minor fields of study.

Admission to the PhD program is offered to highly qualified applicants holding at least a Bachelor's (BA) degree, normally in History or a related discipline. Application and admissions procedures are described on the Department of History's  graduate admissions page .

The length of time required to complete the PhD varies by field of study and student. Students admitted with a Bachelor's (BA) degree might expect to complete the program in five to six years of full-time study. Students entering with a Master of Arts (MA) degree might expect to complete the program in four to five years of full-time study. The degree must be completed in no more than nine years.  Students typically take two years of course work, prepare for and take language exams (if required for their field) and comprehensive exams, and then research and write the dissertation.

Program Requirements and Policies

General program requirements.

• Course work in the major and minor fields
• Language examinations if required by field
• Comprehensive examinations
• Dissertation prospectus
• Advancement to candidacy
• The dDssertation

Each of these program requirements must be met before the PhD can be conferred.

Course Requirements

All PhD students entering with a Bachelor's (BA) degree (or equivalent) must take, at a minimum, the following courses (total 30 credits, not including 12 credits of “Dissertation Research”):

• Contemporary Theory (HIST 601; 3 credits)
• Major Field General Seminar (HIST 608; 3 credits)
• Readings courses in the major field (HIST 6XX and 7XX; 9 credits)
• Readings courses in the minor field (HIST 6XX and 7XX; 9 credits)
• Research seminars (HIST 8XX; 6 credits)
• Dissertation Research (HIST 898/899; 12 credits)

Special Notes:

• Courses completed during previous post-baccalaureate degree programs and/or at other institutions may be considered to satisfy course requirements. However, students entering the PhD program with a Master's (MA) degree or equivalent in History or a related discipline must take a minimum of two  600-800 level courses in the major field, one of which should be with the major advisor.
• Requests for course requirement waivers, equivalency, and credit transfers should be directed to the Director of Graduate Studies. A request must include the course syllabus and transcripts showing the final grade. The endorsement of the advisor is typically sought.
• Up to nine credit hours of major and minor field readings courses may be taken at the 400 level.  Students seeking to take a 400 level course for graduate credit should consult the instructor of record to discuss course expectations before registering.
• HIST 708/709: “Directed Independent Reading for Comprehensive Examinations” does not count toward the nine-credit readings seminar requirement.
• Students in the U.S. and Latin America fields are expected to take two major field seminars (HIST 608)–in this case, one of these 608s will be counted toward the “Readings courses in the major field” requirement.
• Students must complete the entire program for the doctoral (PhD) degree, including the dissertation and final examination, during a four-year period after admission to candidacy, but no later than nine years after admission to the doctoral (PhD) program. Students must be advanced to candidacy within five years of admission to the doctoral (PhD) program. 

Fields of Study

Doctoral students should choose one of the following as their “major field” of study:

Global Interaction and Exchange

• Jewish History (Classical Antiquity to the Present)

Latin America

Middle East

• Technology, Science, and Environment

United States

Learn more about fields of study and faculty work produced in each field by visiting the research fields page .

The Minor Field

All doctoral students are required to complete a minor field of study outside the major field of study. This requirement is typically met through nine credit hours of coursework. However, a student may opt to satisfy the requirement by written examination.

A minor field is usually a field of history outside the student's major field of concentration. For example, a student in the U.S. field may select a minor field in Latin American history; a student in the Women & Gender field may select a minor field in European history. The minor field may be a standard national-chronological field (e.g., 19th-century United States; Imperial Russia; Postcolonial India), or it may be a cross-cultural, cross-regional thematic field (e.g., the Atlantic in the era of the slave trade; gender and Islam). Or, it might be taken in a department or program outside of History (e.g., Women's Studies, English, Government & Politics, Classics and Comparative Literature).

For students opting to satisfy the minor field requirement via coursework, all courses must be approved by the student's advisor and must, to the satisfaction of the advisor and the Graduate Committee, form a coherent field of historical inquiry distinct from the general field. Courses taken at the master's level may count towards fulfillment of the minor field requirements, subject to the approval of the advisor and, in the case of courses taken at outside institutions, of the director of graduate studies.

Language Requirements

Language requirements must be fulfilled before a student is admitted to candidacy. While no MA degree requires language examinations, students will often have to learn one or more foreign languages in their field of study to successfully complete their research. They will also need to learn these languages if they wish to continue on towards a PhD. When applying for either program, preference will be given to students with prior experience with languages in their fields of study.

Language requirements differ across the varying fields within history.

No foreign language requirements for the PhD. If a student’s dissertation topic requires research in foreign language materials, the advisor will decide if the student needs to show proficiency by taking an examination in the language in question.

Spanish and Portuguese. For admission, applicants will be evaluated on their language abilities, and preference will be given to applicants with a strong command of Spanish and/or Portuguese. All PhD students must show proficiency by examination in both languages by the time they are admitted to candidacy. Exceptions to one of those languages (typically Portuguese) if the student’s dissertation requires the use of indigenous languages or documents produced by ethnic minorities. In such cases, students must be proficient in those languages.

One language (in addition to English). Depending on the field, the adviser may determine that the student needs to show proficiency in an additional language.

For admission, students must have proficiency at the advanced intermediate level in at least one major Middle Eastern language (Arabic, Persian or Turkish). All PhD students must acquire advanced proficiency in their chosen language either by course work or exam by the time they are admitted to candidacy. In addition, students must demonstrate proficiency in one European language by the time of their comprehensive exams.

Ancient Mediterranean

For admission, students should present knowledge of classical Greek and Latin at the intermediate level and reading knowledge of either French or German. Knowledge of classical Greek, Latin, French and German is required for the PhD. Other language skills, eg. Italian, Spanish, Modern Greek or Hebrew, may prove to be necessary for dissertation research but are not formal program requirements. Students satisfy the requirement in Latin and Greek in one of two ways: either by completing three upper level or graduate courses (400-600 level) in each language and obtaining at least a B in all courses and an A- or better in at least two of the courses; or by passing a departmental sight translation exam. This exam consists of translating (with the help of a dictionary) three passages of three sentences each (roughly one-fourth to one-third OCT page) selected from prose authors of average difficulty. Students show proficiency in French and German through the regular departmental language exams.

Medieval Europe

For admission, proficiency in either Latin, French or German and familiarity with a second of those languages. All PhD students must demonstrate proficiency in Latin, French and German. They can satisfy the Latin requirement in one of two ways: either by taking three upper level or graduate courses (400-600 level) and obtaining at least a B in all courses and an A- or better in at least two of the courses; or by passing a departmental sight translation exam. This exam consists of translating (with the help of a dictionary) three passages of three sentences each (roughly one-fourth to one-third OCT page) selected from medieval prose authors of average difficulty. Students show proficiency in French and German through the regular departmental language exams. Depending on the field, students may have to know an additional national/regional language like Spanish or Italian.

Early Modern Europe

For admission, proficiency in one foreign language related to the field. All PhD students must demonstrate proficiency in two foreign languages. Depending on the field, students may also have to know Latin.

Modern Europe

For admission, students must know the language of the country or region in which they are interested. All PhD students must demonstrate proficiency in the language of the country/region in which they are interested plus another European language.

Russia/Soviet Union

For admission, three years of Russian or the equivalent. All PhD students must demonstrate proficiency in Russian plus either French or German. Depending on the area of interest, the adviser may require an additional language.

For admission, advanced intermediate-level proficiency in modern Hebrew. All PhD students must demonstrate proficiency in modern Hebrew and one other language necessary for their fields. The advisor may require other languages as necessary.

Chinese History

For admission, students must have had at least two years of university-level Chinese language courses. All PhD students must acquire advanced proficiency in Chinese since they will be using Chinese documents for their dissertations.  Before admission to candidacy students must pass a Chinese language exam in which they will translate about 30 lines of modern, scholarly Chinese into English. As with all departmental language exams, students will be able to use a dictionary, and they will have four hours to complete the translation.

Language Examinations

Except as specified for Latin and ancient Greek, the typical language proficiency examination includes a summary and translation of a passage from a work of modern scholarship in the student’s field. The director of graduate studies appoints a faculty member, typically the student’s advisor, to coordinate the exam and select an excerpt from a published work of historical scholarship in the student’s field. Students write a 200-300 word summary of this five-to-seven page excerpt from the scholarly literature in their fields, and then they do a direct translation of an indicated 30-line passage within that excerpt. The direct translation must be accurate and rendered in idiomatic English. Students have four hours to complete the exam, and they may use a language dictionary that they themselves provide.

Language exams can be taken at any time before candidacy. The exams are read by two members of the faculty: typically, the student’s advisor, who chooses the passage and serves as chair of the exam committee, and one other member of the faculty chosen by the D\director of graduate studies in consultation with the advisor. Faculty from outside the department who have the necessary expertise are eligible to serve as evaluators. The two possible grades are pass and fail. If the two readers do not agree, the director of graduate studies will appoint a third faculty member to read the exam. Students who do not pass on the first attempt may retake the examination without prior approval. After a second failure, the student must petition for reexamination. The chair of the language exam committee will notify the director of graduate studies about the results of the exam within one week after the exam, and the graduate coordinator will notify the student in writing about the results, which will then be inserted into the student’s records. All students should normally pass their language examinations during their third year of the program, though given the complexity of the language requirements in different fields of study, the department recognizes the need to exercise some flexibility in the timing of this requirement.

• Comprehensive Examinations

Comprehensive examinations (comps) are a standard feature of historical training in the United States. The examinations require the examinee to demonstrate mastery of historical scholarship and historiography in a major field, including specialized mastery of the authors, themes, works and topics most relevant to the intended dissertation topic. All students register for HIST 708/709: “Directed Independent Reading for Comprehensive Examinations” for two semesters, once in the semester prior to the one in which they are scheduled to take the examinations (normally the fifth semester of the student’s program) and the second in the same semester as their examinations (normally the sixth semester of the student’s program). As noted above, these courses do not count towards the nine-credit readings seminar requirement.

Comprehensive examinations include the following:

• A special field examination in the form of an essay. Students prepare an essay of 4,000 to \5,000 words in length, 16-20 pages, double-spaced in a 12-point font. The special field is a subfield of the major field in which the dissertation is centered.
• A take-home major field examination administered in written format. Students have 48 hours to complete the exam, which should be 5,000 to 6,000 words, 20-24 pages, double-spaced in a 12-point font in length.
• A two-hour oral examination by the examination committee, including coverage of both the take-home major field exam and the essay that comprises the special field exam.

Timeline : The comprehensive examinations are administered during the first half of the student’s sixth semester in the program. The special field essay has to be submitted to the graduate coordinator before the student takes the major field examination. The oral examination follows within two weeks of passing the major field examination and the special field essay. Students entering the program with an MA in history might be expected to complete their comprehensive examinations during their fifth semester in the program. (Also see the “Combined Timeline for Comprehensive Examinations and the Prospectus” at the end of this document.)

Reading Lists : The format, content and length of the reading lists for the comprehensive examinations vary by field but the list should normally be in the range of 200 to 250 books. Of these, about two-thirds should be in the major field and one-third in the special field. In all fields, students develop their reading lists in consultation with their advisors and other members of the examination committee. The reading list must be compiled and approved by the examination committee by the end of their second-year summer (after the student’s fourth semester in the program). For students coming in with an MA in history who would like to take their examinations during their fifth semester in the program, the list must be ready by the end of the student’s third semester. After approval, limited changes may be made solely by mutual agreement of the student and his/her advisor.

The examination committee : The examination committee consists of three or four members of the Graduate Faculty, typically all members of the history faculty. The director of graduate studies designates the committee members and chair, in consultation with the major advisor and the student. The committee chair shall not be the student's advisor. All committee members contribute questions to the written and oral examinations. Most or all of these same committee members are normally also on the student’s dissertation committee but the composition of the examination and prospectus committees do not need to be the same.

Grading : Comprehensive examinations will be graded pass, pass with distinction or fail.

Combined Timeline for Comprehensive Exams and Prospectus

• Both the initial version of the prospectus and the special field essay are due before the major field take-home examination during the first half of the sixth semester of the student's program.
• The major field take-home examination should be completed also during the first half of the sixth semester of the student's program after the initial version of the prospectus and the special field essay are submitted.
• The two-hour oral examination on both the take-home major field exam and the essay that comprises the special field exam follows within two weeks of passing the major field examination and the special field exam. This oral exam can take place during the second half of the sixth semester of the student’s program.
• The one-hour oral examination based on the initial version of the prospectus also takes place during the second half of the sixth semester of the student’s program but only after successful completion of the two-hour oral examination (#3 above).
• The final version of the prospectus as approved by the advisor is due on the first day of the academic semester that immediately follows the comprehensive examinations, which is normally the seventh semester of the student’s program.

Prospectus & Candidacy

Dissertation Prospectus

The dissertation prospectus is a written précis of the proposed dissertation research, its significance, the sources and methods to be used, the relevant bibliography including primary source materials and the plan of completion. It is intended to form the substance of grant proposals students will write in order to apply for both internal and external grants and fellowships. Each field of study has its own expectations for the length of the prospectus, but normally these should be concise documents not to exceed 10-12 pages in length, followed by a bibliography. In all fields, the prospectus is developed by the student in close collaboration with the advisor and other members of the examination committee.

The preparation of the prospectus includes the following stages :

• An initial version of the prospectus.
• A one-hour oral examination based on that initial version.
• A final version incorporating any revisions suggested by members of the dissertation committee and approved by the advisor submitted to the graduate coordinator.

Timeline : The initial draft version of the prospectus should be submitted to the graduate coordinator during the first half of the student’s sixth semester before the student takes the major field examination, normally at the same time as the special field essay. The one-hour oral examination of the prospectus based on the initial version is scheduled during the second half of the student’s sixth semester in the program following satisfactory completion of the comprehensive examinations. The final version of the prospectus as approved by the advisor is due on the first day of the academic semester that immediately follows the comprehensive examination. (Also see the “Combined Timeline for Comprehensive Examinations and the Prospectus” at the end of this document.)

The relationship between the prospectus and the special field Essay: The special field essay normally covers the historiography of the entire subfield within the major field in which the dissertation is anchored, while the prospectus is more narrowly concerned with the specific research topic of the dissertation.

The examination committee: The prospectus oral examination committee consists of the advisor and at least two other members of the Graduate Faculty, who are normally also members of the student’s dissertation committee. The advisor chairs the examination. All committee members contribute questions to the oral examination and make suggestions for revisions. Upon passing the oral examination, the student will complete any revisions requested (as determined by the advisor and the committee) and submit the final prospectus approved by the advisor to the graduate program coordinator.

MA “Along the Way”

When a student receives a pass or pass with distinction and the endorsement to continue on in the PhD program, the student has the option to request that the Master of Arts degree be conferred "along the way," subject to fulfillment of the standard requirements of the MA degree.

In some instances, the examination committee may recommend that a PhD student taking comprehensive examinations be given a pass at the MA level, sufficient for the conferral of a terminal master's degree. Such a recommendation will be made with the expectation that the student not continue on towards doctoral candidacy.

Petition for Reexamination

In the case of failure of a language examination taken for the second time or one or more components of the comprehensive examinations and the prospectus preparation process (special field essay, take-home major field examination, two-hour oral examination and prospectus oral examination), the student may petition the director of graduate studies to take the whole examination or the relevant component(s) a second time. If the petition is approved, the student may retake the examination as soon as possible. A student may petition only once to retake all or part of the comprehensive examinations and the prospectus preparation process.

Successful completion of the prospectus is typically the last step before application for advancement to candidacy.

• Advancement to Candidacy

A doctoral student advances to candidacy when all degree requirements (i.e., course work, demonstrated competence in languages or special skills, comprehensive examinations and the dissertation prospectus) have been satisfied, with the exception of the dissertation.

Formal admission to candidacy (sometimes known as "All but Dissertation" or "ABD" status) is granted by the dean of the Graduate School. The application is routed through the director of graduate studies.

Advising & Committees

Each student admitted to the PhD program will choose an advisor who is a member of the Graduate Faculty and whose intellectual interests are compatible with the student's plan of study. All graduate students are required to choose an advisor by November 1 of their first semester. If they do not choose an advisor by that date, the director of graduate studies will appoint one for them. The faculty advisor will be responsible for advising the student on all aspects of their academic program, for approving the student's course of study each semester, for monitoring their progress through the program,and for notifying the student of the nature and timing of examinations and other evaluative procedures. The advisor, in consultation with the student and the director of graduate studies, will be responsible for constituting the Comprehensive Examination and Dissertation Examination committees. The advisor will also represent the student to the Graduate Committee, as appropriate.

At the conclusion of the first year of study, all students will make available to their advisor a transcript of coursework and major written work completed during the first year. Upon review of the appropriate materials, the advisor will then recommend to the director of graduate studies continuation, modification or, as appropriate, termination of the student's program. All recommendations for termination require discussion and approval of the Graduate Committee.

Students may change advisors. The director of graduate studies and the new faculty advisor shall approve changes in advisors before a student advances to candidacy. After advancement to candidacy, changes shall be approved only by petition to the Graduate Committee. A change of advisor must be recorded in the student's electronic file.

Registration and Degree Progress

Continuous Registration

All graduate students must register for courses and pay associated tuition and fees each semester, not including summer and winter sessions, until the degree is awarded.

Pre-candidacy doctoral students who will be away from the university for up to one year may request a waiver of continuous registration and its associated tuition and fees. Waivers shall be granted only if the student is making satisfactory progress toward the degree and can complete all the degree requirements within the required time limits. Interruptions in continuous registration cannot be used to justify an extension to time-to-degree requirements.

Once advanced to candidacy, a student is no longer eligible for Waivers of Continuous Registration. Doctoral candidates must maintain continuous registration in HIST 899: “Doctoral Dissertation Research” until the degree is awarded.

The Graduate School makes available an official leave absence for childbearing, adoption, illness and dependent care. The dean of the Graduate School must approve the leave. The time-to-degree clock is suspended during an approved leave of absence.

Additional information on continuous registration and leave absence policies is published online in the Graduate Catalog.

Time-to-Degree

All students admitted to the doctoral program are expected to

• advance to candidacy within three years from initial enrollment in the Ph.D. program, and
• complete all degree requirements within six years of entering the program.

Progress-to-Degree

All students in the doctoral program will be expected to demonstrate steady progress toward the completion of degree requirements. At a minimum, the Graduate School requires students to maintain a B average in all graduate courses. However, the Department of History expects a higher level of performance, with the great majority of a student’s grades at the level of an A- or above.

Students in major fields that require lengthy language or special skill acquisition might be granted a one-year extension to progress-to-degree expectations. Additional extensions will require the approval of the Graduate Committee.

In order to meet progress-to-degree expectations :

• 800-level research seminar work should normally be completed by the end of the fourth semester in the program.
• The major field reading list must be compiled and approved by the examination committee by the end of the summer after the student’s fourth semester in the program.
• Students should complete their comprehensive examinations by the end of their sixth semester in the program. Students coming in with an M.A. in history should normally complete their comprehensive examinations by the end of their fifth semester in the program.
• Each student will be expected to submit a copy of the final dissertation prospectus approved by the advisor to the graduate program coordinator at the beginning of their seventh academic semester in the program.
• All students should normally pass their language examinations during the third year of their program.
• The director of graduate studies will review fully each student's progress-to-degree as well as the overall progress-to-degree by degree cohort at least once a year.

Failure to make satisfactory progress-to-degree or to maintain the expected grade point average may result in the suspension or loss of departmental funding, the denial of a petition for extensions, and in extreme cases, a recommendation for dismissal.

NOTE : The above guidelines on continuous registration, time-to-degree and progress-to-degree guidelines are for students matriculating in fall 2018 or thereafter. Students entering the graduate program in prior semesters are subject to guidelines at time of matriculation.

Extensions and Waivers

The Graduate Committee will consider petitions for waivers to departmental guidelines. Petitions for waivers to Graduate School requirements must be submitted to the dean of the Graduate School, using the appropriate form. In most instances, the petitioning student will be required to provide a rationale for the waiver request, and, as appropriate, a convincing plan of study. The advice of the student's advisor may be sought. The advisor will be required to endorse any waiver request that involves extensions to overall time-to-degree as well as the major benchmarks of progress-to-degree.

All petitions should be directed to the director of graduate studies. The director of graduate studies, and in some cases the dean of the Graduate School, will notify the student of their disposition of petitions for extensions.

Sample Program of Study

Introduction.

The program of study often varies by field and many factors may extend or reorder the sequence and length of the program of study.

The following program of study assumes that the doctoral student will be assigned a teaching assistantship in the second, third and fourth years of study. Students coming in with an MA in history will be expected to complete the program in five or five and a half years.

Foreign language study is not incorporated into this program.

 First Year (Departmental Fellowship)

• Major Field General Seminar (608) or Contemporary Theory (HIST 601)
• Major Field Readings Seminar
• Minor Field Course
• Research Seminar OR Minor Field Course
• Exploratory Research

Second Year (Teaching Assistantship)

• 2 courses out of the following three categories:
• Research Seminar 
• Research Seminar
• Reading for Comprehensive Examinations
• Initial Prospectus Preparation

Third Year (Teaching Assistantship)

• HIST 708: Readings for Comprehensives”
• Prospectus Preparation 
• Grant Applications
• HIST 709: “Readings for Comprehensive Examinations”
• Prospectus Oral Examination 
• Final Version of Prospectus
• Dissertation Research

Fourth Year (Teaching Assistantship)

• Dissertation Research (HIST 899)

Fifth Year (Departmental or External Fellowship)

• Grant Applications  

Spring & Summer

• Dissertation Writing

Sixth Year  (Departmental or External Fellowship)

• Job applications  
• Job applications

Graduate Placement

Learn more about the career and life paths of our PhD alumni.

Graduate Coordinator, History

2131 Francis Scott Key Hall College Park MD, 20742

What's in a Title? A Closer Look at History Dissertations

Robert B. Townsend | Mar 1, 2013

The most common word across all dissertations (and hence the largest word shown) was "American." It appeared in 2,032 of the 16,181 titles reported from 1993 to 2012 ( Fig. 1 ). This largely reflects a trend evident from other surveys, which show a sizeable plurality of PhD recipients working in U.S. history. 2 Of that total, 8.1 percent of the uses (164 in all) came in a hyphenated context (as part of "Italian-American," "Anglo-American," and the like). In comparison, the word appeared as part of "Latin American" in just 13 dissertations. ("Latin America" seems to be the preferred usage, though it only appeared in 31 titles.)

What is perhaps most striking—given outside perceptions of a growing dominance of studies in race, class, and gender in history programs over the past 20 years—is the exceptionally large representation of "war" and "politics" evident among the titles. "War," for instance, appeared in 11 percent of the recent history dissertation titles. The Civil War received the largest number of references (appearing in 205 titles), followed closely by the Cold War (appearing in 195). In comparison, the declared wars on social or political problems (such as the wars on poverty, drugs, and terror) were quite rare—appearing in only 10 titles.

The use of "politics" also seems quite popular, appearing in 7.6 percent of the titles (1,224 in total), but almost half of them appeared in the context of the "politics of" this or that subject (ranging from the politics of agriculture to the politics of youth).

In comparison, "women" and "gender" only appeared in 7.8 percent of the titles (slightly above "politics" but lagging well behind "war"). And "race," "ethnic," and "ethnicity" appeared in only 4.5 percent of the titles.

Once again, "American" is dominant, but a number of new words rise to the fore. Notably, the dissertations from this earlier period were much more prone to be self-referential. Just over 12 percent used some variation of a "study of" or "history of" in their title. Some even managed to combine both in a single title, as in "A Study in the History of Social Politics."

And when compared to the later period, the presence of "war" and "politics" is relatively small. The diminished representation of "war" (it appeared in only 7.4 percent of the titles) partially reflects the proliferation of wars in the 20th century—including the Cold War and the two World Wars—but also reflects a shift toward more recent topics for historical study.

Also notable is the marked decline in the proportion of dissertations focused on England and France. The words "France" or "French" appeared in only 3.7 percent of the titles over the past two decades, as compared to 5.6 percent in the earlier period. And "England," "English," and "British" appeared in 4.9 percent of the recent titles, as compared to 8.2 percent in the earlier period.

Conversely, the "world" is appearing in much larger numbers in dissertation titles in recent years. Even excluding mentions of world wars, 2.4 percent of the recent names referred to the world. (Another 2 percent of the dissertations mentioned the world wars.) In comparison, only 0.4 percent of the dissertations in the earlier period made a similar mention of the world.

Dissertations from the earlier period were also more likely to be biographical in character, as signaled by the number of references to a "biography" or a specific "career" (appearing in 3.3 percent of the titles from 1920 to 1960, as compared to 0.8 percent of the recent dissertations).

Finally, a comparison between the two periods also validates a couple of perceptions among older members of the discipline (at least back when I started graduate school in 1989). The use of a colon to separate a lofty (some would say misleading) title and the actual subject of the dissertation has indeed become more prevalent. It appeared in only 23.5 percent of the dissertation titles reported between 1920 and 1960, as compared to 80.3 percent of the dissertations over the past two decades.

And doctoral students are writing longer titles. Over the past two decades, history dissertation titles contained an average of 12.6 words. In comparison, the titles listed from 1920 to 1960 were comprised of an average of 9.4 words—even with the large volume of filler words noted above.

The two snapshots, and the visible difference between the two of them, can only offer a few superficial clues to some of the deeper changes within, but they are suggestive nonetheless of the scale and the limits of the changes that have occurred.

Robert Townsend is the AHA's deputy director, and the author of History's Babel: Scholarship, Professionalization, and the Historical Enterprise, 1880–1940 (Univ. of Chicago Press).

1. Since 1990, the AHA has systematically collected dissertation titles with the annual updates to the Directory of History Departments and Organizations .

2. See Robert B. Townsend, " Openings and New PhDs on the Rise: The 2012 Jobs Report ," Perspectives on History (January 2013) .

3. Dissertations from the period 1874 to 1960 were scanned in from Warren F. Kuehl's Dissertations in History (3 vols.), and supplemented with information gathered from the AHA's online Directory of History Dissertations .

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Boston University Academics

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• PhD in History

The Department of History at Boston University admits students to its PhD program who have majored in history or a closely related academic field, who have strong academic records, and who are interested in working in the fields of African, American, Asian, or European history. The department trains PhD students to develop and execute original research designs that will lead to scholarly publications intended to make original and important contributions to the historical discipline and its subfields. At the same time, the department also prepares students to become the next generation of effective history teachers, able to instruct on a wide range of topics. Our expectation is that our PhDs will become professors at research universities, colleges, community colleges, and staff members at research libraries and archives.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate mastery of chosen subfield of history and related fields. The candidate should understand the major interpretive schools in their field and related fields, contemporary trends within the historiography, and the position of their own work in relation to these.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the archive system essential to their research.
• Produce and defend publishable original research.
• Conduct all research in an ethical manner.
• Be able to teach effectively at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Course Requirements

Students in the program must take 64 credits, 56 of which should be taken in seminars, lecture courses, directed research, and directed study, preferably over a period of four or five semesters. The remaining 8 credits are reserved for four semesters of a two-credit Dissertation Workshop (GRS HI 900) taken after the oral exam. Required courses include:

• GRS HI 800 European Historiography
• GRS HI 801 The Historian’s Craft
• GRS HI 850 American Historiography
• GRS HI 870 African Historiography
• Four semesters GRS HI 900 Dissertation Writing

Students must take the historiography courses in their first year, alongside HI 801, which will be offered every year in the spring semester. Students are allowed to take up to two graduate-level courses in a single discipline other than history that is related to their interests. Candidates for the PhD may count only 16 credits in courses designed primarily for undergraduates (these courses are offered at the 600 or 700 level and ordinarily have 200- or 300-level equivalents) for the degree.

Research Paper

Every doctoral student must write at least two major research papers and submit them to the Graduate Studies Committee. The paper completed in GRS HI 801 The Historian’s Craft counts as one of the research papers. Students entering the program with a master’s degree may petition the Director of Graduate Studies to transfer credit for one research paper.

Language Requirements

The department aims to graduate world-class scholars capable of conducting research in languages other than English. Students working in African, Asian, and European history must conduct primary research in languages other than English. But given that significant secondary literature is produced outside the English-speaking world, the department believes that it is important for all of our doctoral students, including Americanists, to demonstrate a genuine ability to read research in foreign languages. To this end, we require that doctoral candidates in United States history demonstrate a graduate-level reading knowledge in one relevant foreign language, and doctoral candidates in Asian, European, and African history demonstrate a graduate-level reading knowledge in two relevant foreign languages. In exceptional circumstances, doctoral candidates in European history may petition for exemption from the two-language requirement.

Language proficiency can be demonstrated either through a departmental language examination or through successful completion of a noncredit graduate-level foreign language reading course offered by Boston University. If a student has passed a reading examination at another accredited graduate school and submits evidence to the Director of Graduate Studies, the departmental requirement will be considered satisfied in most cases. Students may not schedule their qualifying examination without having completed this requirement. For more information on when language requirements need to be fulfilled, please see the department website .

Qualifying Examination

Each candidate for the doctoral degree must pass an oral examination in a major field of history as well as a one minor field of history. The examination must be taken no later than one year after the completion of coursework. The examination shall be comprehensive and cover any and all phases of the subject. A unanimous vote of the examining committee is required to pass the qualifying oral examination. Qualifying examinations are scheduled only during the two regular semesters of the academic year.

Dissertation and Final Oral Examination

Candidates shall demonstrate their abilities for independent study in a dissertation representing original research or creative scholarship. A prospectus for the dissertation must be completed and approved by the readers, the Director of Graduate Studies, and the Department Chair/Program Director within twelve months of the successful completion of the qualifying oral examination. This prospectus may be prepared in a directed study with the prospective dissertation advisor during the last semester of coursework, or it may be prepared after all coursework has been completed. Candidates must undergo a final oral examination in which they defend their dissertation as a valuable contribution to knowledge in their field and demonstrate a mastery of their field of specialization in relation to their dissertation. All portions of the dissertation and final oral examination must be completed as outlined in the GRS General Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree .

Any PhD student who has fulfilled the requirements of the master’s degree program, as stated here , can be awarded a master’s degree.

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Study History Where It Is Made

AU’s PhD in History will prepare you for a career as an educator, researcher, analyst, and writer working in academia, public and institutional history, and other fields requiring investigative and analytical skills. In this program, you will develop a deeper understanding of how historians investigate and interpret the past while you explore the past with your own original research .

You will receive a high level of mentorship and develop close working relationships with your professors. Under the guidance of our award-winning faculty , our students complete strong dissertations and present work at top conferences while making valuable connections and gaining experience in the Washington, DC, area.

This program is ideal for students interested in American and modern European history, including Russian history. Our department also has strengths in a variety of subfields , including public history, African American history, women’s/gender history, politics and foreign relations, and Jewish history. This diversity will open your options for research and allow for specialization without sacrificing breadth of study.

Rigorous Study with a Degree of Flexibility

Our program combines rigorous training in scholarship with the flexibility to pursue your intellectual interests. Our coursework will give you a solid foundation in historical theory and methodology, research methods, and United States or modern European history. Together with your academic advisor, you will design a program of study to match your academic goals . You will acquire and demonstrate mastery of tools of research , such as foreign languages, quantitative research methods, oral history, new media, and other methodologies. Your doctoral examinations will be tailored to fit your individual fields of study. You will then pursue your own research in writing your doctoral dissertation.

The Department will supervise PhD dissertations in the history of Modern Europe (normally for the period 1789 to the present), United States history (including the colonial period), US foreign relations, and modern Jewish history.

See all admissions and course requirements .

Cutting-Edge Faculty Dedicated to Your Success

Our history faculty makes national news, uncovers under-represented areas of history, and guides doctoral students , helping them generate innovative and influential research . From predicting presidential elections to publishing award-winning books and articles, our distinguished professors produce relevant historical scholarship and will train you do the same. With academic and professional mentorship from our faculty, you will you will enter the field as a thoroughly prepared and well-connected scholar.

Endless Opportunities in a Historic City

Pursuing your doctorate in the nation’s capital provides you with unparalleled access to renowned museums, archives, institutions, and resources . From the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution and National Archives to the DC Historical Society, our students are only a metro ride away from exceptional local and national repositories. As part of the Washington Consortium , students at American University are able to take courses at colleges and universities throughout the DC metropolitan area, providing the opportunity to work with a variety of faculty in diverse programs and fields of study.

A truly global city, DC, contains hundreds of embassies, cultural organizations, and enclave communities. Brimming with history , the DC area offers Civil War battlefields, the Capitol, Mount Vernon, the White House, and countless landmarks of the colonial period, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and more recent American history. The city is also home to smaller historical organizations like the DC Historical Society and the DC Preservation League. Whether your interest is global, national, or local, this historic city undoubtedly has something for you.

Explore the Possibilities

Our students go on to become university and college faculty and administrators or work in federal and state governments, for museums and archives, and in other exciting fields. Our alumni teach at universities around the world , from the University of Houston in Texas to University of Prince Edward Island in Canada and Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich. Our PhDs hold positions with the nation’s most important institutions , including the Library of Congress, Department of State, National Archives and Records Administration, American Historical Association, National Endowment for the Humanities, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Recent and Current PhD Dissertation topics

• Auketayeva, Laura : "Gender and Jewish Evacuees in the Soviet Union during the Holocaust" 
• Barry, Michael : "Islamophobic & Anti-Islamophobic Ideas in America"
• Brenner, Rebecca : "When Mail Arrived on Sundays, 1810-1912" 
• Boose, Donelle : "Black Power and the Organizing Tradition: Work-ing Women of Washington, DC. 1965-1990"
• Chatfield, Andrew : "American Support for India’s Self-Determination from 1915-1920: Progressives, Radicals, and Anti-Imperialists"
• Duval, Lauren : "Landscapes of Allegiance: Space, Gender, and Mili-tary Occupation in the American Revolution"
• Englekirk, Ryan : "The Third Team: Unmasking Fraternity and Mascu-linity Among Major League Baseball Umpires 1970-2010" 
• Estess, Jonah : "The People’s Money: The American Revolution, Cur-rency, and the Making of Political Economic Culture in American Life, 1775-1896" 
• Frome, Gavin : "American Protestant Service Workers in Viet Nam, 1954-1975"
• Gabor, Ruth : "'Moda' for the Masses: Moscow Fashion’s Appeal at Home and Abroad during the Cold War"
• Gibson, Laura : "It’s Love that Counts: The History of Non-Nuclear Families in American Domestic Sitcoms"
• Grant, Jordan : "Catchers and Kidnappers: Slave Hunting in Early America" 
• Grek, Ivan : "Illiberal Civil Society in Russia, 1992-2000"
• Harris, Curtis : "Hardwood Revolution: The NBA's Growth & Player Revolt, 1950-1976" 
• Hawks, Julie : "Capital Investments: Engineering American Cold War Culture" 
• Jobe, Mary "Allison" : "'We Remember Him for His Character': The Life of James W. Ford and the Communist Party USA" 
• Kaplan, Anna : "Left by the Wayside: Memories and Postmemories of the Integration of the University of Mississippi"
• Killian, Linda : "Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine: The Shared Political Ideology at the Heart of American Democracy" 
• Kitterman, Katherine : "'No Ordinary Feelings': Mormon Women’s Political Activism, 1870-1896" 
• Langford, Amy : "Creating a Body Politic: Boundary Crossings and the (Re) Making of Latter-Day Saints on the U.S. Border, 1885-1920"
• Levin, Jeffrey : "Felix Warburg and the Establishment of the Hebrew University" 
• MacNeill, Lindsay : "Policing Politics in Austria, 1918-1955"
• Milwicki, Alon : "Baptizing Nazism: An Analysis of the Religious Roots of American Neo-Nazism"
• Rafferty-Osaki, Terumi : "'Strictly Masculine': Reforming and Per-forming Manhood at Tule Lake, 1942-1946" 
• Recordati, Maurizio : "Russia Turns Inward: Russian Grand Strategy in the Post-Crimean War Period (1856-78)"
• Sowry, Nathan : "Museums, Native American Representation, & the Public: The Role of Museum Anthropology in Public History, 1873-1929"
• Styrna, Pawel : "Polish-Russian Relations, 1904-1921"
• Vehstedt, Scott : "'Lets Help Finland': The Return of American Relief Aid in the Winter War, 1939-1940"
• Weixelbaum, Jason : "At the Crossroads of Fascism: The Decision of Ford, General Motors, and IBM to do Business with Nazi Germany"

Alumni Job Placements

Graduates of the history PhD program are working as professors, researchers, and directors across the US and at international locations. Here is a list of where select graduates have or are currently working:

• Director, National Coalition for History
• Assistant Professor, University of Prince Edward Island
• Assistant Professor, Towson University
• Assistant Professor of History and Director of American Studies, West Chester University
• Independent historian
• Senior Archivist, National Archives
• Associate Professor, Ryerson University
• Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
• Historian, US Army
• Senior policy adviser and special assistant to the president of the Humane Society
• Historian, Office of the Historian, Department of State
• Museum Director, Renton History Museum, Oregon
• Public History Coordinator, American Historical Association
• Assistant Professor, Bridgewater State University
• Lecturer in Sociology, California State University at Bakersfield
• Assistant Professor, Delaware State University
• Historian, Global Classroom, US Holocaust Museum
• Director, Digital Archive, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library
• Assistant Professor, Illinois State University
• Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland at College Park
• Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Assistant Professor, University of West Florida
• Independent historian and filmmaker
• Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, US Naval Academy
• Administrative Support Specialist at FEMA
• Senior editor and writer, National Endowment for the Humanities
• Instructor, Religion Dept., National Cathedral School (earned Master of Divinity after PhD)
• Curriculum and Publications Coordinator, AU Registrar's Office
• Assistant Professor, Seminole State College

News & Notes

PhD candidate Reza Akbari presented at the Middle East Studies Association's annual conference in Montreal, Canada. His presentation,  Etched in Mistrust: Continuity and Change in US-Iran Nuclear Negotiations (1969-1978),  argued that America's drive to keep Iran's nuclear program peaceful began decades before the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

PhD candidate  Andrew Sperling  published " A Halloween Party in Boston Turned Ugly when a Gang Hurled Antisemetic Slurs and Attacked Jewish Teenagers ," detailing the events of an antisemetic attack on Jewish teens at a Halloween party in 1950. 

Theresa Runstedtler 's new book on Black ballplayers of the 1970s and '80s setting the NBA up for success: Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywoof, and the Generation that Saved the Soul of the NBA (2023) .

Doctoral student Maurizio Recordati Koen won first prize in the 2022 Trench Gascoigne Essay Competition for "The Stuff of Strategy: How Sublime Strategics Turned into a Real Thing" in RUSI Journal.

John Schmitz (CAS/PhD '07) published Enemies among Us: The Relocation, Internment, and Repatriation of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during the Second World War .

Doctoral student Jonah Estess presented his paper, "Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems: The American Revolution and the National Origins of the Politicization of Money" as part of the panel at this year's Business History Conference.

Andrew Demshuk published Three Cities after Hitler: Redemptive Reconstruction across Cold War Borders .

PhD candidate Katherine Kitterman wrote on women's voting rights in Utah for the Washington Post.

Inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow

Nguyet Nguyen brings new perspective to the Vietnam War.

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Graduate Students

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CURRENT STUDENTS

Ph.D. Program

Stanford Ph.D. Program in History aims to train world-class scholars.

Every year we admit 10-12 promising students  from a large pool of highly selective applicants. Our small cohort size allows more individual work with faculty than most graduate programs in the United States and also enables funding in one form or another available to members of each cohort.

Fields of Study

Our graduate students may specialize in 14 distinct subfields: Africa, Britain, Early Modern Europe, East Asia, Jewish History, Latin America, Medieval Europe, Modern Europe,  Ottoman Empire and Middle East, Russia/Eastern Europe, Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine, South Asia, Transnational, International, and Global History, and United States. Explore each field and their affiliates . 

The department expects most graduate students to spend no less than four and no more than six years completing the work for the Ph.D. degree. Individual students' time to degree will vary with the strength of their undergraduate preparation as well as with the particular language and research requirements of their respective Major fields.

Expectations and Degree Requirements

We expect that most graduate students will spend no less than four and no more than six years toward completing their Ph.D. Individual students' time-to-degree vary with the strength of their undergraduate preparation as well as with the particular language and research requirements of their respective subfield.

All History Ph.D. students are expected to satisfy the following degree requirements:

• Teaching: Students who enter on the Department Fellowship are required to complete 4 quarters of teaching experience by the end of their third year. Teaching experience includes teaching assistantships and teaching a Sources and Methods course on their own.
• Candidacy : Students apply for candidacy to the PhD program by the end of their second year in the program.
• Orals:  The University Orals Examination is typically taken at the beginning of the 3rd year in the program.
• Languages: Language requirements vary depending on the field of study.
• Residency Requirement : The University requi res  135 units of full-tuition residency  for PhD students. After that, students should have completed all course work and must request Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) status. 

Browse the Ph.D. Handbook to learn more .

The History Department offers 5 years of financial support to PhD students.  No funding is offered for the co-terminal and terminal M.A. programs. A sample Ph.D. funding package is as follows:  

• 1st year: 3 quarters fellowship stipend and 1 summer stipend 
• 2nd year: 2 quarters TAships, 1 quarter RAship (pre-doc affiliate), and 1 summer stipend 
• 3rd year: 2 quarters TAships, 1 quarter RAship (pre-doc affiliate), and 1 summer stipend 
• 4th year: 3 quarters of RAships (pre-doc affiliate) and 1 summer stipend 
• 5th year: 3 quarters of RAships (pre-doc affiliate) and 1 summer stipend

Knight-Hennessy Scholars

Join dozens of  Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences students  who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  (KHS). KHS admits up to 100 select applicants each year from across Stanford’s seven graduate schools, and delivers engaging experiences that prepare them to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders ready to address complex global challenges. As a scholar, you join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of your studies at Stanford. candidates of any country may apply. KHS applicants must have earned their first undergraduate degree within the last seven years, and must apply to both a Stanford graduate program and to KHS. Stanford PhD students may also apply to KHS during their first year of PhD enrollment. If you aspire to be a leader in your field, we invite you to apply. The KHS application deadline is October 11, 2023. Learn more about  KHS admission .

How to Apply

Admission to the History Graduate Programs are for Autumn quarter only.  Interested applicants can online at  https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/apply/apply-now and submit the following documents: 

• Statement of Purpose (included in Application)
• 3 Letters of Recommendation
•  Transcripts are required from all prior college level schools attended for at least one year.  A scanned copy of the official transcript is submitted as part of the online application.  Please do not mail transcripts to the department.   We will ask only the admitted students to submit actual copies of official transcripts.
• 1 Writing Sample on a historic topic (10-25 pages; sent via  Stanford's online application system  only)
• The GRE exam is not required for the autumn 2024 admission cycle
• TOEFL for all international applicants (whose primary language is not English) sent via ETS. Our University code is 4704.
• TOEFL Exemptions and Waiver information
• Application Fee Waiver
• The department is not able to provide fee waivers. Please see the link above for the available fee waivers and how to submit a request. Requests are due 2 weeks before the application deadline.

The Department of History welcomes graduate applications from individuals with a broad range of life experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who would contribute to our community of scholars. Review of applications is holistic and individualized, considering each applicant’s academic record and accomplishments, letters of recommendation, and admissions essays in order to understand how an applicant’s life experiences have shaped their past and potential contributions to their field.

The Department of History also recognizes that the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June 2023 about the consideration of certain types of demographic information as part of an admission review. All applications submitted during upcoming application cycles will be reviewed in conformance with that decision.

Application deadline for Autumn 2024-25 is Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 11:59pm EST . This is a hard -not a postmark- deadline. 

All application material is available online. No information is sent via snail mail. Interested applicants are invited to view a Guide to Graduate Admissions at  https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/ . 

Questions? 

Please contact  Arthur Palmon  (Assistant Director of Student Services).

Department Bookshelf

Browse the most recent publications from our faculty members.

Uncertain Past Time: Empire, Republic, and Politics | Belirsiz Geçmiş Zaman: İmparatorluk, Cumhuriyet Ve Siyaset

Embodied Knowledge: Women and Science before Silicon Valley

Compton in My Soul

The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China

Residual Governance: How South Africa Foretells Planetary Futures

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You will work with a stellar faculty in the Department of History and neighboring departments as you acquire advanced skills in historical research, analysis, and writing, as well as teaching.

Nine research centers affiliated with the history program offer further programs in area studies, including The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. You also have access to the largest university library system in the world, consisting of 80 libraries and 17 million volumes.

Examples of dissertations students have worked on include “Cold War Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Military Spending from 1949 to 1989” and “Imperial Schemes: Empire and the Rise of the British Business-State, 1914–1939.”

Graduates of the program have gone on to teach at Yale University, Princeton University, NYU, and the University of Maryland. Others have gone on to positions outside academia as startup founders, lawyers, policy analysts, and museum curators.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of History and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

African History | Ancient History | Byzantine History | Early Modern European History | East Asian History | Environmental History | International and Global History | Latin American History | Medieval History | Middle Eastern History | Modern European History | Russian and Eastern European History | South Asian History | United States History

Admissions Requirements

Please review admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of History .

Writing Sample

A writing sample is required. While there is not a specific length requirement, most writing samples are around 20 to 25 pages. If you are submitting a sample that is part of a larger work (a chapter from a thesis, for instance) you may include a brief abstract situating the piece in the larger work.

Statement of Purpose

Your statement of purpose should include why you want to study history in graduate school, why you want to study at Harvard, and indicate your research interests and potential advisors. The required writing sample should be of remarkable quality and ask historical questions. Reading ability in two languages other than English is helpful. Most statements of purpose are around 3 to 5 pages.

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Optional

In coordination with Harvard Law School, students may pursue both a PhD in history and a JD at Harvard Law School. To learn more about this course of study consult the Coordinated JD/PhD program overview.

Theses & Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for History

See list of History faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

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PhD Program in History

The programs offered by the Department of History emphasize the modern world in a global framework. A range of approaches to history, from political and cultural through social and intellectual, to environment and medicine, find representation in our program.

Humanities degrees help empower people who want to make a difference in this world.

Emily Lackie '11

Combined Honours in History and English

Many humanities graduates become professional chameleons of sorts. We leave university with these highly developed critical thinking and communication skills and can apply them to any number of industries.

Alex Zavarise '17

BA History and Classics

My program at McMaster taught me a breadth of skills beyond what you see on the surface from a history degree.

Stephanie Carpenter '05

Honours BA in History with a Minor in English

About the Program

The History PhD program involves the completion of 2 minor fields by course work and one major field of readings by September 15th of the second year of doctoral study. Thereafter candidates will devote their full time to research and writing their doctoral thesis.

The Department offers full and part-time PhD degrees to candidates.

Areas of Research offered include:

• Animal History
• Atlantic World
• Britain 1688-2000
• Canada 1791-2000
• Environmental History
• Medieval Europe
• Modern Europe
• Science & Technology
• Urban History
• War and Society

Admission Requirements

The Department supervises doctoral research in a variety of areas of specialization. Prospective applicants are directed to consult the Department’s website which details research specializations. Candidates must contact individual faculty for guidance on appropriate thesis topics.

Application Process

Completed applications consisting of the following:

• How to Apply
• Departmental Application Form   (This is equivalent to the required study plan). Once you’ve completed your Departmental Application Form, save it as a PDF and upload as an attachment to your online application. You can also send it as an attachment via email to: [email protected]
• Two Confidential Reports from referees most familiar with your academic studies (These can be found on McMaster University Graduate Studies Online Application – the online application process).
• Transcripts from all post-secondary academic institutions attended (When applying online your transcripts are listed under “Academic History Checklist”).
• Writing Sample.
• The above should be submitted by 1 February for consideration by our graduate studies committee for admission and funding (September admission only). Transcripts and confidential report forms should be sent directly to the Department under separate cover.  We may still consider applications after the February 1 deadline.

Program Timelines

When admission to PhD work has been granted, a candidate will, in consultation with his or her prospective supervisor and the Graduate Studies Chair of the Department, select two Minor Fields and one Major Specialization. Minor Fields and Major Specialization will cover the principal literature in the areas of concentration.

Minor fields normally consist of two half-year 700‐level graduate reading seminars in each of which a major historiographical essay is required. The grade for a minor field will consist of the grades for the in- course requirements and the historiographical essay, in combination as indicated by the minor field supervisor. One minor field course will be taken in the fall term, the second in the winter term. Instructors may opt to set a written exam.

While some overlap may be deemed beneficial, the Minor Fields should not duplicate Major Specialization reading. All doctoral candidates must have a minimum of three, and usually four, instructors supervising the combination of their Minor Fields and Major Specialization.

Major Specialization preparation begins in September and takes the form of a reading course that will run normally until the following May. The reading for the course will be determined by the course instructors with oversight from the department’s Graduate Studies Committee to ensure appropriate breadth and depth of the reading list. As part of the reading course, candidates will complete a significant historiographical paper or papers. Instructors may opt to set a written exam.

Successful completion of 6 units of Minor‐Field coursework and 6 units of Major Specialization coursework, fulfill the course requirements of the School of Graduate Studies for doctoral candidates. Satisfactory performance in doctoral Minor Field and Major Specialization courses is a minimum grade of B‐. A single grade of F on any course in the PhD program, or two B- grades, entails automatic withdrawal from the program.

Finally, all History PhD candidates will write a dissertation research proposal by the end of their first year in the PhD programme.  Each candidate’s proposal, of 10-15 pages in length, is defended on a Pass/Fail basis with the candidate’s PhD committee no later than the third week of September. This defence will constitute the required PhD comprehensive examination (written and oral). In order to attain a passing mark, the dissertation proposal and its oral defense must satisfactorily demonstrate breadth of knowledge and the integration of key ideas and methods related to the student’s thesis area. Successful passage of the comprehensive examination along with successful completion of the coursework is required before a candidate may proceed in programme.

Tuition & Program Fees

Visit Graduate Studies to learn more about tuition, supplementary fees and everything you need to know about being paid as a Teaching or Research Assistant. Tuition fees are assessed on a term by term basis, depending on the number of courses a student takes or if they are paying by term. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is tuition?

For the 2023-2024 academic year, tuition fees are as follows:

Please note, these costs are exclusive of supplementary fees and are subject to change on an annual basis.

When is tuition due?

Tuition is usually due in mid-September.  Dates will change on an annual basis and will be communicated via departmental communication channels.

What does the course load look like for an MA student?

MA students in the Department of History are required to take 3 level-700 courses in the fall and winter terms.  Each class is approximately 3 hours in length based on course offerings and student interest.  Courses are offered one day per week.   Unless otherwise specified, courses are offered in-person and students are expected to be present in class on campus.  Course scheduling and registration takes place in the spring/summer.

Does the Department require scholarly work?

Both the MA and the PhD require completion of the supplemental application, which can be found on the respective application websites.  The PhD application requires a writing sample.

How is graduate funding decided?  Is it guaranteed?

Within the Department of History, there is a graduate committee which is composed of History faculty members.  For MA students, each individual faculty member reviews the applications and ranks the students.  Each student receives an average ranking.  The student’s GPA is then used as a further ranking tool to determine graduate scholarships.  The application and the student’s GPA has equal weighting in determining their final rank.  Top students are likely, but not guaranteed, to receive scholarship funding.  In addition to scholarship funding, there are multiple teaching assistant positions which offer students an opportunity to study and work. No funding is guaranteed and is subject to change on an annual basis.

For PhD students, minimum funding is guaranteed.  As of September 1, 2023, all full-time PhD students admitted to the program are guaranteed a minimum of $17,500 which may be composed of multiple different sources of funding.  This is guaranteed for 4 years.

Does the department offer any scholarships?

The department offers the following internal scholarships for graduate students:

Is it necessary to consult a potential supervisor?

For an MA student, you will connect with a potential supervisor by the end of your first term.

For a PhD student, it is highly recommended that you consult with a potential supervisor before applying into the program.  Supervision requires a heavy commitment from faculty members, and some faculty members may not be able to provide the necessary support required.  The department cannot guarantee a supervisor for incoming PhD students.

Can the application fee be waived?

No, the fee is mandatory to apply into the program.

How are my international grades calculated?

The university uses the Ontario University Registrars’ Association guides to calculating international grades.  These vary from country to country.  If you are interested, you may reach out to [email protected] for clarification.

What testing is required if English is not my first language?  What is the minimum score required?

Applicants whose first language is not English will be required to provide an official record of the Test of English as a Foreign Language. A minimum TOEFL score of 92 (iBT), 580 on the regular test and a score of 237 on the computerized test are required. If you are submitting the IELTS test, a minimum score of 7 is required.

Apply to the PhD Program in History

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Research your passion in History with supervision from our world-class faculty.

SEE OUR CURRENT AND FORMER GRAD STUDENTS

Supplemental information.

2023-2024 Graduate Courses Term 1 Seminars (September – December 2023)

• History 702 War and American Society since 1898| Dr. Stephen Streeter
• History 741 Historiography | Dr. Tracy McDonald
• History 756 The World Wars| Dr. Martin Horn
• History 767 War and Society in East Asian History| Dr. Jaeyoon Song

Term 2 Seminars (January – April 2024)

• History 717 Topics in Early Modern European History| Dr. Megan Armstrong
• History 721 Modern British History| Dr. Stephen Heathorn
• History 725 Canadian Environmental History| Dr. Ken Cruikshank
• History 757 The British Empire and Global Integration, 1815-1960| Dr. John Weaver
• History 776 History of Sexualities in the Western World, 1750 to the present| Dr. Michael Gauvreau

Winter – Summer 2024 (January – August 2024)

• History 798 PhD Major Specialization

Summer 2024 (May – August 2024)

• History 797 MA Research Paper

2022-2023 Graduate Courses Term 1 Seminars (September – December 2022)

• History 708 Research in European International Relations 1890-1956 | Dr. Martin Horn
• History 741 Historiography | Dr. Michael Gauvreau
• History 754 Social and Environmental History of Modern America | Dr. Ken Cruikshank
• History 767 War and Society in East Asian History | Dr. Jaeyoon Song

Term 2 Seminars (January – April 2023)

• History 743 Topics in Soviet History | Dr. Tracy McDonald
• History 757 The British Empire and Global Integration, 1815-1960 | Dr. John Weaver
• History 766 Comparative Perspectives on Health and Medicine in the Colonial World | Dr. Juanita De Barros
• History 776 History of Sexualities in the Western World, 1750 to the present | Dr. Michael Gauvreau
• History 777 Decolonizing Indigenous History | Dr. Allan Downey

2021-2022 Graduate Courses Term 1 Seminars (September – December 2021) In- Person

• History 728 American Foreign Relations | Dr. S. Streeter | Tuesday 9:30 – 12:20
• History 741 Historiography (required for MA’s) | Dr. T. McDonald | Thursday 9:00 – 12:00
• History 766 Comparative Perspectives on Health and Medicine in the Colonial World | Dr. J. De Barros | Wednesday 14:30 – 17:20
• History 775 The Canadian Left in the Twentieth Century | Dr. I. McKay | Monday 9:00 – 12:00

Term 2 Seminars (January – April 2022)

• History 757 The British Empire and Global Integration, 1815-1960 | Dr. J. Weaver | Wednesday 13:30 – 16:20
• History 764 Global Power, Local Cultures: Comparative Colonialisms in Africa | Dr. B. Ibhawoh | Tuesday 12:30 – 15:30
• History 767 War and Society in East Asian History | Dr. J. Song | Thursday 9:00 – 12:00
• History 776 History of Sexualities in the Western World 1750 to the present | Dr. M. Gauvreau | Friday 9:00 – 12:00
• History 780 Historical Perspectives on Women and Biography | Dr. A. McQueen | Monday 9:00 – 12:00

Winter – Summer 2022 (January – August 2022)

Summer 2022 (May – August 2022)

2020-2021 Graduate Courses

Term 1 Seminars (September – December 2020) (Virtual)

• History 717 Topics in Early Modern European History | Megan Armstrong | Friday 9:00 – 12:00
• History 741 Historiography | Michael Gauvreau | Thursday 9:00 – 12:00
• History 766 Comparative Perspectives on Health and Medicine in the Colonial World | Juanita De Barros | Wednesday 13:00 – 16:00
• History 769 Historical Representations of Cities | Alison McQueen | Tuesday 9:30 – 12:30
• History 775 The Canadian Left in the Twentieth Century | Ian McKay | Monday 13:00 – 16:00

Term 2 Seminars (January – April 2021) 

• History 725 Environmental History: Canada in International Perspective | Ken Cruikshank | Wednesday 13:00 – 16:00
• History 756 The World Wars | Martin Horn | Wednesday 9:00 – 12:00
• History 765 Canadian Sport History | Nancy Bouchier | Monday 9:30 – 12:30
• History 767 War and Society in East Asian History | Jaeyoon Song | Thursday 9:00 – 12:00
• History 776 History of Sexualities in the Western World, 1750 to the Present | Michael Gauvreau | Friday 9:00 – 12:00
• History 779 History of Indigenous Manifestos | Allan Downey | Tuesday 13:00 – 16:00

Winter – Summer 2021 (January – August 2021) 

Summer 2021 (May – August 2021) 

2019-2020 Graduate Courses

Term 1 Seminars (September – December 2019)

• History 702 War and American Society in 1898 – Stephen Streeter
• History 741 Historiography – Tracy McDonald
• History 772 State & Civil Society in Canada, 1948-2000 – Ian McKay
• History 775 The Canadian Left in the Twentieth Century- Ian McKay
• History 790 MA Independent Study

Term 2 Seminars (January – April 2020)

• History 717 Topics in Early Modern History- Megan Armstrong
• History 743 Topics in Soviet History –  Tracy McDonald
• History 757 ( Cross-listed as GLOBALST 757 ) The British Empire and Global Integration, 1815-1960 – John Weaver
• History 776 History of Sexualities in the Western World, 1750 to the present- Michael Gauvreau
• History 779 History of Indigenous Manifestos – Allan Downey

Summer 2020 (May – August 2020)

Winter 2020 – Summer 2020 (January – August 2020)

Funding is available through a large number of available scholarships. McMaster’s School of Graduate Studies maintains a list of available scholarships available as well as details on how to apply.

In addition to McMaster scholarships, the School of Graduate Studies also maintains a list of external scholarships.

• Program Handbook
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Who was your great, great supervisor? 30,000 History PhDs now available on British History Online

Jun 23, 2020 | British History Online , Features & Articles

By Philip Carter

British History Online has recently digitised and published the records of 22,000 history PhDs from UK and Irish universities . The records cover research degrees awarded between 1970 and 2014, drawn from the IHR’s annual print catalogues of recently completed PhDs. This latest set of records complements an existing BHO series covering degrees awarded 1901-1970 which was published online in 2018.

Together both sets provide opportunities to trace shifts and developments in historical research, and chart the role of individual historians—first as doctoral research students and then as supervisors.

Here, in the first of two posts, we outline these new records and some of their applications. Having published the records on BHO, we’re also making available the underlying data — enabling you to undertake your own research at scale. This data—released in a couple of weeks—will be the subject of a second blog post.

1. BHO thesis data, 1901-70

In 1930 the Institute of Historical Research began collecting information about the award of new doctorates in history. Each year to 1970, the IHR received details of recently completed research degrees (mainly PhDs but also BPhil, MPhil and MA degrees) granted by UK universities. In 1976 this data was published by the Institute in a single volume which supplemented the 40 years of IHR records with earlier PhD listings going back to 1901 and the origins of the modern historical profession.

In 2018 British History Online digitized and published this single volume , providing information on 7500 research degrees on topics in British, international and world history, from ancient Greece to post-1945 Europe. In keeping with BHO editorial policy, the 2018 digital edition replicated the structure and the content of the 1976 print publication. Under a top-level category such as ‘Britain: 1660-1832’, sub-sections group 70 years of PhDs by theme. For example:

BRITAIN: 1660-1832

–> political history.

• Foreign and colonial relations
• Radicalism and reform movements
• Political thought

–> Ecclesiastical History

• Church of England
• Protestant nonconformity
• Roman Catholicism

Within each sub-section, individual records provide information on a thesis title, the student, institution, degree type and date of award: e.g.

The political career of General Conway.  Hilda I. Clark. Liverpool M.A. 1917

The impeachment of Warren Hastings.  P.J. Marshall. Oxford D.Phil. 1962

The evangelical revival as reflected in the life and works of John William de la Fléchère (1729–85) .  W.C. Lockhart. Edinburgh Ph.D. 1936

2. BHO thesis data, 1970-2014

It’s to this existing collection that we now add a second BHO data set, covering History dissertations awarded between 1970 to 2014 —principally PhDs though with some Masters theses.

Unlike the 1901-1970 print collection (which we had rekeyed to create a new digital edition), the set covering 1970 to 2014 already existed in database format. Each year History departments in the UK, and latterly the Republic of Ireland, were invited to supply us with information on their recently completed theses. This was added to the database and used annually to create a print record of the latest PhDs.

By 2014 our database held records for 22,000 theses which we’ve now extracted and converted to the format required for British History Online. As you’d expect, our data contains the same fields as for the earlier 1901-70 series; but it now also includes references to thesis supervisor/s—together with focused ‘index’ and broader ‘category’ terms which relate to the subject matter of an individual PhD.

BHO records for the new series, 1970-2014, display these additional fields in the following format:

Meanings of manhood in early modern England, with special reference to Cambridge, c.1560-1640. Shepard, Alexandra J.      Ph.D., Cambridge. (Hist.). Supervised by Wrightson, Keith E.      Chronological coverage: 1560–1640      Index terms:  Cambridge; Manhood      Categories: 16th Century; 17th Century

The foiled quest for a democratic factory order: a study in factory relations in Petrograd during the Russian civil war, 1918-21.   Lyu, Hansu      Ph.D., Essex. (Hist.). Supervised by Smith, Stephen A.      Chronological coverage: 1918–1921      Index terms:  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; Civil War, Russian (1918-21); Factory relations, in the U.S.S.R.; see also Russia; Petrograd, U.S.S.R.

To be a moudjahida in independent Algeria: itineraries and memories of women veterans of the War of Independence, 1954-62 .  Vince, Natalya      Ph.D., London. (Q.M. Hist.). Supervised by Jackson, Julian T.      Chronological coverage: 1954–1962      Index terms:  Algerian War (1954-62); Women, in Algeria; Algeria      Categories: Gender and Women; Military/naval history; Social history; 20th Century

Given the annual print format in which this data originally appeared, individual theses for 1970-2014 are now listed by year of award; so while dates aren’t provided in the individual record, each thesis remains clearly connected to its year: in the case of the three examples above: 1996, 2000 and 2009.

The extra index terms within the 1970-2014 records originally featured as finding aids for the annual catalogues. With these terms now exposed in BHO, it becomes easier to locate sets of theses on common subject areas or periods, even when this may not be evident from searching the text of thousands of PhD titles. Knowing which classifications have been applied to a thesis helps you search more precisely for related theses, although we need to stress that the original (print) classification is not consistent or exhaustive and never has been.

Similarly it’s important to note that the data in this new set of records was submitted annually by History departments on request; where information was not supplied there are inevitable gaps in our records. While the 22,000 theses now listed on BHO comprise a significant and sizeable data set, it is certainly not a full listing of all UK doctorates in History. We believe that by being transparent about the data and its inconsistencies we’re helping our users make informed choices about how best to engage with our content.

Further guidance on how to search BHO is available on the Using British History Online page.

3. Five applications of BHO thesis data

How might we engage with the information in these 30,000 records, recording History theses 1901-2014? Here are five ideas.

i. Historians – before they were famous

At its simplest both BHO collections (theses 1901-1970 and 1970-2014) offer text searchable records by student and title. Thus it’s easy to: find the work of a young Geoffrey Elton ( ‘ Thomas Cromwell: aspects of his administrative work ’ , London 1949) or Isabel de Madariaga ( ‘Anglo-Russian relations during the War of American Independence, 1778–83′, also London 1959 ) . And equally to: identify the respective supervisors of Roy Porter (‘ The making of the science of geology in Britain, 1660-1815 ’ Cambridge, 1975 – Martin Rudwick) and Helen Castor (‘ The duchy of Lancaster in the Lancastrian polity, 1399-1461 ‘ Cambridge, 1993 – Christine M. Carpenter).   

Text searching across titles is one way of identifying dissertations with a common subject area: thus ‘geology’ and ‘geological’ appear (in addition to Roy Porter’s PhD) in 13 thesis titles, 1901-2014*, while 581 dissertations in the field of ‘Modern Britain and Ireland’—and completed between 2000 and 2009—include reference to one of more of the terms: ‘gender’, ‘women’, ‘masculinity’.

*Each section of the BHO thesis listings, 1901-70 and 1970-2014 can be investigated separately, given its distinctive data structure. Equally you can search across shared fields for all records 1901-2014: by entering the term History Theses in the Title box and a search term in the Keywords box, you can search all theses at once. The 14 references to ‘Geology’ / ‘Geological’ as a search term appear in eight sections of the full series of theses.

ii. PhDs by university and student cohort

The BHO listings also highlight research activity within an institution. For example, in our data the earliest History PhD from Leicester University was awarded in 1959 (two years after that institution received its royal charter), with an additional 22 doctorates completed in the following decade. Between 1970 and 2014 a further 197 graduates in the BHO gained a PhD from the university.

Honing in by year also identifies fellow students by institution and/or by areas of research. Cambridge contemporaries of Roy Porter, working in the field of modern British history and also completing in 1975, include Michael Bentley, David Bebbington and Paul Bew. That year also saw David Abulafia—winner of the 2020 Wolfson Prize —receive his Cambridge PhD for ‘Commercial relations between the Norman kingdom of Sicily and the North Italian mercantile republics, 1116-91.’

iii. Pioneering women historians

Though our records aren’t coded by gender, the listings similarly highlight pioneering women researchers via browsing. Among those from the opening decade of the twentieth century are: Frances A. Collie, ‘ The history and nature of the dowry among the ancient Greeks ‘ (Wales M.A. 1905); Helen M. Cam , ‘ A comparison of the local administration and law courts of the Carolingian empire with those of the West Saxon kings ‘ (London M.A., 1909) and Laura H. Thraves, ‘ The Gordon Riots, 1780’ (Liverpool M.A. 1910).

iv. Academic ‘family trees’

References to supervisors for many post-1970 records allow us to chart connections between historians: one of those first generation Leicester historians was the early modernist Margaret Spufford (1935-2014) whose MA ( ‘Rural Cambridgeshire, 1520–1680’ , 1962) was followed by a PhD (‘ People, land and literacy in 16th- and 17th-century Cambridgeshire ‘, 1970). Ten of Spufford’s own PhD students are listed in the BHO collections for 1970-2014, among them Tessa Watt ( ‘Cheap print and religion, c.1550-1640’ , Cambridge, 1988) and Christopher Marsh, ‘ The Family of Love in English society, 1550-1630 ‘ (also Cambridge, 1992).

And with sufficient data it becomes possible to plot what are in effect supervisory lineages, as the following example shows.

Starting with the medieval historian Caroline Barron, for example, BHO data include records of 30 of the 33 PhDs she supervised between 1983 and 2017 . Many of Professor Barron’s students have since gone on to supervise researchers of their own, as have their students—in turn listed in British History Online. Mary McKisack —supervisor of Caroline Barron’s 1970 thesis, and herself a student of the Irish medievalist Maud Clarke (1895-1932)—also features in BHO with her Oxford BLitt dissertation, ‘ Parliament in the reign of Richard II ‘ (awarded 1924).

Put together this has the makings of an ‘academic family tree’, of interest not just for its intellectual continuities (metropolitan and urban history / Richard II) but also its branching into new areas and chronologies as careers and research interests develop over the generations.

v. What comes after the PhD?

Of course, for many researchers a PhD thesis is just the start, serving as their gateway to a first book and other publications. What comes after the PhD is now often well-documented via a range of accompanying online resources that help us trace the development of a historian’s career.

Putting these resources together builds up a richer profile, as we can see in the following example–Tim Reinke-Williams’ 2006 PhD from Warwick University–chosen at random from the list of theses in British history, awarded 2000-09. (Tim is now Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton and our thanks to him for allowing us to use his work as a case study here.)

1. The starting point: Tim Reinke-Williams’ 2006 PhD thesis as listed in BHO, Theses, 1970-2014: Modern Britain and Ireland, awarded 2000-09

2. Tim’s complete thesis is also available for download via the British Library’s EThOS website

3. Having completed his PhD, Tim went on to publish. Here’s his current publications page in the IHR/RHS Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) – a subscription resource .

4. The BBIH record includes Tim’s first book (2014) which drew on his PhD research. BBIH adds metadata to allow similar works to be identified, plus links to academic reviews of Tim’s book

5. Via BBIH, links point to reviews of Tim’s book: here in the IHR’s Reviews in History

6. By connecting the citation to Google Books we also gain access not just to extracts of published text but also to a book’s acknowledgements page.

Here we have sight of a historian’s wider intellectual networks (thanked for their support during the writing of a book), plus — often for first books — reference to PhD examiners who might play a role in developing a research project from thesis to first publication.

In our case study, Tim Reinke-Williams’ examiners were Alex Shepard — who we encountered earlier (‘ Meanings of manhood in early modern England ‘ 1999) — and Steve Hindle (‘ Aspects of the relationship of the state and local society in early modern England, with special reference to Cheshire, c.1590-1630 ‘ 1993). Via the BHO listing we can in turn find the examiners’ own research students , and discover that both Shepard and Hindle studied for their doctorates under the supervision of Keith Wrightson. Another lineage begins to emerge.

Made at scale, such connections offer intriguing possibilities for charting the intellectual and social networks that shape and inform the profession. We’ll be further considering these possibilities in future posts, and encourage you to have a go when the underlying thesis data is released via a CC licence in early July.

About British History Online

British History Online (BHO) is the IHR’s digital library of nearly 1300 volumes of primary and secondary content, with a focus on British and Irish history, c.1200-1800. BHO is the creation of the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and is used by students, researchers and teachers, worldwide.

To help researchers at this time, all BHO premium content is currently freely available for individual users until 30 September 2020.

BHO editors are also inviting responses to our 2020 Survey : tell us what you like, and don’t like about British History Online, and what you’d like to added to the service.

Philip Carter is Head of Digital and Publishing at the IHR and Senior Lecturer in British History.

Department of History

Ph.D. Admissions

With more than 40 full-time faculty members, the Department of History trains graduate students in a wide range of fields and methodological approaches, covering periods from antiquity to the present.

Graduate students in history benefit from a high faculty-to-student ratio, which enables us to provide more individual attention than many other programs. The size of each entering class varies slightly from year to year, with eight to 10 students being typical. In all, we have approximately 50 students, a talented and diverse group who come from many parts of the United States and the world.

Vanderbilt University offers many opportunities for interdisciplinary engagement. The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities houses on-going seminars in areas ranging from Circum-Atlantic studies to postcolonial theory, science studies, and pre-modern cultural studies. Other centers and programs whose activities would be of interest to history graduate students include the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies ; the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society ; the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies ; the Department of African American and Diaspora Studies ; the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies ; and the programs in Asian Studies Program , American Studies , and Jewish Studies . The Department of History strongly encourages interdisciplinary work.

Please note: The Department of History does not accept external applications for a terminal master’s degree. The M.A. is usually earned en route to the Ph.D. It is also available to Vanderbilt undergraduates who enroll in the 4+1 program in history.

Director of Graduate Studies and Admissions: Ari Bryen Graduate Administrator: Madeline Trantham

If you have any questions regarding the graduate application process that are not answered here, please email us .

Application

The Vanderbilt history department offers the Ph.D. degree. Students normally earn the M.A. following two years of coursework, fulfillment of the research paper requirement, and satisfactory performance on language examinations. The department does not offer a free-standing terminal M.A. degree.

The application deadline for Fall 2025 admission is December 1, 2024. Applicants for whom the $95 application fee presents a financial hardship are encouraged to apply for a fee waiver from the Graduate School.

Foreign applicants or applicants who do not qualify for a fee waiver from the Graduate School should contact [email protected] . These applicants should explain briefly in their email why the fee presents a financial hardship. Requests for a fee waiver will be assessed and forwarded to the College of Arts & Science. If a fee waiver is granted, the applicant will be notified.

Applicants should have an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution, domestic or international.

Application Components

As part of the online application, candidates will provide:

• Statement of Purpose (please be specific about your research goals and provide names of faculty members with whom you would like to work, and why. In addition, please explain how your interests and goals may connect with our Areas of Excellence ).
• A minimum of three letters of recommendation (and no more than five).
• An unofficial, scanned college transcript(s) and graduate transcript(s) if applicable. Admitted applicants will be instructed to submit official and final transcripts as a condition of enrollment at Vanderbilt.
• TOEFL and IELTS scores are accepted for international students whose native language is not English. For more information, read the Graduate School’s Language Proficiency policy.
• Candidates are required to upload a writing sample of no more than 25 pages as part of the online application process. The option to upload the writing sample is made available immediately after entering your test scores into the online application. Please note that until this writing sample has been uploaded, your application will be considered incomplete. Research papers and theses, especially those that explore a historical topic and show facility in using original and/or archival materials, are of most use to the admissions committee in making their decisions. Co-authored writing samples are not accepted.
• GRE scores are not required for admission.

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Areas of Excellence

Graduate students will select an area of excellence from a drop-down menu in the online application; prospective advisers will submit a note to the admissions committee explaining the candidate’s fit. Therefore, applicants are strongly encouraged to reach out to prospective advisors to figure out how their interests could connect with our areas of excellence initiative and to explain in their Statement of Purpose how they envision benefitting from it.

Economics: Labor, Business, Capitalism:

The Vanderbilt History Department offers a rich setting for the study of the history of economy, widely conceived, including labor and business history, the history of capitalism, trade networks, and general questions of economic development as they connect with politics, culture, religion, and social history. Ranging temporally from the classical/medieval era to the modern world, and geographically from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the United States, the Vanderbilt History faculty is interested in the study of commodities, thought, empire, trade, free and unfree labor, finance, cultures, and the global development of capitalism. Our view is capacious, with wide interest in legal, political, and regulatory regimes that influence such processes. Working with faculty across the department, we encourage comparative and transnational forms of historical inquiry. Vanderbilt also offers connections with a robust team of formal economic historians in the Economic Department and a strong undergraduate Economics-History major.

Legal History

Vanderbilt is home to a thriving community of legal historians. We range chronologically from the ancient Mediterranean to the twenty-first century, and our faculty and graduate students have written on topics as diverse as ancient violence, the history of prostitution, racial passing, citizenship, Islamic law, policing, capital punishment, sovereignty and state building, privacy law, American slavery, and the intersections of religion and law.

Our community is centered on the Legal History Colloquium, a trans-institutional seminar that brings together faculty and students from the Law School, the Divinity School, and the College of Arts & Sciences working on legal historical themes. The colloquium strives to be international and comparative in methods and scope. Students in Legal History take a graduate seminar on Methods in Legal History, which introduces them to the wide-range of work done by legal historians. Working in consultation with their adviser, students of legal history write one of their two graduate seminar papers on a legal topic; they also have opportunities to serve as teaching assistant to faculty in diverse areas of legal history.

Race & Diaspora

Vanderbilt’s History Department focuses on complex histories of racial formation, as well as race and migration. The unique history of African peoples dispersed by the Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades is of particular interest. Deploying local, national, transnational, and transdisciplinary approaches, students work closely with accomplished scholars in the History Department—as well as other academic departments, such as African American & Diaspora Studies—to study a wide array of interrelated topics.

These include race as a concept, ideology, and system, as well as the role of race in shaping identity and culture in the Americas and other parts of the world. Likewise, students examine theories of race & diaspora, encompassing historical phenomena such as settler colonialism, racial enslavement, labor migrations, deportation, colonialism, and post-colonialism. In addition, research can extend to the analysis of subsequent mass demographic movements and the creation of “new” racialized peoples, homelands, communities, cultures, and ideologies as historical groups responded to upheaval and sought opportunities. Therefore, scholarship on race and diaspora also attends to manifestations of social, religious, economic, and political oppression and social control, and the attendant struggles of resistance and adaptation. This, in turn, leads us to scrutinize race alongside state formation, racialized citizenship, capitalism, state-building, and surveillance. As with all work on race, centering analyses of gender and sexuality is a priority in order to provide a deeper understanding of racial identities and structures. In addition, examining race and diaspora from the ancient world through the 20th Century and in relationship to Native American, Asian, and Jewish diasporas is also possible.

Research Areas

Ancient/medieval.

Vanderbilt boasts a dynamic group of scholars in Ancient and Medieval history. The faculty represent a range of geographic and chronological periods, including the Roman Empire, Ancient/Medieval Syria, medieval Europe, Judaism, Islam and Asia. The faculty share a mutual interest in reconstructing past through rigorous, source-driven historical reconstruction, with specializations in legal, religious, economic, cultural and military history. They work closely with a distinguished cohort of early modern historians, and in collaboration with the programs in Classical and Mediterranean Studies, the Legal History Seminar, Jewish Studies, Women and Gender Studies, the Pre-Modern Cultural Studies seminar (Robert Penn Warren Center); the departments of English, French & Italian, German, Russian and East European Studies, History of Art, and the Graduate Department of Religion.

We welcome applications from potential graduate students interested both in particular subject areas, but also in the questions and methods shared by all historians of pre-modern societies – how to work with patchy or fragmentary evidence, how to reconstruct the world of culture and symbols, how to push beyond the learned texts that predominate in our records, and how to ask meaningful questions about the past.

There is no prescribed graduate curriculum; students are invited to craft their own program within the framework of the History Department Ph.D. requirements during coursework. Particular scrutiny is given, in evaluating applications, to a candidate’s prior preparation (including knowledge of languages necessary to undertake Ph.D. level research) and a candidate’s writing sample. Applicants are encouraged to contact potential supervisors in advance.

Vanderbilt University's History Department continues to diversify geographically and thematically, with African history being the latest doctoral field to be added to our offerings. Our doctoral program in African history is designed to produce scholars and teachers who possess a simultaneously broad and deep knowledge of the African past. We train academic historians of Africa who are grounded in the historiographies, methodologies, and debates that animate the field, but who also recognize and account for Africa's connections to the rest of the world and to global events.

We welcome applications from prospective graduate students who desire rigorous training in the core historical methodologies as well as in ethnographic approaches to the African past. Graduate students will be trained to mine and make sense of archival, oral, ethnographic, linguistic, and other unconventional sources as well as to utilize clues offered by Africa's vast material culture to reconstruct and interrogate the past. The goal is to develop our students into producers of new knowledge about Africa and effective teachers of African history.

Students can expect to be trained in the social, economic, and political histories of the continent while exploring themes as diverse as gender, technology, trade, religion, colonialism, nationalism, healing practices, slavery, intellectual production, among others. Students will be trained to appreciate the dominant dynamics of Africa's precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial histories while recognizing the parallels and overlaps between these periods. Our courses explore trans-regional patterns but also cover the peculiar historical features of particular regions.

The small number of our Africanist faculty means that we are able to devote considerable time to independent studies, collaborative learning, and mentorship. We perform traditional mentoring tasks, but we are also able to provide consistent support as students identify research fields, apply for research grants, and apply for jobs during the dissertation phase of their training.

Vanderbilt hosts an accomplished faculty in Asian history and is particularly strong in the twentieth century, early modern, and medieval periods. We emphasize global interconnections and broad comparative approaches both within the department and in affiliated programs across campus.

With a small cohort admitted each year, students benefit from close mentorship with Asia faculty, including one-on-one independent study and directed research. Students will be expected to take history department courses in other regions (Europe, US, Latin America, Middle East, Africa) and methodologies (including Visual Culture, Spatial Histories, Empire, and History of Science). Students can also explore related topics with Asia faculty in History of Art, languages and literature (Asian Studies), Religious Studies, Sociology, English, and Political Science.

South Asia: Vanderbilt is emerging as an important location for the study of early modern and modern South Asia, especially in the fields of political history, religious history, and the history of western India ( Samira Sheikh ). Graduate students admitted to study South Asian history may be supported by faculty in related fields, such as Indian Ocean history ( Tasha Rijke-Epstein ), the history of the British empire ( Catherine Molineux ), and the Islamic world ( Leor Halevi ,  David Wasserstein ). Distinguished South Asia specialists elsewhere at Vanderbilt include Tony K. Stewart, Adeana McNicholl and Anand Vivek Taneja in Religious Studies, Tariq Thachil in Political Science, Akshya Saxena in English, and Heeryoon Shin in History of Art. Those interested in premodern links between India and east Asia may benefit from scholars of Buddhism and Chinese architecture (Robert Campany/Tracy Miller).

Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Northeast Asia: With specialists in the cultural and intellectual history of modern/contemporary Japan ( Gerald Figal ,  Yoshikuni Igarashi ) and modern China/Northeast Asia ( Ruth Rogaski ), Vanderbilt is an excellent place to train in topics such as colonialism and empire, war, history and memory, contemporary culture, and history of the body and medicine. Faculty in U.S. History ( Tom Schwartz ,  Paul Kramer ) also maintain strong interests in Sino-U.S. relations. Associated faculty include Guojun Wang in Chinese literature, Lijun Song in Chinese medical sociology, and Brett Benson in contemporary Chinese politics.

Early and Middle-period Imperial China: Vanderbilt hosts a strong faculty in the political organization, military history, and material culture of the Song dynasty ( Peter Lorge ), with the capacity for comparative study in other medieval societies (Europe, Middle East, South Asia). Students can also explore topics as diverse as sacred landscapes, regional networks, and religious identities with affiliated faculty in History of Art (Tracy Miller) and Chinese religions (Rob Campany).

Atlantic World

Vanderbilt ranks among the nation's top twenty research universities and boasts a diverse and dynamic History Department. One of the newest and most exciting areas of faculty research and graduate training at Vanderbilt is Atlantic World History. Graduate students who choose to complete a major or minor field in Atlantic World history at Vanderbilt will be introduced to a wide range of literature addressing the interactions among European, Native American, and African peoples. Working closely with our Atlantic World historians, students develop a dissertation topic and prospectus during their fifth and sixth semesters.

From their first semester, we encourage doctoral students in our field to become actively engaged in the profession through field research, networking, collaborative projects, grant writing and publishing. We also encourage training in digital humanities and our students have worked on projects such as the  Slave Societies Digital Archive , the  Manuel Zapata Olivella Collection  and  Enslaved: Peoples of the Historic Slave Trade .

Our students have presented their research at numerous national and international conferences including the American Historical Association, the Conference on Latin American History, the Brazilian Studies Association, the Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History, the African History Association, and the Association of Caribbean History, among others. Over the last decade our students have won many prestigious research awards, including the Fulbright, Social Science Research Council, American Council for Learned Societies, and Rotary fellowships.  Our students have conducted research in areas as diverse as Angola, Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Germany, Ghana, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

Graduates of our Atlantic World History program have earned tenure-track positions in history departments at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Florida, Michigan State University, the University of West Florida, the University of Birmingham, UK, the University of Arkansas, Queens College, Georgia Gwinnett College and the University of Texas-Arlington.

Early Modern

Vanderbilt has a vibrant group of scholars in Early Modern history. Faculty research and teaching interests include geographic specialists in England/Britain, France, Germany, Italy, eastern Europe, India, and China. Among the areas of inquiry are legal, religious, economic, cultural, and gender/sexuality history. The Early Modern faculty work closely with historians of antiquity and medieval history, and in collaboration with the programs in Classical and Mediterranean Studies, Jewish Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, the departments of English, French and Italian, and German, Russian and East European Studies, History of Art, and the Pro-Modern Cultural Studies Seminar (Robert Penn Warren Center.)

We welcome applications from potential graduate students interested in particular subject areas as well as in the questions and methods shared by all historians of early modern societies, including how to work with incomplete, fragmentary, or (deliberately) misleading evidence, how to reconstruct the world of culture and symbols, how to push beyond the learned texts that predominate in the historical record, and how to ask meaningful questions about the past.

There is no prescribed graduate curriculum; students are invited to craft their own program within the framework of the History Department Ph.D. requirements during coursework, but an applicant’s prior preparation, including knowledge of languages necessary to undertake Ph.D. level research, and the writing sample, are particularly important factors. Applicants are encouraged to contact potential supervisors in advance.

Vanderbilt University trains graduate students in all periods of Islam's history, from its origins in late antiquity to modernity, and in various regional settings.

Our faculty works in multiple fields, including law, business, religion, imperialism, and nationalism. They have written on topics as diverse as early Islamic death rituals; politics and society in al-Andalus; Jewish-Muslim trade in the medieval Mediterranean; the political, religious and economic landscape of early modern Gujarat; Jewish identity in the Ottoman Empire; Islam in the modern Balkans; Nigerian responses to colonialism; and the rise of ISIS.

Latin America

Vanderbilt University has one of the oldest programs in Latin American studies in the United States. Our doctoral program focuses on developing scholars and teachers with both a broad knowledge of Latin American and Caribbean history and intensive training in research and writing in their specialty. Doctoral students normally do four semesters of classes, then take their qualifying exams at the end of their fourth semester or the beginning of their fifth semester. Working closely with our historians of Latin America and the Caribbean, students develop a dissertation topic and prospectus during their fifth semester. From their first semester, we encourage our doctoral students to become actively engaged in the profession through field research, networking, publishing, collaborative projects, and grant applications. Our students have presented their research at numerous national and international conferences including the American Historical Association, Conference on Latin American History, Latin American Studies Association, Brazilian Studies Association, Association of Caribbean Historians, and the Southern Historical Association. Over the last decade our students have won many prestigious internal and external research awards (ACLS, Mellon, Boren, SSRC, and Fulbright). Since 1989, 39 students have entered our doctoral program. Twenty-three have completed their dissertations, and ten students are currently in the program. The average time to completion of dissertation has been six years. Close individual supervision of our students has been key to the timely and successful progress of our students. 

Vanderbilt University has a distinguished tradition in Latin American and Caribbean history beginning with the hiring of Alexander Marchant (and four other Brazil specialists) and the creation of an Institute of Brazilian Studies in 1947. Among other noted historians of Latin America who have taught at Vanderbilt are Simon Collier, Robert Gilmore, J. León Helguera, and Barbara Weinstein. Close individual supervision of our students has been key to the timely and successful progress of our students.

Vanderbilt is home to a thriving community of legal historians. Our faculty expertise ranges from ancient Rome to the contemporary United States, and we place a strong emphasis on comparative and thematic inquiry. Faculty have written on topics as diverse as ancient violence, the history of prostitution, racial passing, Islamic law, American slavery, and law in early modern empires.

Our community is centered on the Legal History Workshop, an invited speaker series that runs throughout the year. The workshop features some of the most exciting new perspectives on legal history and strives to be international and comparative in methods and scope.

In addition to coursework in their geographic and chronological areas of expertise, students are encouraged to take the Methods in Legal History seminar, which runs every other year. This team-taught seminar introduces students to the range of work done by legal historians and runs in conjunction with the workshop.

Modern Europe

Vanderbilt's doctoral program in Modern Europe focuses on developing scholars and teachers with a broad knowledge of European history and its relationship to the world. Graduate students are rigorously trained in both the national historiographies of their regional and linguistic specializations, as well as in related transnational and thematic fields, such as environmental history, nationalism and nation-building, law and empire, the history of music, minority politics, history of religion, mass violence, and the history of science and technology.

With a small, competitive cohort accepted each year, doctoral students in Modern Europe at Vanderbilt benefit from close mentor relationship with their advisors and other senior faculty, both through small seminar-style coursework and close individual supervision during the dissertation process. Mentorship extends beyond the classroom to include support in grant-writing, preparation for the job market, and opportunities for teaching assistantships in related fields. Collectively, the department's European faculty has supervised more than 40 theses in modern Europe and helped to place students in prestigious fellowships and tenure-track jobs in the United States and Europe.

Science, Technology, and Medicine

Vanderbilt is home to a robust and diverse community of historians engaged in the study of Science, Technology, and Medicine (STM). Students in STM are exposed to both the intensive historiographies of STM fields as well as a broad and deep training in the relevant historical locations and periods. Vanderbilt STM students are encouraged to imagine themselves as both scholars and as historians.

Our faculty expertise ranges across time, place, and topic; from material culture in Africa, to medicine in China, to intellectual and cultural history in the West.  Faculty have written on topics as diverse as modern privacy, the young Darwin, Diabetes, Albert Einstein, Qi, clinical trials—even the future of technology.

Our community is centered on two workshops, one designed by graduate students for the STM scholars within the department, and the other designed to engage the broader Vanderbilt community, recognizing the inherently interdisciplinary nature of STM studies.  

United States

Students in our doctoral program are trained broadly in the historiography of the United States in the nineteenth, twentieth, and now twenty-first centuries. They also have ample opportunities to work in transnational and thematic fields, including African American history, diplomatic history, environmental history, intellectual history, legal history, political history, and religious history as well as the history of capitalism, gender and sexuality, popular culture, race and racism, and science, medicine, and technology. The department has a strong profile in the field of U.S. and the world, and offers students training in transnational approaches. Graduate students and faculty meet regularly as a group to discuss research work in progress in the department's informal Americanist Seminar.

With a small, diverse cohort accepted each year, doctoral students in U.S. history at Vanderbilt benefit from expert supervision and guidance. Our faculty is committed to excellent mentoring in both research and teaching. Graduate students enjoy close working relationships with their advisors and other faculty inside and outside the department, whether in the Law School or Peabody College of Education or in the departments of medicine, health and society, sociology, philosophy, or religious studies. Faculty assist students as well with grant-writing, conference presentations, article drafting, and preparation for the job market. The department has helped to place students in prestigious fellowships and tenure-track jobs as well as significant research and policy positions outside the academy.

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Study at one of the top History departments in the UK, ranked fifth in the UK for the quality of our research in the most recent Research Excellence Framework.  

Based in the heart of London, we are located close to some of the country’s best resources for historical research, including our very own Liddell Hart military archives.

These archives are unique to King’s, cover more than a century of modern history and war, and are free for King's students to use.   

At King’s we also have further collections of more than 5 million archives, rare books, photographs and illustrations that span more than 500 years of world history. 

Whatever your research passion, we offer specialist PhD supervision in a wide variety of subject areas, from the medieval to the modern periods, covering British and Irish, European, and Global and Imperial History, as well as the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.  

History Research

MPhil/PhD Research from the Department of History at King's College London, option of joint PhD with Hong Kong University/National University of Singapore.

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MPhil/PhD Research in Palaeography & Manuscript Studies at King's College London.

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The Department of History currently has around 60 active researchers and over 100 PhD students

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Preparing a History PhD proposal

The carefully thought-out and detailed research proposal to be submitted with the formal application is the product of a sometimes prolonged negotiation with your potential supervisor. The supervisor may be enthusiastic about your project or might advise you to consider a different subject or change your angle on it; they may query aspects of your plan such as its breadth, the availability of primary sources or the extent to which you are familiar with the secondary literature. You may be asked to demonstrate the originality of your research question or be advised to consider applying to another institution which may have more appropriate expertise. During this process you will likely be asked to submit a specimen of written-up historical research, such as your Masters or BA dissertation. The sooner you start developing the structure that is expected in a research proposal, the more productive your exchanges with your potential supervisor will be.

You may find different advice for writing a research proposal across different OU webpages. Given that a research proposal can vary significantly across different disciplines, when applying to the History Department you should follow the guidance provided here.

The research proposal you submit in January should be approximately 1000 words, plus a bibliography, and should contain the following:

A title, possibly with a subtitle

The title should not take the form of a question and it may run to a dozen words or more. Like the title of a book, it should clearly convey the topic you propose to work on. A subtitle may explain the chronological or geographical focus of your work, or the methodological approach you will take. Choosing a title is a good way for focusing on the topic you want to investigate and the approach you want to take.

These are examples of poor titles and topics to research:

• Captain Cook’s Third Voyage
• Women in eighteenth-century England

These would be poor topics to research because they lack a strong question and it is not clear which approach they take to their already well-researched subjects. They are generic or merely descriptive. 

Examples of good research topics

• Constructing the Eternal City: visual representations of Rome, 1500-1700
• Rearing citizens for the state: manuals for parents in France, 1900-1950

These projects combine a sharp chronological and geographical focus with a clear indication of how the sources will be analysed to respond to a precise question. In the first case, for example, the premise is that visual representations are critical in the making of a city’s eminence. This indicates the type of sources that will be analysed (paintings, engravings and other visual sources). The chronology is particularly well chosen because in these two centuries Rome turned from being the capital of the Catholic world to becoming the much sought-after destination of the Grand Tour; interesting questions of change and continuity come into focus.

Brief summary of your argument

An acceptable PhD thesis must have a central argument, a 'thesis'.  You need to have something to argue for or against, a point to prove or disprove, a question to answer. What goes into this section of the proposal is a statement of your question and the answer you plan to give, even if, for now, it remains a hypothesis.

Why this subject is important

We expect originality in a thesis and so under this rubric we expect you to explain why the knowledge you seek on the subject you propose to work on is important for its period and place, or for historians’ views on its period and place. Finding some early-modern English laundry lists would not suffice  on its own  to justify writing a PhD thesis about them. But those laundry lists could be important evidence for a thesis about the spread of the Great Plague in London, for example.

Framing your research

Your proposal has to show awareness of other scholarly writing on the subject. This section positions your approach to the subject in relation to approaches in some of those works, summarising how far you think it differs. For instance, you could challenge existing interpretations of the end the Cold War, or you might want to support one historian or another; you could open up a neglected aspect of the debate - say by considering the role of an overlooked group or national government - and perhaps kick-start a debate of your own. All this is to show that you have read  into  your subject and familiarised yourself with its contours. We don’t expect you to have done all your research at the start, but it is essential for you to show familiarity with the key texts and main authors in your chosen field.

What sources might you need to consult in libraries and archives?

Here you should describe or at least list the primary materials you are likely to use in researching your thesis. This demonstrates your confidence that enough relevant sources exist to support a sustained scholarly argument. Many archival catalogues are available online and can be searched remotely, including The National Archives, the National Archives of Scotland, the National Archives (Ireland), the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and Archives Wales. You can search the London-based Historical Manuscripts Commission and the National Register of Archives, both of which provide access to local county record offices. Databases such as ‘Eighteenth Century Collections Online’ and the British Library’s ‘British Newspapers Online 1600-1900’ will help you identify and locate relevant sources.

What skills are required to work on the sources you plan to use?

You need to show that you have the linguistic competence to pursue your research. With few exceptions, original sources must be read in the original languages; if the principal historical literature is not in English, you must be able to read it too. Palaeographic problems aren’t confined to ancient writing. You might have to tackle early modern or other scripts that are hard to decipher. Even with fluent German, an applicant baffled by the Gothic script and typeface would flounder without undertaking ancillary study. Training is available at The Open University, or in some circumstances you can be funded to undertake training elsewhere, and you should demonstrate awareness of the skills that you need to acquire.

Do you have the technical competence to handle any data-analysis your thesis may require?

Databases, statistical evidence and spreadsheets are used increasingly by historians in certain fields. If your research involves, say, demographic or economic data, you will need to consider whether you have the necessary IT and statistical skills and, if not, how you will acquire them.

How will you arrange access to the libraries and archives where you need to work?

Although primary sources are increasingly available in digitised form, you should consider that important sources may be closed or in private hands. To consult them may require some travelling and so you should be realistic as to what you will be able to do, particularly if you are applying to study part-time as not all archives are open out of regular office hours.

A bibliography

This should come at the end and include a list of the primary sources you plan to use and the relevant secondary literature on the subject. While you should show that you are on top of recent work (and of important older studies) on the topic, there is no point in having a long list of works only marginally related to your subject. As always, specificity is the best policy.

Please follow this link to see an  example of a successful research proposal [PDF].

All this may seem daunting, as if the department is asking you to write a thesis before you apply. But that is not our intention; the advice is to help you perform the necessary spadework before entering the formal application process. Working up a proposal under the headings suggested above will, if your application is successful, save you and your supervisor(s) much time if and when the real work begins.

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PhD in History

The PhD in History offers you the opportunity to study history at an advanced level through independent research.

The PhD is our principal research degree. The size of Edinburgh’s history department, and the breadth of expertise available from our staff, means that we can offer supervision for research projects in a wide array of fields. We have strong research concentrations in Scottish history, American history, global and transnational history, Irish history, intellectual history, and medieval history, and colleagues who can supervise topics spanning two millennia and five continents. Members of the history department have strong links with colleagues elsewhere in the University with research expertise in related disciplines, from Classics, Archaeology and History of Art to Politics and Economics.

The breadth of research expertise in the School and in the wider University makes it possible for us to supervise a very wide range of topics. Each student is allocated at least two supervisors, allowing us to combine thematic, chronological and, if appropriate, disciplinary expertise in the supervisory team. We also have close links with external organisations, such as the National Museums of Scotland, and may be able to include external partners in supervisory teams.

Details of PhD projects currently being undertaken in the School can be found on our list of research student web profiles .

Read an  interview  with a PhD student in History.

Programme structure

The PhD is a substantial piece of independent research which makes a contribution to the state of existing knowledge in the field. The PhD programme is designed to take three years full-time or six years part time. The PhD is examined by submission of a thesis of up to 100,000 words and by oral examination.

PhD students work closely with their supervisors, who are recognised experts in the field of study. All PhD students pursue an individually tailored programme of research training agreed with their supervisors. The PhD programmes in History provide core training in the research skills necessary to flourish at doctoral level and beyond, through a core course in semester one, Professional Skills for Historians , and a day-long annual conference for PhD students in semester two.  All PhD students in the School also benefit from School and University-wide training in research and professional skills.

PhD students are encouraged to share their research with other postgraduate students through workshops and seminars, and to take an active part in the research life of the history subject area, the School and the University through our research groups and centres and through student-led workshops and seminars. Current research groups include Digital Humanities ; Intellectual History ; Material Culture; Global and Transnational History; History of Science, Medicine and Technology; Economic and Social History; Political History ; Irish History ; and Late Antique and Byzantine Studies . We also have three research centres: The Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History ;  Medieval and Renaissance Studies ; and the Edinburgh Centre for Global History .

You must  contact a potential supervisor  to discuss your research project before making a formal application.

If you have any questions about the programme, please contact the Programme Director.

Dr Felix Boecking

Programme director.

• School of History, Classics and Archaeology
• University of Edinburgh

Contact details

• Work: +44 (0)131 650 3844
• Email: [email protected]
• Web: Dr Boeking's staff profile

Apply for this programme

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• If you require a visa we advise that you apply as early as possible.
• All candidates who want apply for funding must submit their application for a place at the University in advance of the relevant funding deadline (in December and January typically - details can be found on the  funding website ).
• The final deadline for which the School will consider applications for the programme is 1 July 2024.

Apply through our Degree Finder now

• If you are hoping to study for this degree by distance please read further details and entry requirements here - PhD by Distance

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History and Classics PhD thesis collection

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Recent Submissions

After the persians: memories of the persian wars in the hellenistic period , “keep this unwritten history”: mapping african american family histories in “information wanted” advertisements, 1880-1900 , 'they are ultimately to feel the benefit of change': enslaved healthcare and amelioration in trinidad and british guiana, 1780-1834 , reception of isaac newton in the scottish enlightenment: causation, gravitation, and the transformation of natural philosophy , 'from partition to decriminalisation': homosexuality in northern ireland, 1921-1982 , itinerancy of health: jewish migrant encounters with health and medicine in britain, 1880-1914 , ‘the spanish are a wonderful people’: the international brigades and their cross-cultural encounters with civil-war spain, 1936-1939 , post-conflict settlement in the seleukid kingdom throughout the third and second centuries bc , phenomenon of jealousy in latin language and literature: metaphors, scenarios and embodied experiences , dynamics of power and artistry of arrangement in valerius maximus' facta et dicta memorabilia , magdalen life course: the lives of the inmates of the clewer and salisbury houses of mercy, 1830-1900 , esme stuart d'aubigny, first duke of lennox c.1542-1583: a french courtier in scotland , history of the sheriff's farm , honour in the oikos: reciprocity, respect, and recognition in fourth-century athens , 'what they call free in this country': refugees from slavery in revolutionary america, 1775-1783 , atimia: dishonour, disfranchisement, and civic disability in archaic and classical athens , non-physical cruelty and the divorce court in england 1857-1914: expectations and experiences of marriage , transformational conservative constructing ronald reagan's presidential legacy, c.1984-1998 , monetary exchanges and social capital in the tenth century byzantine court , boundaries of childhood: growing up in scotland 1930-1975 .

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What Can You Do with a PhD in History?

You’re a history buff — the person everyone wants on their trivia team. You can rattle off the dates, facts, and names of the world’s most significant events and periods. If you’re considering using your powers for good, getting a PhD in history is a great option. 

People with a passion for being stuck in the past have options once they’ve completed their history doctoral program. Beyond history jobs in academia, there’s a spot for a historian around the table in nearly every industry. The skill set required to complete a PhD opens up a variety of doors in whichever direction you choose to pursue. Here’s an idea of some things you can do with a PhD in History . 

If you see yourself leading the nation’s young people through their own historical journeys, a PhD prepares you to teach at almost any level, though going the professor route could be more lucrative than teaching high school. On average history professors make between $80,000-$164,000 per year. 

You’ll select your focus and spend your days sharing your passion with undergraduate and master’s level students. Along with teaching, if you pursue a history career in academia, you’ll likely spend some time researching topics within your wheelhouse. Re: your passion! 

If spending your days in front of the class, hosting debates, and leading young minds excites you, there might be even more time on a college campus in your future. However, tenured history professor roles may take some time to find and the salaries can range based on the type of university and location.  

Future Planning

Those studying the past usually have some insights into the future. If you’re looking to explore the world outside of strictly history, you might use your skills to find a career in future planning. No, not retirement planning (though that’s an option too).

Historians have a knack for identifying themes and patterns in culture, politics, and the world. A history PhD program allows you to use your historical knowledge to contribute to the modern world by making an impact on the community around you. Many politicians, inclusion officers, grant writers, and even human resource managers use their history PhDs to influence their worlds. 

Your ability to think critically about the past and lend your knowledge to the future makes you an asset to any organization looking to excel into the modern world. Be prepared to market yourself as someone who can best set the organization up for success in an ever-changing world. 

Business/Technology

In the business and technology world, it’s all about understanding the customer. Who are you selling to? What is their day-to-day life like? How do you best understand their needs and wants? 

As a historian, your ability to communicate with a diverse population and understand the context of their lives makes you especially valuable on a sales, marketing, development, or innovation team. As a PhD, employers know you are well-read, have strong research skills and have spent many, many, many hours writing. It’s no surprise that Historians make excellent copywriters, marketers, and editors. 

We won’t lie to you, there aren’t many Fortune 500 CEOs that can claim a doctorate in history. Most CEOs have MBAs or degrees in engineering. But there should be more historians up at the top — maybe you have what it takes. 

Intelligence Analysis

You may not be the next Indiana Jones, but you might cut it as a secret agent. The ability to analyze and synthesize information from various sources is crucial for intelligence analysts — and history PhDs have that in spades. 

Skilled at recognizing biases, evaluating the reliability of sources, and making informed judgments based on incomplete or uncertain information, historians have a strong ability to think critically and evaluate evidence. 

Additionally, historians have a deep understanding of the historical, cultural and social context in which events occur. This understanding can help you identify underlying factors and motivations that may not be immediately apparent to others. 

Archivist/Historian

If you’ve always dreamed about a career in history, this is likely what you’ve pictured. Spending days dusting off old newspapers and curating the perfect collection of artifacts — historians and archivists are often hired by governments or organizations to collect, analyze, organize, and preserve important documents and artifacts. 

Companies may hire a historian to reflect on the organization’s past in order to better inform their future choices or to maintain an existing collection of artifacts. We get it. We saw National Treasure, too. This would be a pretty amazing career.

The salary for historian jobs   can vary based on size of the organization and unfortunately, the importance they place on preserving their history. For reference, the average PhD in history salary is $75,000 in the U.S.

Become a Historian at SMU

So, what can you do with a PhD in history? You can make sense of the past to inform the future, you can write exceptionally well, and you can excel in nearly any industry. Simply holding your doctoral degree in history shows employers the determination you have. There should be a seat saved for you at every company, college, and organization looking to succeed.

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Explore what you can do with a PhD in History, read the guide Reanalyzing Our World, PhDs in The Humanities at SMU !

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150 Strong History Dissertation Topics to Write about

Writing a dissertation is one of the most challenging and exciting moments of an academic career. Such work usually takes a great deal of time, courage, and intellectual effort to complete. That’s why every step in your work process is essential.

It all starts with finding a good topic, which can be a challenge of its own. It especially matters when it comes to liberal arts subjects. In social studies, literature, or world history options are practically endless.

Coming up with history dissertation ideas, you need to think of historical events that interest you. We get it, choosing one is tough. There can be too much to wrap your head around. That’s why IvyPanda experts prepare some dissertation topics in history ready for you.

• How to Choose a Topic?
• Ancient History
• Medieval History
• Modern History
• Cold War Topics
• American History
• European History
• Indian History
• African History
• Performing Arts
• Visual Arts
• How to Structure

🧐 How to Choose a History Dissertation Topic?

Before examining our ideas for dissertation topics in history, you should get ready for this. You have to understand how to pick a history dissertation topic, which will ensure your academic success. Keep in mind that this is a vital step in your career.

So, check some tips on picking what to write about:

• Make sure that the topic fits in your field of study. You have to understand what you’re writing about. Basing your paper on existing knowledge and experience is a part of any dissertation. Working on an overly complicated idea can sound impressive but lead to failure. It will become a nightmare already on the stage of writing a dissertation proposal. How can you write the entire thing without comprehending it?
• Estimate whether you’re interested in the topic you intend to write on. Although this might seem obvious, yes. However, being actually invested makes a massive difference for your further work. There are plenty of students who settle for “easy but boring” topics and end up struggling twice as much.
• Ensure that your topic is specific enough. Your idea should have the potential for fruitful research. Narrowing down your area of study is essential for writing a good dissertation. It helps you to find the direction of your examination and enough sources to work with. Moreover, this way, you’ll be able to explore your topic in its entirety.
• Do some prior research. It will give you an understanding of how much literature on your topic is out there. Take notes of the materials for the reference list and your analysis. Checking history essay samples is a good idea, too.
• Don’t be shy to ask your dissertation advisor for some assistance. After all, they are here to help and guide you through the process. Besides, you have to see what ideas they consider relevant and appropriate.

👍 Good Dissertation Topics in History: Time Period

History is a subject as ancient and vast as the humankind itself. It’s only rational to study it according to a particular timeline. Here are some good history dissertation topics for different periods.

🏺 Ancient History Dissertation Topics

• Ancient Civilizations: The Maya Empire . The Maya was an incredibly powerful Empire with its prime around six century A.D., excelling in mathematics, calendar-making, astrology, and writing. It faced the decline of its city-states in nine century A.D., leaving a rich cultural heritage to the studies of subsequent generations.
• Women’s Roles and Gender relations in the Ancient World
• Greek City-States . Ancient Greece is the place where the first city-states were formed. How did the first governments in the ancient history timeline develop? How did people’s attitudes towards leadership change in that context?

• Ancient Near-Eastern Thought and the Old Testament
• The Inca Empire as a Great Civilization of Pre-Columbian America
• The Impact of Mongol Invasion in Ancient Arab
• The personality of Julius Caesar and His Effect on Rome
• The Role of Poets and the place of Poetry in Ancient Greece
• Mesopotamian Civilization . This was a fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It has been home to some of the world’s wealthiest and most advanced ancient cities. It can also make an excellent archaeology dissertation topic. There are plenty of fascinating sites that could be studied.
• History: Ancient Greek Olympics . Started in 776 BC, the Olympic Games were the most important cultural event in Ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus every four years. Besides, the Olympics were representative of the triumph of physical and spiritual power.
• Warfare and Violence in Ancient Times. Try to do a comparative analysis of warfare techniques used by different ancient civilizations. It could be a great dissertation topic.
• Burial Rituals in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece: a comparison
• Plutarch’s Vision on Alexander the Great
• Dissolution of the Roman Empire . The Empire sprawled from the coast of North Africa to the territories of the modern UK and Armenia. Once, it was the most powerful political entity in the entire Mediterranean. The empire, however, collapsed in 476 CE. What were the reasons for its eventual decline?

• How Geography Has Impacted the Development of Ancient Cultures
• Cause and Effect of Art on Classical Societies
• The Invention of Papyrus and its impact on the World
• Chichen Itza Archaeological Site . Chichen Itza is a great pre-Columbian archaeological site, home to the Maya civilization. It is a fascinating study case in many aspects. Consider the origins and Maya history. Analyze the cultural preservation issues that it faces nowadays.
• Egyptian Pyramid’s Importance in Egypt’s society
• The Stone Age Period and its Evolution

🛡 Medieval History Dissertation Ideas

• Cultural Exchanges in the Medieval Period . In the aftermath of the Roman Empire’s fall, new geopolitical conditions formed. The early Middle Ages period already marked the appearance of new trade routes. It fostered cultural exchange between nations.
• Rome in the Middle Ages and its cultural transformation
• The Development of Feudalism and Manorialism in the Middle Ages
• The Catholic Church and the Black Death in the 14th Century . During the high Middle Ages, the plague epidemic terrorized Europe. It was a dreadful challenge to medicine, religious institutions, and the social apparatus of the time. How did the Catholic Church deal with such a complex and disastrous medical phenomenon?
• Jews and Muslims in Medieval Spain . Christian, Islamic, and Jewish communities shared the Iberian peninsula in the early Middle Ages. It formed a vibrant cultural environment.
• London during the Roman Age: A Critical Overview
• Causes of the First Crusade of 1095-1099
• Twelfth-Century Renaissance, how Franciscans reacted to it and benefited from its development
• Business and Empire, the British ideal of an Orderly World
• The Black Death, Late Medieval Demographic crisis, and the Standard of Living controversies
• The Role of the Church in the life of the Middle Ages

• Medieval Siege Warfare . Exploring methods of defense used during the Middle Ages might be an interesting research project.
• The Conditions of Hindu and Islamic women in Medieval India
• Why the Crusades Failed
• The Mechanical Water clock of Ibn Al-Haytham, his philosophy of the rise and fall of empires
• The Renaissance and its Cultural, Political and Economic Influence
• The Dark Ages as the Golden Ages of European History . Plenty of facts demonstrate civilization’s decline during the Middle Ages. It was, nevertheless, the time of significant scientific, literary, and technological progress. For some interested in writing a medieval literature dissertation: think of Dante’s Divine Comedy . Da Vinci made his groundbreaking study projects during the Middle Ages. It was the time when first universities, such as Cambridge and Oxford, were founded. Overall, this period has a lot to offer!
• Japan’s Development Under Edo/Tokugawa Shogunate
• Historical and Theological Context of Byzantine Iconoclasm
• Medieval Convivencia: Document Analysis

🕰 Modern History Dissertation Topics

• World History: Enlightenment in Society and its Impact on Global Culture
• Nationalism and its 19th Century History
• Why Mussolini and the Fascists Were Able to Seize Power in Italy
• Religious Symbolism in Renaissance paintings . Renaissance is well-known as a period when fine arts were thriving. It was an early modern birthplace of many technological and cultural advancements. Religion, however, was still a central topic in visual art.
• Industrial Revolution and its Impact on Western Civilizations
• Principles of Liberalism and Its Connection to Enlightenment and Conservatism
• “History and Topography of Ireland” by Gerald of Wales . Looking for an incredible Irish history dissertation topic? Then this document might be an interesting prompt. Its somewhat controversial tone of describing contemporary Irish culture, history, and traditions can be subject to a comprehensive analysis.
• Moral treatment of Mental Illness . Over the 19th and 20th centuries, psychology has changed. Moving from a scientific periphery, it became one of the central subjects of scholarly discussions. Mental illnesses were highly disregarded in earlier centuries. People even considered them to be manifestations of demonic possession. How did this attitude change? Why did people rethink psychology as a scholarly discipline?
• A History of the Cuban Revolution

• Abraham Lincoln’s Historical Influence
• Role of Women During the Spanish Civil War
• Conquest and Colonization of America by European Countries . Colonization of America is one of the grandest enterprises in the world’s political history. What were its driving forces?
• Origins and Trajectory of the French Revolution
• Major Impacts of Consumerism in contemporary world history
• Coco Chanel Fashion: History of Costume . Probably not the first topic for a history dissertation that comes to mind. Chanel is truly an iconic figure in modern history, though. She revolutionized the fashion industry concerning gender as well.
• Causes of the Breakup of the Former Yugoslavia
• The Russian Working Class Movement . Before 1861, the agriculture and peasant-owning system were the foundation of the Russian Empire’s economy. Serfs made up a significant part of the population, accounting for over 60% in some regions. Then the serfdom abolition happened. A lot has changed in the economic and social life of the country.
• Segregation During the 1960s
• Historical Development of Feminism and Patriarchy
• Monetary and Fiscal Policy during the Great Depression

🔔 History Dissertation Topics on Cold War

• The Role of Cold War in Shaping Transatlantic Relations in the Period from 1945 to 1970
• The showdown between the United States and the USSR . Cold Was was essentially the power struggle between the US and the Soviet Union. It unleashed in the aftermath of World War II. This political precedent came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, the answer to the “Who won the Cold War?” question may be unclear.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis , its causes, and effects
• US Foreign Policy during the Cold War. Cold War, as a phenomenon, has many layers to it. Yet the one crucial is the contest of two ideologies: democracy and communism. How did the US shape its foreign policy and pursue its interests abroad? And how did the cultural and political setup within the country adjust to it?
• To what extent did the Cold War shape the US relations with Latin America?
• What was the importance of Berlin in the Cold War?
• Japan’s role since the end of the Cold War
• Cold War Politics, Culture, and War . Exploring the Cold War causes and effects can be quite a challenge. It is such a multifaceted phenomenon. It was a war led on many fronts. Both USSR and the US pursued their interests using a variety of methods.

• How did Cold War propaganda influence the film industry?
• What were the challenges in the post-cold war world?

🗺 History Dissertation Topics: Geographical Regions

Every country has its historical course, and so does every continent. Geography has always been an important factor when talking about history. It shapes historical trajectory in varied, unique ways.

Look at a dissertation topics history list based on geographical regions:

🦅 American History Dissertation Topics

• History of Hollywood, California . Oh, Hollywood. A place where American movie history was born. What about Hollywood’s history? Although a less traditional American history dissertation topic, it is still a fascinating one. Explore the way technological advancements in filmmaking were introduced over the decades. How did they influence the film’s general style?
• History: Migration into the United States . How did migration influence the economy of the time?
• The Relationships between the Settlers and Native Americans
• Literary works’ Views on Slavery in the United States
• Causes of the Civil War in America
• What is the real meaning of a cowboy?
• The United States military experience through the eyes of films
• Attack on Pearl Harbor: Effects of Foreign policy
• Causes of Depression in the 1890s
• Has President Obama’s Presidency changed the US?
• The role of Founding Fathers in American Society and Religion
• Post-Civil War reconstruction . Consider the way America’s economy, trade, and finance transformed in the aftermath of the Civil War.
• Principal causes and consequences of the Spanish-American War
• Why was the Declaration of Independence written?
• The Significance of the Frontier in American History
• How is a “new racial narrative” in the U.S.A created?
• American Revolution and the Crisis of the Constitution of the U.S.A. Rethink the origins of the American constitution, as well as the following events. It could be an exciting thesis idea for an American history dissertation.

• Growth and Development of San Francisco and Los Angeles after the Gold Rush
• The Role of Racism in American Art
• Drug Use and Abuse in America: Historical Analysis

🏰 European History Dissertation Topics

• Age of Discovery in Europe. The Age of Exploration in Europe lasted from the 15th to the 17th century. Over this period, Europe actively engaged with other territories and continents. Discoverers formed new international relations and expanded geographical knowledge. This topic could also make an excellent cultural history dissertation.
• Analyzing the Impact of British Colonization
• Nationalism in World War II
• Effects of the Industrial Revolution concerning World War I
• The Rise and Fall of Napoleon and the Cause of Revolution . Napoleon is one of the most prominent figures in French history. What has shaped his career as a political leader?
• History of Hitler’s Nazi Propaganda . Consider a brief history of Germany. Undoubtedly, the rule of Hitler and the Third Reich was its most devastating chapter. The “art” of propaganda flourished during the nazi regime. It penetrated the cultural, political, and social life of the country.
• Evolution of the IRA
• Napoleon’s Strategy and Tactics in his Invasion of Russia . For someone interested in writing a military history dissertation.
• Industrial Revolution Impact on Gender Roles
• Witchcraft in Europe (1450-1750) . Witch hunts took place as early as the Middle Ages in Europe. Held by the Church in most cases, witch hunts targeted those who were suspected of practicing black magic. Examine this both astonishing and problematic phenomenon.

• French Revolution: Liberal and Radical Portions
• West European Studies: Columbus’s Journey
• History of Feudalism . Feudalism dominated the European way of life during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. What were its distinctive features as a system? Why did it eventually fade away?
• Europe’s perception of Islam in the Early and Middle centuries
• Cold War Consequences for European Countries
• Mutated Medical Professionals in the Third Reich: Third Reich Doctors
• Was the Holocaust the Failure or the Product of Modernity?
• How did the use of print change the lives of early modern Europeans ?
• Early Modern England: a Social History
• Jewish Insight of Holocaust

⛰ Indian History Dissertation Topics

• History of the Indian Castes. The Indian Caste system is a complex and unique example of social stratification.
• Mahatma Gandhi’s Leadership . Gandhi is, for sure, among the greatest human rights advocates in the world’s history. His one of a kind leadership style is subject to many studies. While practicing a peaceful form of civil protest, he fought for equality, independence, and compassion.
• Political conflicts in India in the XVII century
• Impacts of the First World War on British Policies in India
• Movement Against the British rule in India. Led by Mahatma Gandhi, with the support of the National Congress, the movement took place in 1920-22. It sought to fight for the freedom of Indians.
• The Origin and Course of the Indian revolt of 1857
• The Issues of the Partitioning of India in 1947
• India Since 1900 . India is a region rich with unique traditions. Its spiritual and cultural heritage goes back to antiquity. The country’s authentic art and architecture, music, and cuisine have served as an inspiration worldwide. A considerable part of its history is, however, affected by British rule.

• Women in Hinduism and Buddhism
• The British East India Company

🌍 African History Dissertation Topics

• Ancient Societies in Mesopotamia and Ancient Societies in Africa: a comparison . Egypt is one of the most ancient African civilizations. Its origins go back to the third millennium B.C. Back then, the cultural exchange between Egypt and Mesopotamia was flourishing. What were the significant differences between the two civilizations? What did they have to offer to one another?
• Political Violence in South Africa between 1985 and 1989
• Did History of Modern South Africa begin with the Discovery of Diamonds and Gold?
• Nelson Mandela: “Freedom in Africa.” Nelson Mandela is, without a doubt, one of the central figures in African history. His devotion and tireless effort in fighting against apartheid were remarkable. Thanks to him, many sub-Saharan countries enjoy the freedoms and advances of a democratic society.
• The Cult of the Dead in West Africa: The Kongo People . African tribal rituals and traditions are unique and specific to their region. Cult of the Dead is prevalent in Western African culture. It can be notoriously known as the origin place of voodoo and other black magic practices. There is yet much more to this culture. Dismantling some prejudices could make an excellent African history thesis.
• Christianity, Slavery, and Colonialism: the paradox
• The Colonial War in Southwest Africa
• African-Europe Relations between 1800 and 2000
• Impacts of Slavery and Slave Trade in Africa
• African Communities in America

🎨 Art History Dissertation Topics

Art comes in all shapes and forms. To grasp it better, we can explore each kind separately. Here’s a list of art history dissertation ideas:

🎶 Topics on Performing Arts

• History and Development of Ballet . Ballet is an art form with a long history. Initially, a specific dance originated in Medieval Italy. It was later brought to France and Great Britain. Ballet thrived in the 20th century Russia, where Russian choreographers brought it to the highest level of mastery.
• The Life and Work of William Shakespeare: His Contribution to The Contemporary Theater
• Jazz Music in American Culture . Jazz is one of the most complex and exciting music genres of all time. It was born in the 20’s century black communities of New Orleans and quickly spread across America and then the world. The genre, however, will always be an integral part of African-American identity.
• The Instrumental Music of Baroque: Forms and Evolution
• Rock Music of the 1970s
• Michael Jackson’s Life as a Musician and Choreographer
• Development of the Symphony Orchestra in the 19th and 20th Century
• Woodstock Music Festival . This massive music festival that first took place in 1969 was the epitome of hippie culture. It has a rich history that once again underscores the importance of performing arts in Western culture.
• The History of Modern Chinese Music
• The Renaissance Theater Development. The era in which both visual and performing arts were thriving. It has a lot to offer for proper dissertation research.

🖼Topics on Visual Arts

• Art Period Comparison: Classicism and Middle Age
• Vincent Van Gogh: Changes in the Technique
• The Ambiguity of Mona Lisa Painting

• Orientalism in Western Art . It’s commonly associated with romanticism and some 20th-century artworks. Orientalism is a Western term that speculates the aesthetics of the Orient. Consider this concept as a prism through which Westerners viewed the Eastern world.
• Classical Art and Cubism: History and Comparison
• Postmodern and Modern Art . The 20th and 21st centuries have been a breeding ground for many forms of fine art to emerge and flourish. Some art movements presented their philosophy in the form of manifestos. These texts can be nothing but a pure treasure for someone writing an art history dissertation.
• Female Figures in Ancient Greek Sculpture
• Andy Warhol’s Career . Pioneer of pop-art, creator of Studio 54, and a style icon.
• Filippo Brunelleschi and Religious Architecture
• The Photographic Approaches Towards American Culture of Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand

📋 How to Structure Your Dissertation?

An adequately structured history dissertation can immensely help students. It ensures that they present their ideas and thoughts logically. Sticking to a particular dissertation structure is an essential element of such work.

The general plan of any dissertation type is the following:

• Title Page. A title page should only contain essential information about your work. It usually shows your name, type of the document (thesis, research paper, dissertation), and the title itself. A good history dissertation title is crucial! It’s the first thing a reader will see.
• Acknowledgments. Do you wish to give credit to someone for supporting you during the tiresome months of your work? This is the right part to do so, be it your family, friends, or professors. It is an excellent form to express gratitude to those who proofread your drafts. Or those who brought you another cup of coffee when you needed it.
• Declaration. This section is your written confirmation. You declare that all the research and writing is entirely original and was conducted by you. If someone intellectually contributed to your project, state it in the acknowledgments.
• Table of Contents. Essentially, it’s a brief structure of your dissertation. List every section that you’ve included in your academic paper here.
• Abstract. This is the section where you write a brief summary of your dissertation. It should describe the issue, summarize your core message and essential points. List your research methods and what you’ve done. Remember to make it short, as the abstract shouldn’t exceed 300 words or so. Finish the part with a few essential keywords so that others can find your work.
• Introduction. A dissertation introduction presents the subject to the reader. You can talk about the format of your work. Explain what you plan to contribute to the field with your research.
• Literature Review. The chapter reviews and analyzes pieces of scholarly work (literature) that have been made on the subject of your research. The sources should present relevant theories and support your thesis. Be sure to discuss the weaknesses and strengths of the selected area of study and highlight possible gaps in this research.
• a code of conduct;
• research limitations;
• research philosophy;
• research design;
• ethical consideration;
• data collection methods;
• data analysis strategy.
• Findings and Results. Restate everything you have found in your research. However, do not interpret the data or make any conclusions yet.
• Discussion and Conclusion. In this chapter, you should personally interpret all of the data and make conclusions based on your research. It is essential to establish a logical link between the results and evidence. Finally, conclude the overall study. You can add final judgments, opinions, and comments.
• References. This section contains a list of references to all the sources that you used. Write down every material, which you quoted, mentioned, or paraphrased in your work. Check your educational institution’s guidelines to see how to do so correctly.
• Bibliography. Similar to the reference section, a bibliography is a list of sources you used in your dissertation. The only difference is that it should contain even the sources you don’t directly mention in your writing. Whatever helped you with the research, you state here.
• Appendices. The section may include any supplementary information that explains and complement the arguments. Add pictures, diagrams, and graphs that serve as examples for your research subject.

Writing a dissertation is the right challenge for those with ambitions and lots of determination. It is a lot like a marathon, and it starts with choosing the right topic. We hope that you will find one for yourself on this list. Good luck! Share the article to help those who may need a piece of advice or some history dissertation topics.

🔗 References

• How To Write A Dissertation: Department of Computer Science, West Lafayette, Purdue University
• Ph.D. Thesis Research, Where Do I Start: Don Davis, Columbia University
• Writing with Power: Elbow P., Oxford University
• Writing a Thesis or Dissertation – A Guide to Resources: Gricel Dominguez
• The Elements of Style: Strunk, W. Jr., White, E.B., Angell, R.
• A Collection Of Dissertation Topics In American History: asqauditconference.org
• Yale History Dissertations: Department of History, Yale University
• Dissertation Outline: School of Education, Duquesne University
• Developing a Thesis Statement: The Writing Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Writing an Abstract: The Writing Center, George Mason University
• Formatting Additional Pages: University of Missouri Graduate School
• Reference List vs. Bibliography: OWLL, Massey University
• How to Write Your Dissertation: Goldsmiths University for The Guardian
• Tips on Grammar, Punctuation and Style: Kim Cooper, for the Writing Center at Harvard University
• Acknowledgments, Thesis and Dissertation: Research Guides at Sam Houston State University
• Thesis Formatting, Writing up your Research: Subject Guides at University of Canterbury
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PhD Program

The UCLA Department of Art History offers a two-stage graduate program toward the PhD. Students are not admitted for a terminal master’s (MA) degree. The MA is awarded in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD and is granted with the successful completion of the first stage of the program, typically at the end of the second year, 6th quarter, in residence. Normative time to degree for the PhD is seven years from the term of admission. For students entering with a MA in hand, the normative time to degree is five years from the term of admission.

All students are required to complete the M.A. requirements in the department. The Graduate Review Committee may waive the M.A. requirements, at the time of admission, for students matriculating with a M.A. degree in Art History or adjacent discipline from another institution. Following Academic Senate policy on duplication of degrees, a student who enters the program with a M.A. degree in Art History from another institution is not eligible to receive a second M.A. degree in Art History from UCLA.

Please see here for the official UCLA Art History Graduate Program Requirements published on the Graduate Division website.

• The student is assigned a faculty mentor upon admission to the program. The mentor is responsible for the student’s course of study and must be consulted at least once each quarter. A change of faculty supervision and/or change in field(s) must be approved by the Graduate Review Committee.
• The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) offers intellectual guidance, approves any exceptions to the program requirements, and adjudicates disputes between a student and his/her faculty mentor. The DGS further serves as Chair of the Graduate Review Committee, which governs the admissions process.
• The Student Affairs Officer (SAO) assists students with all the administrative aspects of moving through the program.
• Each spring quarter, the entire faculty reviews the status of each graduate student to ensure appropriate time-to-degree progress.

Toward the MA

Requirements for the MA

• Satisfaction of the first language requirement.
• Successful completion of AH 200 with a grade of “B+” or better.
• Nine graduate and upper division courses (36 units) completed while in the program. At least six of those courses (24 units) must be at the graduate level, including four graduate seminars. AH 200 may be counted towards the required six courses.
• Successful completion of a qualifying paper (approximately 30 pages) according to the standards and procedures outlined below.

* Typically the above requirements are completed within the first two years of study (6 quarters).

Distribution of Coursework

The nine required courses must include at least two courses from Group A and two courses from Group B noted below.

Qualifying Paper for the MA

• The qualifying paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper written for a class from the first year of coursework. It should be approximately 30 pages in length (excluding footnotes, images, and bibliography) and should demonstrate the student’s ability 1) to formulate a thesis, 2) to present an extended argument, and 3) to conduct original research. Quality of the writing will also be evaluated.
• By the end of the fall quarter of the second year, student selects a class paper from the first year in consultation with his or her advisor to revise and expand as the qualifying paper.
• In the following winter quarter, student enrolls for 4 units of 598 (RSRCH-MASTER THESIS) to work on the paper under the supervision of advisor.
• Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) will contact each student during the winter quarter (usually early February) to appoint a committee of three faculty readers for the qualifying paper, one of which is the student’s advisor. At least one of the faculty readers will have had no classroom contact with the student. All students may suggest potential readers; however, the DGS will balance the student’s request against equity of faculty workload.
• On the first day of instruction of the spring quarter, students submits three copies of the qualifying paper to the Student Affairs Officer (SAO) along with a list of the three readers assigned to review the paper.
• The qualifying papers will be distributed to the three assigned faculty readers and each reader will complete an evaluation form and submit it to the SAO within three weeks of receipt of the paper.
• By the fourth week of the spring quarter, the SAO will make available the papers with reader’s comments to the student and these papers will be added to the student’s permanent file.
• The Graduate Review Committee, taking into consideration the faculty reader evaluations, will determine whether the student will be awarded the MA and permitted to proceed into the PhDprogram. In some cases, the Committee may recommend that the student receive the MA degree but discontinue further graduate study. It is also possible (although very rare) that the student’s work may not be judged adequate to receive the MA.

Completion of the MA

• Prior to the third week of the spring quarter in the second year, the student should complete the “Petition for Advancement to Candidacy for the Master’s Degree” (provided by and returned to the SAO).
• Once the Department has accepted the qualifying paper, the student must file it with Graduate Division by the Monday of the tenth week of the spring quarter, formatted as a thesis.
• Graduate Division guidelines for formatting MA theses are available  here . Workshops on thesis formatting are offered at the beginning of each fall and winter quarters. See the Grad Division website for more information.
• Following the Department’s annual spring review of graduate students, the student must submit a completed form for transfer from the MA to the PhD program (provided by and returned to the SAO).

Toward the PhD

Upon the completion of the MA or starting with a MA from another institution, the student begins the PhD program having chosen a major field of study within art history, often known at the time of application. By the end of the second quarter of residence at the PhD stage, the student also selects a minor field, which may be outside the department (e.g. Architecture, History, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Archaeology, etc.). The major and minor advisors are responsible for the student’s course of study and completion of requirements within the selected field. Graduate Review Committee must approve any change of advisor(s) or the major and minor fields.

Requirements for the PhD

• Satisfaction of language requirements (minimum 2, including 1 from MA stage; more may be required depending on field of study)
• Completion of 8 graduate and upper division courses (32 units)
• Written comprehensive exams in major and minor fields
• Dissertation prospectus and oral qualifying exam
• Doctoral dissertation
• A total of 8 graduate and upper division courses are required, of which at least 4 must be art history courses at the graduate level.
• Of the nine courses (36 units) required for the MA, students may use a maximum of two of these (8 units) to count towards Ph.D. coursework. Students may also apply courses taken in excess of MA requirements towards fulfilling Ph.D. course requirements. (This does not apply to students who received their MA from other institutions/departments.)
• 5 courses in one field are required to claim it as the major field; 3 courses in one field are required to claim it as the minor field. The minor can also be from outside the department (e.g. Architecture, History, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Archaeology, etc.).
• Students entering the PhD stage deficient in Art History 200 (Art Historical Theories and Methodologies) or its equivalent must add this to the total requirements. In some cases, Art History 201 (Topics in Historiography of Art History) may be required by faculty/advisor recommendation. Any additional coursework required by the Graduate Review Committee at time of admission must be completed during the first two quarters of residence and may not count toward the minimum course requirements for either the MA or PhD degree.

Written Comprehensive Examinations

• Upon completion of coursework and fulfillment of language requirements, the student takes the PhD written comprehensive examinations in the major and minor fields of study, designed and evaluated by the student’s major and minor advisors respectively.
• The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s breadth and depth of knowledge in his/her fields of study. If a student fails to pass the examination or part thereof, the failed portion may be repeated once no later than the subsequent quarter of residence. No further repetition will be allowed. The written comprehensive examinations may be taken during any two-week period of the Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters. Typically, students take these exams during the winter quarter of the second year in residence, 5th quarter, in the PhD program.
• The Department offers two formats for the major and minor written exams, the details of which must be worked out in advance between the student and the examiner. Format A: Take-home. 2-3 essay questions to be completed in 1 week (for the minor exam, 1-2 questions to be completed in 3 days). Format B: Sit-down. 2-3 essay questions to be completed in 6 hours (for the minor exam, 1-2 questions to be completed in 3 hours). Many faculty incorporate designing of a syllabus as an exam question and the formats above do not preclude this possibility. Such an assignment would count as one question/essay.
• The specific format and dates for the major and minor exams must be submitted to the Student Affairs Officer at least three weeks in advance using the appropriate departmental form.

Doctoral Committee

• Upon passing the written comprehensive examinations in major and minor fields of study, the student selects a dissertation topic and nominates the members of his/her Doctoral Committee in consultation with his/her advisor.
• This committee minimally consists of the major advisor, now serving as committee chair, two additional members of the art history faculty (normally, but not necessarily, including the student’s minor advisor), and one member from another UCLA department. For details on the acceptable status of these members and for minimum university standards of the doctoral committee,  please see page 14-17 in the Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study manual .
• The student and committee chair must agree on all committee members. Any changes in committee constitution after formal nomination must be reported to and approved by the Graduate Division; replacing the committee chair can only occur by consent or if the faculty member leaves UCLA.
• Please note that the Graduate Division generally approves Committee nominations within 2-3 weeks, and the oral qualifying exam may not be taken before official approval has been received.

Dissertation Prospectus and Oral Qualifying Examination

• The dissertation topic should be identified in discussions with the advisor. These discussions usually evolve organically through the course of study and are highly individualized. Typically, the oral examination is scheduled during the quarter following the successful completion of the written examinations.
• Once the Doctoral Committee has been officially approved by Graduate Division, and after having conducted considerable exploratory research and preparation for his/her dissertation, the student submits to each member of the Doctoral Committee a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus should not be distributed to the full committee without the approval of the student’s committee chair.
• The dissertation prospectus should not exceed 20 pages and include a statement of purpose regarding the art historical topic/problem being addressed (what is at stake in the study), tentative chapter outlines, working bibliography, research plan, methodological strategies, and preliminary schedule for completion.
• Students should submit the prospectus to committee members 2-3 weeks before the oral examination date to allow sufficient time for the prospectus to be reviewed. If any member of the Doctoral Committee finds the prospectus inadequate, he or she must notify the committee chair at least one week prior to the oral examination date. In some cases, the prospectus must be revised and/or the examination date postponed.
• The student is responsible for scheduling the oral exam, consulting with committee members well in advance regarding the date and time of availability of each faculty member. The SAO helps the student reserve an appropriate space for the exam.
• The purpose of the oral examination is to assess the validity and feasibility of the proposed dissertation topic and its methodologies, as well as the soundness of the student’s projected approach to completing the project.
• At the end of the examination, each committee member reports the examination as “passed” or “not passed.” A student may not pass and may not be advanced to candidacy if more than one member votes “not passed” regardless of the size of the committee, or if the major advisor so votes. Upon majority vote of the committee, the oral qualifying examination may be repeated once. Students upon passing the oral examination are formally advanced to candidacy by the Graduate Division.
• At the time of the exam, the Doctoral Committee decides, by unanimous agreement, whether or not to waive the final oral examination (not normally required) and selects, again by unanimous agreement, a minimum of three members, two from the art history faculty and one from an outside department, who will read, approve, and certify the final draft of the dissertation. For details regarding the acceptable status of these certifying members, consult the publication, Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.
• Upon passing the oral examination, the student is officially Advanced to Candidacy (ATC).

Dissertation and Final Oral Examination (if required)

• After advancing to candidacy, the student works on the dissertation in consultation with his/her advisor, committee chair, as well as Doctoral Committee certifying members according to the rules laid out in the above named publication. Upon completion of the dissertation or individual chapters thereof, and with  approval  of the committee chair, the student circulates a copy of the dissertation  in Week 1 of the quarter  for comments and suggestions from the certifying members of the Doctoral Committee.  Each  reader is allowed  four  weeks in which to read it and make corrections and comments, and the student is allowed  three  weeks in which to respond and revise the dissertation. It is incumbent upon the student to communicate in a timely manner with all certifying members of the Doctoral Committee to ensure adequate time for review. Committee members must be consulted as each reader may require more time.  PLEASE REVIEW the timeline for dissertation completion  which clearly outlines the schedule for submission during the student’s final quarter.
• After incorporating into the final draft of the dissertation the recommended changes, the student will circulate the dissertation again among the certifying members of the Doctoral Committee. This draft should be circulated sufficiently in advance of the deadline for filing the dissertation so that each reader is allowed at least two weeks in which to reread it (see quarterly Schedule of Classes for filing deadlines).
• Each certifying member of the committee then decides whether or not to approve the dissertation. In cases where less than the entire committee acts as certifying members, approval of the dissertation must be unanimous. If the entire committee acts as certifying members, the dissertation is considered approved with one negative decision so long as that negative decision is not that of the committee chair. After final approval by the Dean of the Graduate Division, the student files the required number of copies of the dissertation with the Manuscript Advisor of the Office of University Archives. Deadlines for filing the dissertation fall approximately two weeks before the date the degree is to be awarded.
• Note: A final oral examination is not normally required for Art History, but in some cases it may be requested by the Doctoral Committee (determined at the oral qualifying exam), and is held prior to filing the dissertation. All members of the committee must attend and vote. A student may pass with one negative vote so long as that vote is not that of the committee chair. In case of failure, the Doctoral Committee decides, by unanimous agreement, whether or not the candidate may be re-examined.
• Upon filing the dissertation, the student receives the Ph.D.

Language Requirements

The completion of the PhD requires reading knowledge of a minimum of two foreign languages relevant to the student’s field of study (more than two may be required in some cases and must be determined in consultation with the faculty advisor). Applicants are expected to already possess reading proficiency in at least one of the two languages for which they will be responsible. New students shall sit for at least one language exam upon arrival at UCLA.

Students at the MA stage are expected to satisfy their first foreign language requirement by the end of the 3rd quarter in residence. It is highly recommended that they complete the second language requirement by the end of the 6th quarter in residence.

Students at the PhD stage are expected to satisfy their second foreign language requirement by the end of the 1st quarter and any additional languages by the end of the 3rd quarter in residence (or in consultation with the major advisor).

Fulfilling the Language Requirement

Option 1: Pass the Departmental Foreign Language Exam.

The language exam consists of translation of a text of 300-700 words chosen by the examiner to be translated into English in three hours (use of a non-electronic dictionary is allowed). Specific qualities of the language and expected level of proficiency in the field will impact the choice and length of the selected text. The Department expects accurate rendition in English rather than a strict translation, word for word, and values the quality of the translation over the completion of the exam.

Language exams are scheduled four times a year, approximately three weeks prior to finals week during the regular academic quarters. Entering students must sit for the first language exam in the first week of the fall quarter. Exam results will be sent out by email within three weeks of the exam date. If feedback on the exam is desired after the results have been announced, students are welcome to contact the examiner. If a student fails the exam and wants to appeal, he or she should contact the Chair of the Language Committee or Director of Graduate Studies.

Option 2: Complete UCLA courses  French 6, German 6, Italian 6, Spanish 25, or other relevant language classes with a minimum grade of “B”.

The following is a general guideline for language requirements in relation to specific fields of study. The final selection and number of languages is to be determined in consultation with the primary advisor.

African Indigenous African languages, Arabic, French, German, Portuguese Ancient/Mediterranean/Near East Akkadian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Latin Chinese/Korean/Japanese Two East Asian languages, for pre-modern studies additionally literary Chinese or Japanese Byzantine/Western Medieval French, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Slavic Languages, Turkish, Spanish Indigenous Americas One European language, one indigenous language (e.g., Quechua, Nahuatl, Maya), one other language (depending on topic) Islamic Arabic, Turkish/Ottoman, Persian, French, German Latin America Spanish (mandatory), French, German, Portuguese Modern & Contemporary Europe & America French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian Renaissance/Baroque/Early Modern Italian, French, Spanish, German, Latin, Dutch, Slavic Languages, Latin and/or Greek (depending on topic) South Asia Sanskrit, Hindi/Urdu, Persian Southeast Asia Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian

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Art History, Ph.D.

Ph.D. in Art History (+Dual Ph.D.)

TODO FIXME : DRAFT : WORK IN PROGRESS

Become a professional in the field advance your career with an advanced degree..

Advanced study of visual arts spanning periods, cultures, and geographies. The Art History Ph.D. program can deepen your expertise and advance your Art History career.

Program Application Deadline

The deadline for applications for AY 2024–25 is January 15, 2024.

To be assured full consideration, please review all details on program and admission requirements, and ensure that you apply by this deadline.

Earn a Ph.D. in Art History at Penn State

Our Ph.D. students and alumni have earned Fulbright and Getty Fellowships, the Rome prize, tenure-track positions, and curatorial fellowships and jobs. For more than fifty years, our graduates have been writing books, organizing exhibitions, teaching college and pre-collegiate students, and ensuring the preservation and understanding of our cultural heritage. Join us!

The Ph.D. in Art History program will prepare you to broadly influence art and culture through careers as scholars and educators, as museum curators, as public advocates of cultural heritage, and as arts administrators, to name just a few of the professions that recent program alumni have entered. Breadth of knowledge is as essential for museum professionals as it is for academic researchers. For this reason, advanced study of the visual arts and material culture from diverse periods and geographies is required of all graduate students, with Ph.D. candidates attaining deep expertise in at least one field of art historical research. The department’s faculty includes specialists in African, Asian, and European art and the arts of the Americas.

Graduate faculty members and advisors are leading scholars in their fields. Our interdisciplinary program challenges you to think critically and creatively in order to make a meaningful contribution to the field. The Ph.D. in Art History program also offers dual-title Ph.D. options in Asian Studies or Visual Studies.

Nancy Locke

• Associate Professor of Art History
• Director of Graduate Studies in Art History

[email protected]

814-865-4877

Is the Ph.D. in Art History right for you?

A Ph.D. makes possible the highest level of career success in art history. Our program has a track record of excellent outcomes in diverse career paths, with particular success in placing students in academic and museum careers.

We help you ask and answer the big questions in your area of study. Our graduate students have opportunities to teach, research, and work on digital humanities projects with our Visual Resource Centre. The Palmer Museum of Art also provides internships to prepare you for curatorial work.

Engage with a dynamic cohort of fellow students and a supportive community of scholars.

Degree Options

Dual-title degree options add a significant interdisciplinary breadth to your Ph.D. scholarship. These two dual-title programs develop context through which you can learn to synthesize knowledge within and across disciplinary boundaries in both scholarship and teaching.

Dual Ph.D. and Asian Studies

The primary objective of the dual-title degree program in Asian Studies is to engage critically and substantively with the teaching, research, and scholarship of Asia, a diverse area with a population of some 4.5 billion. The program integrates knowledge and methodology across disciplines of Asian Studies and Art History.

Graduate students are trained in such a way that you will be equipped to represent, understand, analyze, and appraise the crucial and current scholarly issues in Asian Studies in the context of your art discipline focus.

The program aims to produce doctoral graduates with a competitive advantage for employment that relates to Asia in academia, museum, curatorial, and other professional fields.

Graduate Bulletin Links

• Asian Studies Bulletin page
• Graduate Studies information related to the dual-title Ph.D in Art History + Asian Studies .

Dual Ph.D. and Visual Studies

Humanistic study. Technological dynamics. Analyze images, physical and virtual environments, and visual sign systems; histories of visual modes of communication, apprehension, and aesthetic pleasure; and conceptions of the nature of visuality itself. Challenge boundaries. Challenge yourself.

The dual-title Ph.D. in Visual Studies fosters an interdisciplinary approach to humanistic study, which, spurred by technological dynamics that increasingly integrate text and image, engages analysis of specific images, physical and virtual environments, and visual sign systems; histories of visual modes of communication, apprehension, and aesthetic pleasure; and conceptions of the nature of visuality itself. Students in this program analyze and assess visual media that, integrated with texts, are integral to humanistic scholarship and pedagogy today.

Dual-title degree programs increase the intellectual rigor and breadth of graduate work and provide a context in which students learn to synthesize knowledge within and across disciplinary boundaries in both scholarship and teaching. Drawing from knowledge and practices produced across the humanistic disciplines while responding to ongoing challenges to conventional disciplinary boundaries, this degree highlights existing strengths of graduate training in the humanities at Penn State, structures the continuing development of these programs, and credentials our graduates’ training and work with visual forms, environments, and media.

• Visual Studies Bulletin page
• Graduate Studies information related to the dual-title Ph.D in Art History + Asian Studies

Professional Development

Our department is regularly invited to select graduate students to participate in major graduate student symposia, including the Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Graduate Symposium on the History of Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Penn State art history graduate students often present papers at scholarly conferences/symposia across the United States and abroad (for which the department provides partial financial support).

Financial Support

• George Dewey and Mary J. Krumrine Endowment This endowment helps support publication projects of art history faculty and graduate students.
• Graduate Assistantships There are about nineteen graduate assistantships filled by graduate students in the Department of Art History each year.
• University Fellowships and Awards Qualified incoming graduate students may also be nominated by the department for University Fellowships, Bunton-Waller Graduate Awards, Graham Fellowships, and other awards. The department also has funds to help support graduate students in their research and travel related to their theses. The department awards dissertation fellowships and travel/research grants totaling over $60,000 to graduate students each academic year.

Summer Opportunities

• Summer Abroad program in Todi, Italy The Department of Art History is a co-sponsor of Penn State’s Summer Abroad program in Todi, Italy, in which graduate students may choose to participate.
• Annie Gooding Sykes Internship This internship is a twelve-week internship offered during the summer. Interns work with museum staff on a variety of curatorial projects, with a particular focus on American works on paper. Students who have completed the ARTH 409 “Museum Studies” course are preferred. One internship with a stipend is offered each summer.
• Silver Trout Curatorial Graduate Internship Program This internship program is a twelve-week internship offered during the summer. Interns work with the museum staff on curatorial projects and initiatives. Graduate students in art history or art education are eligible for the Silver Trout Curatorial Graduate Internship Program. Students who have completed the ARTH 409 “Museum Studies” course are preferred. Two internships with a stipend are offered each summer.

Ph.D. Students

Students currently enrolled in the Ph.D. in Art History programs.

Arunima Addy Degree: PhD in Architecture Research Focus: South Asian architectural and urban history Dissertation title: Diaspora of Indian Temple Architecture Academic Adviser: Madhuri Desai [email protected]

Arunima Addy is currently a PhD candidate in Art History with dual title in Asian Studies. She has been a practicing architect in India, before joining the graduate program at Penn State. Arunima has her research interests in the relationship between the politics of religion and the construction of national identity, specifically with the rising sentiments of Hindu nationalism in India. She looks at visual representations in the built environment to understand how through architectural establishments religion is being used as a political tool to frame an image of the nation. For her dissertation, she is investigating the relationship between the politics of religion and nation-building particularly with respect to changing dynamics of Indian temple architecture in the neoliberal perspective where religion is becoming a global commodity.

Han Chen Degree: PhD in Art History and Asian Studies Research Focus: Modern and Contemporary Chinese and East Asian Art, history of collecting and exhibiting Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Chang Tan [email protected] | CV

Han Chen is a PhD student specializing in the history of collecting and exhibiting Chinese and East Asian art in the Euro-American context from the late nineteenth-century to the present day. She received her B.A. in 2016 and M.A. in 2019 from China Academy of Art. In 2021, she received her second M.A. from Penn State where she wrote her thesis entitled, “Selling China: A neglected encounter between Huo Mingzhi and France in the early twentieth century.” She has worked for the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State and the Freer and Sackler Gallery of Art as a curatorial intern. Her current interest lies in employing machine learning to realize the image inpainting of photographs of Chinese antiques.

Melanie Clark

Olivia Crawford Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Nineteenth-century European Art and Architecture, Post-colonial Studies, Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Nancy Locke [email protected]

Olivia Crawford received her B.A. in Art History and French and Francophone Studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2016 and her M.A. in Art History from Penn State University in 2018. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Art History at Penn State.

Her current research examines representations of colonial and metropolitan Jewish communities in French Orientalist art and architecture. Her dissertation prospectus is forthcoming.

Crawford lives and works in Knoxville, TN.

Noah Dasinger Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Fifteenth-century Italian sculpture Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Daniel M. Zolli [email protected] | LinkedIn

Noah Dasinger is a first-year Ph.D. student studying Italian Renaissance art and architectural history with a focus on fifteenth-century sculpture. Noah is an Alabama native, and in 2020, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, with a Bachelor of Arts. He then obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of Georgia, Athens. Upon graduation, he received high honors for his thesis, “Symbolic Epigraphy and the New Rome: Humanist Capital Letters on the Tomb of Leonardo Bruni.”

Noah also has extensive training in archival research and early modern Italian paleography both in the United States and abroad. He was a curatorial intern at the Georgia Museum of Art and a research intern at the Medici Archive Project. His current research examines the development, display, and materials used for fifteenth-century Italian tomb sculpture. Noah’s research also investigates early modern workshop practices, materials, processes, and their relationship to commemorative sculpture.

Arielle Fields

Katherine Flanagan

Laura Freitas Almeida

Emily Hagen Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Seventeenth-century Italian architecture Dissertation title: Pietro da Cortona’s Santi Luca e Martina: Rediscovered Relics and the Spectacle of Reform in Seventeenth-Century Rome Academic Adviser: Robin Thomas [email protected] | CV

Emily Hagen is a Ph.D. candidate in art history studying early-modern Italian architecture with an interest in digital humanities. Her research focuses on churches devoted to martyrs’ relics in seventeenth-century Italy and investigates how architecture amplified the fiction of rediscovery in the context of early-modern Catholic reform.

Katherine Koltiska Banerjee

Kyle Marini Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Pre-Contact and Early Modern Latin America, Andean Textiles Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Amara Solari [email protected] | Instagram | LinkedIn

Kyle is a PhD student in pre-contact and early modern Latin American art history. He specializes in the techniques of production, ritual use, and iconography of Inca textiles. He primarily researches ceremonial objects that have been destroyed to recover a more representative view of Inca visual culture before Spanish occupation of the Andes. This approach is in effort to decolonize modern understandings of the Inca developed from the study of objects that survived arduous extirpation campaigns throughout the Viceroyalty of Peru. By emphasizing objects erased from the archive, he reconstructs a history through the most integral Inca artifacts that ceased to exist precisely because of their visual power. Kyle is also a practicing artist, and he uses remaking as a methodology to envision these lost works and the technical processes used by their creators.

Keri Mongelluzzo Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: History of Photography; Modern Art Dissertation title: Bauhaus/Dream House: The Uncharted Surrealism of New Vision Photography Academic Adviser: Nancy Locke [email protected] | CV | LinkedIn | Academia.edu

Keri Mongelluzzo is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in the history of photography and modern art in Europe. Her dissertation, “Bauhaus/Dream House: The Uncharted Surrealism of New Vision Photography,” examines how French Surrealist sensibilities gained traction with transient artists associated with the Bauhaus, an innovative school of design in interwar Germany. Tracking key Bauhaus figures as they moved throughout Europe and across the Atlantic, “Bauhaus/Dream House” exposes their messy motivations for evoking surrealist themes amidst surges of nationalism and the rise of fascism. To date, Keri’s dissertation research has been supported by the Department of Art History and the Max Kade German-American Research Institute.

Keri’s broader research and curatorial interests in the histories and theories of photography span the medium’s history. She has written steadily on prominent photographers of the twentieth century, like Man Ray and Eugène Atget, presenting papers at the inaugural conference of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism at the Bucknell Humanities Center and the 24th Annual Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Art at the Barnes Foundation. In addition to curating a number of exhibitions of photography at the Palmer Museum of Art, including Myth Meets Modernism: The Manuel Álvarez Bravo Portfolio (2019) and Framing the City (2018), Keri piloted the museum’s first-ever virtual exhibition, Photography = Abstraction , using Google Slides at the onset of the pandemic and presented her work on this and her collaboration on subsequent virtual exhibitions and tours at the College Art Association Annual Conference in February 2021.

Amy Orner Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Eighteenth-Century British Architecture and Urbanism Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Robin Thomas [email protected]

Amy is a PhD student specializing in eighteenth-century British architecture and urbanism, with a focus on Empire and its effects on architecture. Her research questions consider the social and political influences on architecture, as well as the influence of Empire on Scottish town planning. She received her B.A. in Museum Studies/Art History from Juniata College in 2017, before working as a School Programs Educator for The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. Amy received her M.A. in Art History from Penn State University in 2022 with her thesis titled, “The Palette, the Patron, and the Hand of the Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi in London.” During her time at Penn State, Amy has worked with the Palmer Museum of Art, the Matson Museum of Anthropology, and as a research fellow in the Center for Virtual/Material Studies.

Alicia Skeath Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Adam Thomas

Kenta Tokushige Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Sixteenth-century Italian Military Architecture Dissertation title: Being a Military Architect: Building Fortifications in Cosimo I de’ Medici’s Realm Academic Adviser: Robin Thomas [email protected]

Kenta Tokushige is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at The Pennsylvania State University. His dissertation entitled, Being a ‘Military Architect’: Building Fortifications in Cosimo I de’ Medici’s Realm, studies the geopolitical role of fortification building under Cosimo I de’ Medici in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the latter half of the Cinquecento by looking at the design process of a fortification as a collaborative project by people of various social status and the way it was represented in multiple forms of art upon its completion. His research traces the correspondence between the patrons, local governors, and architects regarding the decision-making process and examines the intentions of each individual. Additionally, he is exploring the representation and the circulation of information after the completion of the fortification in relation to the espionage of military information.

His research has been supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Susan W. and Thomas A. Schwartz Endowed Fellowship for Dissertation Research.

He completed his B.Arch. and M.A. in Architecture at Waseda University and Master of Architectural History at University of Virginia.

Holli Turner Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Art of Early Modern Southern Europe and Colonial Latin America, the materials and materiality of art, technical art history, theories and practices of conservation, race, and representation in art, decolonial practices in art history Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Daniel Zolli [email protected]

Holli M. Turner is a doctoral student specializing in early modern art, with a focus on the art of Italy, Spain, and the Americas. Her dissertation will examine the colonial implications of color – broadly understood – in the Venetian artist Titian’s paintings for the Spanish monarchy. This project knits together several core concerns of her work: the materials and materiality of art; the representation of race and ethnicity in art; and the interpretive importance of invisible labor, and laborers, to art’s history. In Summer 2021, Holli is serving as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Fellow in Penn State’s Art History department, where she is developing a digital humanities project that tracks Titian’s pigments and their origins.

Holli is a Virginia native that was trained in art history and graphic design before embarking on doctoral study. Her research interests also stem from her own artistry. In her spare time, she paints, illustrates, and creates works through traditional and digital media.

Guides and Resources

• Art History Graduate Handbook

Alumni Success

95 percent of those who earned their Ph.D. since the year 2000 are employed in art history or a related field.

• Of these, 71 percent are teaching at the college level.
• The other 29 percent hold such positions as museum curator or lead historian at a historic center.
• Of those teaching at the college level, 67 percent hold tenure-track or tenured positions.

Legal Statements

• Non-Discrimination
• Equal Opportunity
• Accessibility
• The Pennsylvania State University © 2024

Illinois Global Institute

Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center

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Fall 2024 Courses with Russia, East Europe, and Eurasian Content

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Note: The courses listed below are not an exhaustive list of courses being offered on the REEE region. Please see course explorer for additional classes.

*Check with Advisor or FLAS Coordinator whether the course will fulfill area studies course requirements

Area Studies

BCS 115: South Slavic Cultures Peter Wright 12:30PM – 01:50PM, TTR, Location TBD

Exploration of South Slavic cultures in the historically rich and complex region sometimes referred to as "the Balkans," focusing particularly on those groups found within the successor states of the former Yugoslavia. Critical look at the traditional view of the region as the crossroads or the bridge between East and West, and at the term Balkanization which has become a pejorative term used to characterize fragmented, and self-defeating social systems.

HIST 168: A History of Judaism* Instructor TBD 12:30PM-1:50PM,  TTR, Location TBD

Examines the social, political, economic, and intellectual history of the Jews from Abraham to the present-day, with particular attention to Jewish thought and society.

HIST 274: US Foreign Relations, 1917-* Prof. Kristin Hoganson 12:00PM - 12:50PM, MWF, 223 Gregory Hall

Over the course of the twentieth century the United States rose to superpower status, in the process profoundly shaping world affairs. Students will study the connections between U.S. and global history in this pivotal period. Explores the impact of the United States on world affairs from roughly 1917 through the end of the Cold War. Attention given to the perspectives of people affected by U.S. policies and the limits of U.S. power in the face of developments such as anticolonial nationalism and great power rivalries.

HIST 353: European History 1918 to 1939* Peter Fritzsche 11:00AM-12:20PM, TTR, 393 Bevier Hall

Survey of European society from 1918 to 1939, with emphasis on the impact of World War I, the Russian Revolution, fascism, and the intellectual trends of the twenties and thirties. This course examines the political and cultural environment of Europe from the demise of the continental empires after World War I to the dawn of the thousand-year Reich at the start of World War II. This Age of Extremes saw the rise of liberal democracies, the flourishing of new artistic movements, and the birth of new technologies such as film. At the same time, this period was also marked by the ascension of dictators, crises in colonial empires, and one of the largest economic crisis in history. Perhaps more famous (or infamous) than these events are the individuals we will cover, which includes the likes of Neville Chamberlain, Francisco Franco, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin. We will explore the period through a variety of sources, including speeches, contemporary films, and a novel concerned with an even greater threat: newts.

LAW 657: International Human Rights Law* Francis Boyle 03:00PM - 04:30PM, MT, Online

Based primarily on a series of contemporary “real world” problems, the course introduces the student to the established and developing legal rules and procedures governing the protection of international human rights. Its thesis is that there exists a substantial body of substantive and procedural International Human Rights Law, and that lawyers, government officials, and concerned citizens should be familiar with the policies underlying this law and its enforcement, as well as with the potential it offers for improving the basic lot of human beings everywhere. Additionally, the course presupposes that the meaning of “human rights” is undergoing fundamental expansion, and therefore explores Marxist and Third World conceptions of human rights as well as those derived from the liberal West.

Sequence and Prerequisites:  None

Evaluation:  Paper

Categories:  International and Comparative  /  Upper-Level

MUSC 449: Balkanalia Donna Buchanan 6:00PM - 8:50PM, T, 0061A Music Building

Instruction and experience in the performance of various non-Western and vernacular music traditions such as African mbira, Andean panpipes, North American string band, Gamelan Kebyar, European and South American traditional music, etc. Topics vary according to available instructors. Course Information: 1 undergraduate hour. 1 graduate hour. May be repeated to a maximum of 3 hours in the same term if topics vary for a total of 16 undergraduate hours, 12 graduate hours in separate terms. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.

REES 200: Intro to Russia and Eurasia TBD 9:30AM - 10:50PM, TTR, G24 Literatures, Cultures, & Linguistics

Eurasia, geographically between the “East” and the “West,” encompasses 11 time zones and over 100 different ethnic groups. Its multicultural complexity and political diversity over recent centuries have made it a rich source for the study of political, economic, and social change. This interdisciplinary course introduces students to key issues and themes that cross disciplines and are important for understanding the contemporary socio-politics of the region. As a class we will draw out these themes by examining major texts, novels, poems, film, and music that were not only impactful within their own genre, but whose influence has rippled throughout disciplines to become interdisciplinary. Major themes to be investigated include: regional interactions/geopolitics, socioeconomics, political action, subjectivity and alterity, identity, gender, and ethnicity & race.

REES 495/ 550: Seminar in REEE Studies   Maureen Marshall 3:00PM -  4:50PM, TR, Room 1110 Literatures, Cultures, & Linguistics Interdisciplinary seminar involving faculty in a number of disciplines. The course examines Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia and the methodologies of its study through questions of identities, cultural values, and change.

RUSS 1 15: Intro to Russian Culture David Cooper 2:00PM - 2:50PM, MWF, TBD

Introduction to the culture of Russia and the USSR. Course addresses two central themes. First, the very distinctiveness of Russian culture, and the functions of that notion within Russia and for outsiders; Second, Russia as a cultural space between East and West. We will explore Russian culture through the following, the language(s); foundational narratives of collective memory going back to the medieval times; the cultural impact of colonial subjugation both by and of peoples to the East, South, and West; Russian Orthodoxy's connection with the political and cultural spheres; peak achievements in literature, music, architecture and visual arts. Course Information: Same as REES 116.

RUSS 220: Golden Age of Russian Lit David Cooper 12:30PM-1:50PM, TTR, 1136 Literatures, Cultures, & Linguistics

Survey of Russian literature in the long 19th century; romanticism, realism, nationalism, orientalism, empire; writers may include Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Pavlova, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and others; reading and discussion in English. Course Information: Same as CWL 227.

RUSS 514: Russian Literature After 1956 Richard Tempest 12:00PM-1:50PM, M, Location TBD

Graduate-level survey of Russian literature of the second half of the twentieth century. Course focuses on the questions of the Soviet "before" and "after," considering specifically the development of socialist realism after its High Stalinist period, its late-socialist manifestations, and theories of post-modernism as applied to late and post-Soviet Russian Literature and culture. Novels, films, and theoretical texts (focusing on the periods of the 1960s, stagnation, collapse, and "after") will provide a common base for thinking about late and post-Soviet culture. Course Information: 4 graduate hours. No professional credit. Prerequisite: Ability to read in Russian or consent of instructor.

SLAV 117: Russ & Euro Science Fiction Richard Tempest 3:00PM-4:50PM, MWF, Location TBD

Survey of the science fiction writing of Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe since 1750, with particular emphasis on the post-World War II period. The role of the Science Fiction tradition in the respective national cultures. The influence on Russian and East European Science Fiction of Anglo-American Science Fiction. All readings are in English. Course Information: Same as CWL 117.

SLAV 452/CWL 453: Slavic Cultural Studies “Kyiv: A Biography of a City” Instructor: Prof. Valeria Sobol 2:00PM - 3:20PM, TTR, Location TBD

This course traces the historical, social, and artistic development of Kyiv as a city and as an idea from the medieval period to the present day. As we read a variety of literary works and watch several films in which Kyiv figures prominently, we will think about what makes up this city’s “text” and pay special attention to its frequently competing Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, and Jewish versions.  The course is conducted in English, and all the texts will be available in English translations.

SLAV 452: Polish Cinema Instructor: Prof. George Gasyna 11:00AM - 12:20PM, TTR, Location TBD

Selected topics in the literatures of Russia and Eastern Europe. Topics covered will range from in-depth studies of specific authors, time periods, and thematic discussions of specific genre and literary traditions. Readings in English unless specified. Course Information: Same as CWL 453. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 undergraduate hours or 8 graduate hours in same term; or 9 undergraduate hours or 12 graduate hours in separate terms. Prerequisite: Two years of literature, preferably Russian or East European; or consent of instructor

TURK 270/ANTH 272/GLBL 272/SAME 272: Languages and Culture in Turkey Ayse Ozcan 11:00AM – 12:20PM, TTR, 3038 Campus Instructional Facility

As a country located at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa, Turkey has always been under the spotlight. In this course, we will study the dynamic relationship between language and culture in Ottoman and modern Turkey through a timely analysis of its transition from a long-lasting empire to a young "secular" nation-state. We will examine the complexities of Turkish modernity from a holistic perspective to better comprehend how central Asian and Middle Eastern cultural influences, continuities, and transformations gave birth to modern Turkish language. The course should help you not only in developing an understanding of the Turkish language within a cultural framework, but also in gaining insight into Turkey's history, politics, literature, and media. No former knowledge of Turkey or the Turkish language is required.

UKRA 113: Ukrainian Culture Prof. Valeria Sobol 3:30AM-4:50AM, TTR, G24 Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics

Course situates Ukrainian culture in the broad context of Slavic nations. Acquaints students with Ukrainian culture from the origins of Kievan Rus' in the Middle Ages to the present. Includes highlights of historical-cultural events, an overview of literature and of the arts, as well as an outline of Ukrainian folklore. No knowledge of Ukrainian required.

“The goal of this course is to acquaint students with Ukrainian culture from the origins of Kyivan Rus in the Middle Ages to the present. The course will examine the many facets that make up culture: history, politics, language, literature, folklore, religion, music, art, cinema, education, etc. It will also place Ukrainian culture in the broader context of the Slavic nations and peoples. Topics in contemporary Ukrainian culture will be given special emphasis. Lectures and readings will all be in English.”

For other languages and courses available through the BTAA contact  [email protected]

Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian

BCS 10 1 : First Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian I

MTWR 09:00AM - 09:50AM, 1020 Lincoln Hall  

BCS 20 1 : Second Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian I

MTWR 10:00AM - 10:50AM, 1030 Literatures, Cultures, & Linguistics  

BCS 301 : Third Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian I

MWF 10:00AM-10:50AM, Location TBD

CZCH 102 : Elementary Czech I

MTWTR: 09:00AM - 9:50PM, Online

POL 1 01 : Elementary Polish I

MWTR 10:00-10:50, 1126 Literatures, Cultures, & Linguistics  

POL 20 1 : Second Yr Polish I

MTWTR 11:00-11:50, 1038 Literatures, Cultures, & Linguistics

RUSS 10 1 : First-Year Russian I

MTWR 10:00-10:50, 316S Mumford Hall

MTWR 11:00-11:50, 241 Armory  

RUSS 20 1 : Second-Year Russian I

MTWR 11:00-11:50, 134 Armory  

RUSS 30 1 : Third Year Russian I

MWF 11:00-11:50, 1040 Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics  

RUSS 40 1 : Fourth Year Russian I

MWF 12:00-12:50, 1020 Lincoln Hall  

RUSS 50 1 : Russian for Grad Students I

TTR 01:00-2:20, 1018 Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics

TURK 20 1 : Elementary Turkish I

MTWRF 09:00-09:50, 1126 Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics  

TURK 40 3 : Advanced Turkish I

MTWTR 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM, Location TBD

UKRA 10 1 : Basic Ukrainian I

MTWR 10:00-10:50, 241 Armory  

UKRA 20 1 : Second-Year Ukrainian I

MTWR 10:00-10:50, 241 Armory

ASU men's swim and dive wins first NCAA title in team history

Sun devils break 9 school and 3 ncaa records over the course of 4-day competition.

Members of the ASU men’s swim and dive team cheer at the NCAA championship at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis on March 29. The team would go on to win the first NCAA title in program history. Photo by Mia Jones/Sun Devil Athletics

Talk about making a splash.

The Arizona State University men’s swim and dive team won the NCAA championship this weekend — for the first time in program history — but that wasn’t all. The Sun Devils broke nine school records and three NCAA records over the course of the four-day competition in Indianapolis.

One victorious showing — the 400 freestyle relay of junior Léon Marchand, graduate student Jack Dolan, junior Patrick Sammon and sophomore Jonny Kulow with a time of 2:43.40 — not only set a new NCAA record but clinched the team win.

“It’s amazing,” Marchand said of winning the team title. “When I called the coaches before coming to the U.S., they were seventh, or unranked, and they were like, ‘It’s possible. If we build the team, we can do it in a few years.’ And I really trusted them from the beginning, and now we did it. So, I’m really happy with it, really proud of the coaches, all my teammates and everything.”

The final team standings had ASU resoundingly in first with 523.5 points, followed by California (444.5), Florida (378), Indiana (376) and North Carolina State (318). In addition, 14 Sun Devils received All-American honors at the meet.

Marchand, expected by many to compete at the Paris Olympics in his home country this summer, was no stranger to setting records at the NCAA championship. On Thursday, he won the 500 freestyle in 4:02:31, breaking the NCAA mark he’d set just a few weeks prior.

ASU records set in Indianapolis

• 50 freestyle: Jack Dolan (18.59).
• 100 freestyle: Léon Marchand (40.28).
• 200 freestyle: Marchand (1:29.87).
• 500 freestyle: Marchand (4:02.31, NCAA record).
• 200 freestyle relay: Dolan, Ilya Kharun, Cam Peel, Jonny Kulow (1:13.59).
• 400 freestyle relay: Marchand, Dolan, Patrick Sammon, Kulow (2:43.40, NCAA record).
• 800 freestyle relay: Marchand, Hubert Kós, Sammon, Julian Hill (6:04.95).
• 100 butterfly: Kharun, 44.26.
• 400 medley relay: Kós, Marchand, Kharun, Kulow (2:57.32, NCAA record).

“Tonight I had no limits from the very beginning,” he said on Thursday. “I didn’t have a base in my mind — I was just like, ‘Let’s see how far and how fast I can go,’ and it worked pretty well.”

Two days later, Marchand — whom many have compared to swim superstar Michael Phelps — won the title for the 200 breaststroke for the third year in a row; his time of 1:46:35 broke the NCAA record he set at last year’s championships. With that win, he now leads all Sun Devils ever with eight individual titles, breaking the record set by track and field champ Jacquelyn Johnson when she won her seventh national title in 2008.

It was a team effort in Indianapolis, with the following Sun Devils winning national titles:

• 400 freestyle relay: Léon Marchand, Jack Dolan, Patrick Sammon, Jonny Kulow.
• 200 butterfly: Ilya Kharun.
• 200 breaststroke: Marchand.
• 1650 freestyle: Zalan Sarkany (the first Sun Devil to win the national title in this discipline; he finished more than five seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer).
• 400 medley relay: Hubert Kós, Marchand, Kharun, Kulow.
• 400 individual relay: Marchand.
• 500 freestyle: Marchand.

The national title wasn’t the only swim news making headlines.

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