History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

New York at Albany, SUNY

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

culture, gender, international/global/comparative, social and economic, public policy

Program Description

The Ph.D. program at the University at Albany, State University of New York, aims to prepare students for academic careers as scholars and teachers as well as for professional opportunities in research, public history, history and media, policy analysis and other pursuits in the public and private sectors. The program is interdisciplinary in nature and is organized by thematic fields: Social and Economic History; Public Policy History; International, Global, and Comparative History; Cultural History; and Gender History. Public History may be selected as a minor field. Students also choose a cognate field in an area outside of history that is connected to their scholarly interests.

Special Programs or Resources

Public History: The graduate program in public history at the University at Albany is designed to train professional historians for work outside the conventional settings. Its graduates receive a Master of Arts in Public History and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Public History. Depending on their concentration, students will be prepared for employment with historical societies, museums, archives, and similar agencies, or with agencies involved in public policy planning.
History and Media: The 36-credit M.A. course of study allows students to learn and apply specialized media skills  digital history and hypermedia authoring, photography and photo analysis, documentary filmmaking, oral/video history, and aural history and audio documentary production  to the study of the past. Courses in all of these areas teach students theoretical and applied skills; seminars, along with group and individual project course, allow them to put those skills into practice on ambitious works.
Oral History: The Oral History Program at the University at Albany is devoted to collecting, preserving, and disseminating oral and video recordings of first-hand accounts of individuals who have participated in our region's and our nation's history. It sponsors programs, projects, and workshops; supports individual research efforts off students and faculty; provides guidance on ethical and legal issues; and promotes the use of oral history in modern historical research.
Documentary Studies Program: The interdisciplinary program within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Albany, offers students an opportunity to explore diverse approaches to documentary work in video/film, radio, hypermedia/multimedia, photography, and nonfiction writing and print journalism.

Financial Aid

The University annually offers a number of fellowships, assistantships, and residence-hall assistantships to qualified students enrolled in their first and subsequent years of graduate study. Fellowships carry stipends of $5,000 to $14,000. Assistantships carry stipends of $12,000 per academic year; both assistants and fellows may be eligible for a full or partial tuition scholarship. The University also has available a number of assistantships in residence halls which provide a waiver of room charges.

Degree Requirements

Students will choose a major concentration and a minor concentration from among the program's five thematic fields: Social. and Economic History; Public Policy History; Gender History; Cultural History; and International, Global and. Comparative History, Students also must choose one or more areas of geographic specialization from among the following: United States, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and/or Asia. Requirements include an introductory colloquium in State and Society, a teaching practicum, two research seminars and two reading seminars in the major concentration, demonstration of competence in a cognate discipline, and a research tool (either a foreign language or proficiency in quantitative methods, or in multimedia methods in historical research and publishing). Completed coursework will be followed by a Comprehensive Doctoral Qualifying Examination and a dissertation.

University Information:

University Type: Public

Carnegie Institution Ranking: Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive

Department Demographics:

First PhD conferred: 1972

History PhDs conferred to Date: 21

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

Faculty Mix:
	Full Professor	12
	Associate Professor	6
	Assistant Professor	5
	Instructor/Lecturer
	Joint Appointment
	Emeritus Faculty	9
	Part-time faculty	10

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

Number of Graduate Students in Program (Fall 2005): 177
(Graduate student counts include those enrolled in terminal Master's degree program)

Proportion of Full-Time Graduate Students: 32%

New Graduate Students Entering Program, Fall 2004: 55

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

 

Other Information

     Current Dissertations in Progress

     PhDs Conferred by Department