History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

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Emory Univ.

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

medieval, early modern and modern Europe, America, Latin America, Africa

Program Description

Emory University offers a selective, mid-sized History PhD program. Doctoral students in History, working in close consultation with the faculty, are expected to define their specific fields of study, reflecting their own blending of geographical, chronological, theoretical, topical and comparative interests. The faculty encourages graduate study in eight broad fields: African, Asian, Medieval European, Early Modern European, Modern European, Colonial Latin American, Modern Latin American, and United States history. The history doctoral program provides students with rigorous training in their fields of specialization while encouraging comparative study. Students form close mentoring relationships with faculty and engage in a lively intellectual community among the graduate students.

Special Programs or Resources

Excellence in teaching is an essential part of the professional historian's calling. Demonstrated teaching ability is also an increasingly important prerequisite for most college and university teaching positions. At Emory, graduate students are not assigned grading tasks each semester, as they are in many programs. However, the Department has always provided practical teaching experience, which is now enhanced by the Teaching Assistant and Teacher Training Opportunity (TATTO) program, instituted by the Graduate School as a graduation requirement for all Ph.D. students. The TATTO program, as implemented by the History Department, is a carefully designed sequence of teaching experiences, leading up to the teaching of one or more freestanding classes, which is coordinated with the rest of the student's program of study.
The doctoral program is designed to prepare Ph.D. candidates for the job market, and our graduates have an excellent placement record, despite the tightness of the job market. Each year a faculty placement officer organizes regular workshops for graduate students planning to enter the job market covering topics such as writing job application letters, curriculum vitae and resumes, and soliciting letters of recommendation. Mock interviews are conducted for job seekers. Guest speakers, including recent graduates, are invited to discuss the application process. In most cases, the department will subsidize the cost of one trip per student to the annual meeting of the American Historical Association for job interviews.
In recent years the Department has been allocated funds by the Graduate School to support graduate student travel to scholarly conferences to present papers. These funds have enabled us to pay part or all of the expenses of about fifteen students each year.
Additional funds have been allocated for summer research travel to as many as twenty students for a variety of research projects and language training. In addition, the Graduate School offers funds on a competitive basis for pre-dissertation and dissertation research outside the United States through the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences University Fund for Internationalization.
Two annual departmental named awards of approximately $8,000 support graduate students in their dissertation research and travel.

Financial Aid

Full-time students admitted to the Department of History doctoral program are offered Graduate School fellowships (tuition and stipend awards) or have individual fellowships from outside funding sources. Each year the department admits a limited number of new students to the PhD program. In 2008-09 all such incoming students will receive tuition waivers and stipends of $16,500 per year for five years. In addition, the Graduate School of Arts and Science provides three types of special fellowships to support outstanding applicants: the Woodruff, Graduate Diversity, and Arts and Sciences Fellowships. The fellowships are also offered on a competitive basis and either supplement the base stipend or provide full stipend support at a higher level than the base stipends. The department admissions committee nominates accepted students for these fellowships based on their qualifications.

Degree Requirements

The history doctoral program encompasses two academic years of course work, two language requirements, the General Examinations, a teaching associateship, a dissertation prospectus, and research and writing of the dissertation. The minimal residence requirement is three academic years, the first of which may be taken at another institution. The normal course load is three courses per semester for four semesters, for a total of twelve courses (48 credit hours).
Two foreign languages are required of all Ph.D. candidates. (Students in U.S. and modern British history may substitute approved coursework in quantitative methods for one foreign language.) Facility in a foreign language will be demonstrated either by passing a translation examination administered by the department or by earning a minimum grade of B in an approved reading or translation language course at Emory.
General Examinations, usually taken in the third year, will encompass three fields, two defined chronologically and/or geographically and one that is thematic, topical, or theoretical. In addition to the three written examinations, there will be an oral examination that will cover all three fields.
All graduate students are required to participate in the Teaching Assistant and Teacher Training Opportunity (TATTO) program (see above for details). The culmination of the program is sole responsibility for teaching an introductory-level undergraduate course, usually in the third or fourth year, with supervision by the student's adviser. Dean's Teaching Fellowships are available competitively through the Graduate School for sixth-year support.
A dissertation prospectus is presented in the semester following successful completion of the General Examinations. The prospectus is a brief explanation of the projected dissertation, outlining the proposed research, defining its validity as a dissertation subject, and suggesting the principal sources to be employed. The prospectus meeting is a public presentation and defense of the dissertation project, based on the written prospectus which has been distributed in advance. Following approval of the prospectus, the student will work with the dissertation director in planning, researching, and writing the dissertation. The dissertation will be read and approved by the dissertation committee members in conjunction with deadlines for submission to the Graduate School.