history phd process

Graduate Students

Learn more about our  students' research interests and dissertation projects.

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 fellowship stipend, and 1 summer stipend 
• 3rd year: 2 quarters TAships, 1 quarter fellowship stipend, and 1 summer stipend 
• 4th year: 3 quarters fellowship stipends and 1 summer stipend 
• 5th year: 3 quarters fellowship stipends 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 9, 2024. 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 2025 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 2025-26 is Tuesday, December 3, 2024 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.

Secret Cures of Slaves (Japanese Translation)

Visualizing Russia in Early Modern Europe

How the New World Became Old: The Deep Time Revolution in America

Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique

Italian Fascism in Rhodes and the Dodecanese Islands, 1922–44

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Note that the GRE is now optional for our graduate admission process.  

Admissions process for the history phd:.

Each year the department receives nearly 400 applications to the doctoral program and offers admission to about 6% of applicants . The typical incoming class size is 16 students.

The admissions process is extremely competitive , but if you are serious about pursuing a PhD in history, you are encouraged to apply.

Successful applications have shared many of the following characteristics:

Statement of purpose that makes clear why the applicant wants to study history in graduate school, and why the applicant wants to study at Harvard. This statement often illustrates the applicant’s research interests and notes potential advisors Three strong letters of reference from people who know the applicant’s writing Personal Statement that shares how the applicant’s experiences or activities will contribute to the school’s mission to attract a diverse and dynamic community. (Should not exceed 500 words.) Writing sample of remarkable quality that asks historical questions Fluent or nearly fluent in English Reading ability in two languages other than English Strong undergraduate , and, if applicable, graduate record , with excellent marks in history courses

Follow the link for more information about applying to the  History Department PhD program

For information on Diversity Resources for Harvard Griffin GSAS Students, please click here . 

Harvard Griffin GSAS does not discriminate against applicants or students on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry or any other protected classification.

• Undergraduate Program
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Program Rules & Requirements
• Financial Aid & Fellowships
• Graduate Program Workshops
• Library Privileges

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: Nicole Hemmer

Director of Graduate Admissions: Lauren Clay

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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Department of History

Requirements of the ph.d..

The official requirements for the graduate program in History are detailed in the Graduate School of Arts and Science Programs and Policy Handbook .  Important elements of the history program are summarized here, but students should refer to the Programs and Policy guide to check any technical requirements.  

Coursework (Years 1 and 2)

• 10-12 term courses, 6 of which must carry a HIST graduate number
• HIST 500  Approaching History   is required for all first-term Ph.D. students
• HIST 995 (the Prospectus Tutorial) is recommended for all second year students and required for second year students studying European history
• Two seminars must be research seminars (requiring an original research paper from primary sources)
• Two seminars must focus on a time period outside the student’s period of specialty
• All second-year students should take a course to prepare for a comprehensive exam field (This course may be HIST 994 Orals Tutorial with one of the student’s examiners or a readings course on an exam field topic)
• Honors requirement – each student must achieve Honors in two term courses during the first year with a High Pass average overall.  Students much achieve Honors in a total of four courses with a High Pass average overall by the time they complete the coursework requirements.

Language Proficiencies (Years 1 and 2)

Each subfield of History has different language proficiency requirements.  A list of requirements by subfield i s  available here .

Proficiency can be documented in several ways:

• A student who had an undergraduate minor in the language can be certified upon presentation of a transcript;
• A student who is a native speaker of a language can be certified with confirmation from the student’s academic advisor;
• A student who has researched and submitted scholarly work in the language can be certified with confirmation from the student’s advisor;
• Students who take one of the “for Reading” courses offered in the Graduate School (French, German, Italian, or Spanish) can be certified with a grade of B+ or better.  Please note that you must inform the Graduate Registrar when the grade is posted in order to be certified;
• Passing a language translation exam administered at Yale;
• Other circumstances (e.g., translation exam from another institution) with the approval of the DGS

Comprehensive Exams (Years 2 and 3)

Students are strongly encouraged to complete their comprehensive exams by the end of the fifth semester and are required to be completed by the end of the sixth semester.  (Some faculty prefer students to complete the prospectus in the fifth semester and take exams in the sixth semester; please consult your advisor.)

The Comprehensive Exams include a written component and an oral portion.

Written component:

• One major field; an 8,000-word historiographical essay based on the major field is to be submitted to the Graduate Registrar at least two weeks prior to the oral component of the exams.  With the approval of the examining faculty member, the student may submit a course syllabus in the major field as a substitute for the historiographical paper.
• Two or three minor fields; a syllabus for a lecture course in each minor field is to be submitted to the Graduate Registrar at least two weeks prior to the oral component of the exams.
• The oral portion of the comprehensive exams last for two hours. 
• For those students who choose two minor fields, the major field will be examined for 60 minutes and the minor fields will be examined for 30 minutes each.
• For those students who choose three minor fields, each field will be examined for 30 minutes.

Prospectus Colloquium (Year 3)

Advancing to candidacy (year 3), chapter conference (year 5).

Students must participate in a chapter conference with their dissertation committee no later than the end of their ninth semester. The dissertation committee and student discuss a dissertation chapter to give early feedback on the research, argument, and style of the first writing accomplished on the dissertation.

Dissertation Defense and Submission (Year 6)

Submitting the Dissertation

Overview of History PhD Requirements

Click here for Overview of Ph.D. Requirements

Department of History

Ph.d. program outline.

The Ph.D. program in History is designed to train students in the skills of conducting original historical research and crafting unique historical arguments.

In the course of their work as historians, Brown scholars draw on a wide range of methods and engage with a variety of audiences. Thus although we begin with the core skills of academic research and writing and teaching at the college and university levels, we do not end there. Many Brown doctoral students explore teaching in and writing for different settings, and prepare for a breadth of careers that value the skills that a obtaining a Ph.D. in history entails.

The Brown Ph.D. program is intimate and rigorous, and students are expected to complete in five to seven years. One of the program's hallmarks is a series of required courses in which an entire cohort is trained in core professional skills. This series is composed of: (1) a methodology colloquium that introduces the students to a wide range of theory and historical practice; (2) an advanced writing workshop in which students write an article-quality paper; (3) a professionalization seminar in which students are trained in the habits of mind and skills of the profession; and (4) a dissertation prospectus seminar. Critically, students in an entering cohort proceed through these courses together, so that discussions across fields, geographies, and chronologies are built into the doctoral program.

The program is divided into two stages

• During the  first and second years  students take seminars that introduce the major historiographical questions and methodologies of various fields and that develop their research skills; they write an article-length paper based on original archival research; they take a professionalization course that introduces them to the principal tasks and cultures of the profession (grant writing, for instance, and conference presentations); and they form an exam committee and begin preparation for the preliminary examinations.
• After passing the examinations by the end of their fifth semester, students develop a prospectus for and research and write their dissertation. The dissertation is typically completed in the  fifth or sixth year  (though some students take longer).  

The department offers four types of Ph.D. seminars:

• Field Seminars  (2970s) offer students a broad overview of a field, typically an exam field.
• Required Seminars  are the four seminars required of all Ph.D. students: Colloquium, Writing Workshop, Professionalization, and Prospectus.
• Special Topics Seminars  focus on the historiography of a particular nation or region, for example, a particular historical “event,” or historiographical debate. They allow for focused, close training, including specialized skills (e.g. paleography), readings in languages other than English, or extensive examination of the scholarship on a particular problem.
• Thematic Seminars  (2980s) offer students the opportunity to explore a particular theoretical/methodological frame in a transnational and transtemporal perspective.

The First and Second Years

In their first year, students take 3 seminars in the fall (2 plus the colloquium) and 3 seminars in the spring. Ideally, the courses should be a mix of Field and Thematic seminars, with the inclusion of a Special Topics seminar where appropriate. The colloquium is required of all first-year Ph.D. students and constitutes the basic introductory methodology and theory course for the degree.

Any student who wishes to do so may, after consultation with her or his advisor, substitute an independent reading course offered by a member of the department or a graduate-level course outside of the department.

Research Paper

During the spring semester of the first year, each student begins work on their research paper. Production of the paper is a year-long process that begins in a spring-semester Thematic seminar and concludes in the subsequent fall in the Graduate Workshop. Students designate one of their Thematic seminars as the foundation for the paper and compose a research prospectus as the final project in the course (the prospectus should include a literature review and a discussion of archival sources). Students engage in archival research during the summer and enroll in the Graduate Workshop in the fall, in which they write the final paper.

By the end of the first year, students are expected to have assembled a three-member exam committee.

Second Year

In their second year, students will serve as teaching assistants and will continue to take a mix of Field, Special Topics, and Thematic seminars. In addition, each semester they take one required course: in the fall, the Graduate Workshop, in which they write their research paper, and in the spring Professionalization, which focuses on the principal professionals tasks and expectations they will encounter in a career as a professional historian.

The First Two Summers

Students are required to make progress toward the completion of their degree during the summer months. The department recognizes that for some students progress will take the form of language training, while for others archival work or other research-related projects might be appropriate, along with reading for preliminary exams. During their first summer, all students are expected to complete significant archival research for their research paper.

During the third year, students must pass their preliminary examinations by the end of the fifth (fall) semester. Exams are typically scheduled for early December.

Preliminary Exams

By the end of the first year of study the student submit a departmental form that lists three fields in which she/he will be examined. The student will indicate the field in which her/his dissertation will be written. This will be the major field. The others will be minor fields. No more than two fields may be in the history of the same national culture. Normally, all three examiners will be members of the Department of History, and the fields will be chosen based on consultation with the examiners and the Director of Graduate Studies. A student may petition the department to prepare one field in another department or program.

Based on the foregoing, the first three years of the Ph.D. program for a typical student would look schematically like this

Fourth Year

The fourth year is typically a fellowship year, during which students conduct dissertation research wherever their work takes them.

The fifth year is typically funded as a teaching assistantship, during which time students continue research and writing of the dissertation.

Students in the fourth year and beyond register for HIST 2990, Thesis Preparation.

Additional Ph.D. Information

Doctoral dissertation, fields of study, funding and financial aid.

•  CONFLUENCE-Secure Site

Doctoral Program

• Ph.D. Fields
• Language Exams
• Fellowships and Financial Aid
• Dissertations-in-Progress
• Award Announcements
• Graduate Handbook
• Annual Newsletter
• Doctoral Students
• Graduate History Association
• Masters Programs
• Classical Studies

The Graduate Program

Columbia has been one of the most important centers of graduate education in history since modern Ph.D. programs began in America over a century ago. Recipients of our degrees hold distinguished positions in virtually every major university in the United States, and in many abroad. Our program offers a broad education in most areas of historical scholarship and attempts to train students for a discipline and a profession in the midst of considerable change. That includes not simply assisting students in acquiring the knowledge and skills essential to becoming contributing scholars, but also helping them to become effective teachers and to exist comfortably within a demanding and complicated professional world.

The members of our faculty represent many different approaches to the study of the past, and we strive to attract students of similarly diverse interests and commitments. No one should feel that being at Columbia requires accepting any one approach to the study of history.

This part of our website is designed to provide both prospective and current students with answers to some of the many questions they may have about the department.

Admissions answers commonly-asked questions about our admissions process.

Under Ph.D. Fields you will find information about the separate fields of study available in our program and the relationship among them.

Fellowships and Financial Aid explains the various ways we provide our students with fellowships and financial aid.

Dissertations-in-Progress summarizes the course of study towards the Ph.D and highlights the work of our students.

Research awards and recent honors are showcased in Award Announcements .

The section entitled Placement sketches how we prepare our students for the academic job market and reports on how our students have done in that market in recent years.

In the Graduate Handbook , we explain our curriculum and our academic requirements and provide more detailed information about aspects of the program such as the MA, Orals, M.Phil., Dissertations, etc.

Our FAQs are useful for students seeking admission as well as for current students seeking quick information.

The Annual Newsletter keeps us informed about our students.

• Requirements
• History Grad Student Association

The full requirements and recommendations for the Graduate Program in History are available in the  Guidelines to the M.A. and Ph.D. Curricula.  Current students and advisors should refer to the Guidelines and the  Canvas  "History Department PhD Students" page for detailed requirements, forms, and instructions.

Program Overview

Students are expected to complete all the requirements for the PhD degree in History in a timely fashion. Students are reviewed annually for continuation in the program and are expected to make good progress at all stages of the program. All requirements for the PhD degree, including the final defense, must be completed within seven years from the date of first matriculation.

• In the first two years of graduate study, all students, regardless of previous degree work, register for coursework.
• Students produce a first- and second-year research paper. In certain cases, with the support of their faculty advisors, students may petition to have the second research paper requirement waived (typically, those with a relevant MA).
• All students must demonstrate competence in foreign language through departmental examination.
• Students are eligible to receive the MA degree upon completion of eight courses for quality grades, a high pass (or equivalent) on the foreign language exam and fulfillment of all administrative requirements. 
• The PhD Field Examination must be taken by June 1st of the second year.
• Presentation and defense of the dissertation proposal occurs in a public setting before the end of the third year (June 1), and approval of the dissertation committee is required to begin research and writing of the dissertation.
• Three mentored teaching experiences are arranged in consultation with faculty advisors.
• Defense of the dissertation in the PhD Final Oral Examination.

First- and Second-year Highlights

• Students take twelve graduate-level courses (for A or B grades): a two-quarter history research seminar, and ten other courses both in and outside of the Department. At least three of these courses are graduate colloquia, and up to three may be pass/fail reading courses for orals preparation. Current students should consult the Guidelines for details of course requirements.
• First-year students complete a substantial research paper due at the end of Winter Quarter as part of the two-quarter History Seminar.
• Second-year students are required to complete a research paper under the supervision of their faculty advisor during Autumn or Winter Quarter.
• Students must high pass (P+) at least one foreign-language translation examination. Details on the timing and requirements are below. Students who have taken the TOEFL exam and whose native language is their language of research may waive the language exam.
• Students take their oral field examinations by June 15th of their second year.

Language Requirement

The Department requires a high pass (P+) on one or more language translation examinations. Students must take an examination administered through the Department during the first quarter of residence. Students who do not high pass on the first attempt should devote special attention to improving their skill and are required to repeat the exam at least annually until a high pass is achieved. It is mandatory to high pass in at least one language examination before the beginning of the second academic year. In fields where more than one language is required, the additional requirement(s) must be satisfied before the proposal hearing. See the Guidelines for more details on language examinations.

*For fields with extensive language training, students may petition for a one-year postponement of the language examination. ^If the language requirement is met with French or German, it is assumed that the student will also acquire knowledge of area language(s) sufficient for research purposes.

Oral Fields Highlights

• The oral fields readings and examination qualify students to teach and to conduct doctoral research.
• Examination committees are chosen by the student based on their fields of interest. The committees consists of a chair from the  Department of History faculty , who serves as the student’s advisor, and two additional University of Chicago faculty, usually, but not always, from the Department. 
• All students prepare three fields in consultation with their examination committee.
• Field lists have a maximum of fifty books; four articles or book chapters count as one book. For the purpose of reading and the examination, all fields are considered equal.
• The examination is oral, lasts two hours, and is graded pass or fail.
• Orals are taken by June 1st of the second year in residence.
• During the proposal stage, students form their dissertation committees. Committees generally have three members; a fourth is allowed in certain cases. The committee chair must be a member of the  Department of History faculty . The second reader must be a member of the departmental faculty or its  associate faculty . Additional committee members may be professors in the Department, in other university departments, or at another institution. Consult the Guidelines for the M.A. and Ph.D. Curricula for details on committee formation.
• Students must hold a proposal hearing by the end (June 1) of the third year in residence.
• All students are required to have three mentored teaching experiences.
• Mentored teaching experiences may include the following: Teaching Assistantships, Lectureships, and Co-teaching with faculty.
• Consult the  Guidelines for the M.A. and Ph.D. Curricula for the full policy on required teaching.

Dissertation

• Following the approval of the proposal, the  Divisional Dean of Students  advances the student to candidacy for the doctoral degree. (This stage is informally known as ABD, "all but dissertation.")
• The student and the dissertation chair are responsible for assuring that the dissertation follows an acceptable academic style, such as  The Chicago Manual of Style , Turabian's  A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , or another accepted style in the field. Additional resources are provided by The University of Chicago's  Dissertation Office , and The American Historical Association's  Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct .

Final Defense of the Dissertation

• The final requirement of the doctoral program is an oral defense of the dissertation.
• Defenses are held with the student's committee in attendance. The defense is always open to the department faculty. It may be open to the public. 
• The committee grades the defense (pass with distinction, pass, or fail) and decides what type of revisions (none, minor, or significant) are needed before the students can submit the dissertation to the  Dissertation Office.
• The dissertation chair and the departmental chair give final approval for the deposit of the dissertation through the Dissertation Office after all requested revisions have been made. Deadlines for submission are available on the Department’s Canvas page.
• The doctoral degree can be taken in any quarter. Instructions for applying to the degree are found on the student  Canvas  site. 
• The University holds  Convocation  at the end of Spring Quarter. 

Joint Degree

Joint degrees are rare, but students may apply for a joint degree on an ad hoc basis. The application process begins with the student's Dean of Students Office. The faculty members who work with the student should strongly support the need for a joint degree. Students from other departments should read the  Joint Ph.D. Degree Guidelines (PDF) . Students should apply in the late winter or early Spring Quarter so the Graduate Student Affairs Committee can review the file in its annual student review in late May or early June.

History MA Degree for PhD Students from other University of Chicago PhD Programs

In rare cases, the University allows students from another University of Chicago PhD program to receive an MA from an alternate program. Students should first consult with their home unit’s Dean of Students office. After receiving permission to pursue an alternate MA, students wishing to receive an MA from the Department of History should petition the Graduate Student Affairs Committee in Autumn Quarter. For more information contact the  graduate affairs administrator .

Students with questions about doctoral program degree requirements and milestones should contact Sonja Rusnak ( [email protected] ) History Graduate Affairs Administrator. Students may also contact Brett Baker ( [email protected] ), Associate Dean of Students in the Social Sciences, and Amanda Young ( [email protected] ), Director, Graduate Student Affairs in UChicagoGRAD.  

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