History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

Yale Univ.

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

America, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa

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: Africanist Reading Group; American Religious History Workshop; Americanist Reading Group; British Studies Colloquium; Childhood Studies Group; Colloquium in International History and Security; Early Modern Colloquium; Esquina Latina, A Latino Studies Graduate Colloquium; European Studies Reading Group; Greco-Roman Lunch Colloquium; History Faculty-Student Lunch; Labor and Working Class History Reading Group; Market Culture Group; Medieval Lunch Colloquium; Russian and East European Reading Group; Yale British Studies Seminar; Yale Early American Historians; Yale Enlightenment Colloquium; Yale Group for the Study of Native America; 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

In 2009-10, fellowship stipends for all Yale doctoral students will be a minimum of $25,500 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 $25,500 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:

University Type: Private, not-for-profit

Carnegie Institution Ranking: Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive

Department Demographics:

First PhD conferred: 1882

History PhDs conferred to Date: 1086

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

Faculty Mix:
	Full Professor	39
	Associate Professor	2
	Assistant Professor	14
	Instructor/Lecturer	2
	Joint Appointment	24
	Emeritus Faculty	19
	Part-time faculty	16

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

Number of Graduate Students in Program (Fall 2005): 176
(Graduate student counts include those enrolled in terminal Master's degree program)

Proportion of Full-Time Graduate Students: 99%

New Graduate Students Entering Program, Fall 2004: 26

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

 

Other Information

     Current Dissertations in Progress

     PhDs Conferred by Department