History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

Cornell Univ.

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

North and Latin America, Africa, medieval and modern Europe, premodern/modern East/Southeast Asia, premodern Islamic

Program Description

The program is designed to accommodate the specific needs, backgrounds, and objectives of individual students. Thus, upon entering the program the PhD student chooses three faculty members to serve on the Special Committee. Two committee members must be from the field of history and represent a major and a minor area of concentration, but the third member (and fourth, if desired) may represent any graduate field of the student's choice, from across the Cornell campus. Together, the Special Committee and the student fashion the program of courses and advanced research each student will pursue. There are many programs at Cornell that encourage interdisciplinary work in a number of areas. Among those of interest to historians are: Africana Studies and Research Center, American Indian Program, American Studies, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies, East Asia Program, Ethics and Public Life, European Studies, International Political Economy, Latin American Studies, Latino Studies, Medieval Studies, Near Eastern Studies, Peace Studies, Religious Studies, Science and Technology Studies, South Asia Program, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Special Programs or Resources

Cornell University Library is one of the dozen largest and most diverse academic research libraries in the United States. It contains more than 5 million titles, subscribes to more than 60,000 periodicals, adds more than 120,000 volumes to its collections each year, and comprises sixteen libraries through the university. John M. Olin Library is the main research library, especially for historians. Among special collections which rank among the finest in size and quality in the world are the Wason/Echols Collection on China, Japan, and Southeast Asia; History of Science; Department of Rare Books (including internationally acclaimed collections on among other subjects, Dante, Petrarch, witchcraft, slavery, the French Revolution, and Wordsworth); Icelandic; and the Department of Manuscripts (specializing in 19th and 20th-century New York State). Cornell participates in a number of resource-sharing agreements with other research libraries, such as the Research Libraries Group (RLG) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), which enable it to supplement its holding via inter-library loan and to collaborate in combined databases and computer systems, including Internet, in a worldwide network.

Financial Aid

Candidates for the PhD normally are supported for at least five years with a combination of fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research grants. Most students will have assistantships in about half their years of graduate study and fellowships in the other years (including the first year).

Degree Requirements

To encourage flexibility, general requirements are kept to a minimum. For the doctorate, these include: taking History 7090, Introduction to the Graduate Study of History, and, for Americanists only, History 6040, the Colloquium on American History (all graduate students are required to take a minimum of seven graduate-level, 600-level or above, seminars before taking their 'A' exam); demonstrating proficiency in two languages other than English, (or, in some cases, students in U.S. history may demonstrate proficiency in one foreign language and statistics); completing the graduate school's residence requirement of six semesters of full-time study at a satisfactory level of accomplishment; teaching for at least one year (normally as a teaching assistant); passing the "Q" examination early in the second semester of study; the written and oral "Admissions to Candidacy" examination after completion of formal study; and completing the doctoral dissertation and defending it in a final examination. The graduate program in History is oriented primarily toward the doctorate. Applications to enter the program for a terminal MA are not encouraged.

University Information:

University Type: Private, not-for-profit

Carnegie Institution Ranking: Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive

Department Demographics:

First PhD conferred: 1890

History PhDs conferred to Date: 565

Relative Size Based on PhDs Conferred (2000–04): Medium [Explain]

Faculty Mix:
	Full Professor	23
	Associate Professor	8
	Assistant Professor	10
	Instructor/Lecturer
	Joint Appointment	11
	Emeritus Faculty	7
	Part-time faculty

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

Number of Graduate Students in Program (Fall 2005): 71
(Graduate student counts include those enrolled in terminal Master's degree program)

Proportion of Full-Time Graduate Students: 100%

New Graduate Students Entering Program, Fall 2004: 16

Relative Size Based on Graduate Student Enrollment (2002–04): Medium [Explain]

 

Other Information

     Current Dissertations in Progress

     PhDs Conferred by Department