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Yale University

Dept. of History
P.O. Box 208324
New Haven, CT 06520-8324

Phone 203.432.1366
Fax 203.432.7587
E-mail: dana.lee@yale.edu

Alternate Address: Building Address: 320 York St., New Haven, CT 06511

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

Africa, Ancient, Byzantine, China, Eastern Europe, Japan, Jewish, Latin America, Medieval, Middle East, Russia, Southeast Asia, U.S., and Western Europe,

Program Description

The purpose of the history program is to develop historians who possess both intellectual range and specialized competence. Instruction is in small classes by the seminar method or some appropriate modification of this approach. Out of a total of no less than twelve courses, students must take at least eight courses from within the history department; they are free to take their other courses (related to their field of interest) from departments throughout the University. Faculty advisers for individual guidance and direction work closely with students throughout the entire period of enrollment. The department offers many opportunities for students to gain experience as teaching assistants, normally beginning in their third year of study. Students typically take classes for their first two years, and obtain teaching fellowships for the following two. Many students continue to hold teaching fellowships in later years in the program.

Special Programs or Resources

Special programs and resources include the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition; Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders; British Art Center; Beinecke Rare Book Library; Lewis Walpole Library; Benjamin Franklin Papers Project; Jonathan Edwards Papers Project; Whitney Humanities Center; and Yale University Art Gallery. Yale's libraries include rich and often unique materials for research, such as the Historical Manuscripts Collection (including extensive holdings on colonial New England and the Civil War); the collection of Western Americana in the Beinecke Library; the Jen Yu-wen collection on the Taiping Revolutionary Movement, and over 300,000 maps and charts.

History working groups, which include colloquia, reading groups, lunches, and seminars, include: American Religious History Workshop; British Studies Colloquium; Colloquium in International History and Security; Early Modern and Modern Jewish History Colloquium; Environmental History at Yale; Greco-Roman Lunch Colloquium; Historical Theory Reading Group; History from Below Colloquium; Medieval Lunch Colloquium; Pre-Modern Gender and Sexuality Working Group; Russian and East European Reading Group; Transitions to Modernity Colloquium; Urban History; Yale Early American Historians; Yale Westerners; Women's and Gender History Working Group; Writing History. The MacDougal Graduate Student Center offers a wide range of programs in teaching and career services.

Financial Aid

As of 2012, fellowship stipends for all Yale doctoral students will be a minimum of $26,500 for twelve months. Students are normally supported from the first through the fourth year of study. Students are also eligible for a dissertation fellowship of $26,500 in their fourth, fifth or sixth year of study. Students are guaranteed teaching fellowships in their third and fourth years of study.

Degree Requirements

Courses are taken during the first two years of study. Students must take a minimum of 12 courses, at least 8 of which shall be chosen from those offered by the history department. Students must achieve Honors in at least two courses in the first year, and Honors in at least four courses by the end of the second year, with a High Pass average overall. In their third year, to advance to candidacy, students must prove themselves proficient in at least two languages; stage a prospectus colloquium (during which they have the opportunity to discuss their dissertation prospectus with their faculty committee), and pass an oral examination consisting of three or four chosen fields of concentration (a major field and two or three minor fields, one of which is comparative or theoretical, or on a continent different from the student's ordinary field of specialization.)



University Information:

Information from Department of Education
(Includes information on the size, location, and general characteristics of faculty and student body)

Information from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
(Includes rating of the institution's rating of the graduate instructional program and size and setting)

 

Faculty Information (Fall 2011):

Full-time Faculty: 53

Relative Size based on Number of Full-time Faculty: Large [Explain]

 

Student Demographics (Fall 2011):

Number of Doctoral Students in Program: 184

New Doctoral Students Entering Program: 29

Proportion of Doctoral Students Receiving Financial Aid: 100%

Number of Graduate Students Enrolled: 191

Relative Size Based on Graduate Student Enrollment: Large [Explain]

 

Degree Information:

First PhD conferred: 1882

History PhDs conferred to Date: 1318

Number of PhDs Conferred (2011–12): 23

Relative Size Based on PhDs Conferred: Large [Explain]

Current Dissertations in Progress

PhDs Conferred by Department

 

 

Last Updated: October 19, 2012