GRADUATE STUDY
Students in the MA and PhD programs must design their fields of study in consultation with their supervisory committee, according to Department guidelines. You may view descriptions of the Department's areas of graduate study using the links at left. The information is accessible in two ways: by Division (broadly defined chronological/geographical/topical categories, such as United States, Pre-Modern Asia, etc.), or by Faculty (descriptions of the fields individual faculty are willing to supervise).
For all students, the following guidelines are in effect:
M.A. students must choose among:
- A 2-field M.A., in which students select two fields from a single division.
- A cross-divisional M.A., In which students select two fields from two different divisions.
- A divisional M.A. In which students specialize in U.S. History.
Ph.D. students are expected to choose four fields drawn from at least two divisions.
Ph.D. students should ensure that at least one of their four fields offers genuine diversity from their primary area of concentration. Normally, fields within the "Comparative History" division (Historiography, Comparative Ethnicity and Nationalism, Comparative Gender, and Comparative Colonialisms) may not constitute a student's primary field. These fields may satisfy the requirement for a field outside the student's primary division of concentration only if they do not significantly overlap with the student's main fields of study. It is the responsibility of the student's Supervisory Committee to ensure that the proposed four fields reflect sufficient diversity. All students preparing fields should consult closely with the relevant faculty to ensure a mutual understanding of how their fields are to be defined for the purposes of examination.
Please note that at both the M.A. and Ph.D. levels, adjunct faculty members do not normally supervise primary fields, and that the supervision of two fields by one professor is not permitted, save in exceptional circumstances.
A PhD student may choose to present a field involving work in another department of the University. An outside field should be of particular methodological and/or comparative value to the student's doctoral program and should contribute to the program's intellectual coherence. A PhD student can offer no more than one field outside of History.