History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

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Kansas State Univ.

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

U.S., modern Europe, military, women and gender, environmental and American West

Program Description

The Department of History offers well-prepared students an exceptional opportunity to work closely with an unusually productive and well regarded faculty. The department aims to help students find and develop their talents fully and to establish themselves as independent scholars, teachers, and other historical professionals. The department offers programs of study leading to the master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees in selected traditional and innovative fields. In addition to various American and European fields and East Asia, the department's strengths include areas such as social and cultural history, religious history, history of sport, the American West, and twentieth-century United States history. An area of particular emphasis at Kansas State University is military history.

Special Programs or Resources

The university's Hale Library has a number of large, specialized collections. In addition, nearby are several excellent research facilities: the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, with outstanding holdings relating to the Eisenhower administration and recent military history; the Kansas State Historical Archives in Topeka; the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, with valuable collections on the Truman administration, the history of the American presidency, and foreign policy; the Linda Hall Library, in Kansas City, Missouri, emphasizing materials pertaining to science and the history of science; and the regional Federal Records Center in Kansas City, currently rich in military and civilian records and eventually to have a microfilm duplication of the main holdings of the National Archives in Washington.

Financial Aid

The Department of History also offers graduate teaching assistantships to qualified students on a competitive basis. For 2007-08 the stipend for graduate students holding GTA positions was $9,000 for nine months. GTAs also receive a full tuition waiver. Beginning GTAs work as graders or discussion leaders, and experienced assistants are frequently assigned independent sections of survey courses. Prospective students wishing to be considered for graduate teaching assistantships must complete their applications for admission by December 1st of the preceding year.
Prospective students may apply simultaneously for admission to the graduate program and for a GTA. Anyone wishing to be considered for an assistantship should indicate in the blank at the bottom of the statement of objectives form; no additional form is required.

Degree Requirements

The doctor of philosophy requires completing 30 hours of course work beyond the master's, satisfying the language requirement, passing the qualifying examination, and writing a sound dissertation based on original historical research that is approved by the student's committee. The qualifying examination includes separate examinations in a geographically and chronologically defined general field (early modern, or modern Europe or United States) and three special fields, one of which must offer a mode of understanding that is significantly different from the dissertation field or be from outside history.
Doctoral students must establish an intermediate-mid level of reading proficiency in a foreign language. Students will demonstrate their proficiency by one of the following methods:
(1) A student may provide evidence that he or she passed a four-semester sequence, or the equivalent, in one foreign language at the undergraduate level with an overall grade point average of 3.0 or better. In addition, the student must have achieved a 3.0 or better in the fourth or final course in the sequence. In the case of students whose coursework makes it difficult to determine if they have met this standard, the Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies will, in consultation with the major advisor, determine the student's status. Or,
(2) A student may provide evidence that he or she passed an equivalent graduate-level reading/comprehension examination at another accredited university. Or,
(3) A student may pass a foreign language examination certifying reading/translation proficiency at the "intermediate-high" level, defined by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) as follows:
Able to read consistently with full understanding simple connected texts dealing with basic personal and social needs about which the reader has personal interest and/or knowledge. Can get some main ideas and information from texts at the next higher level featuring description and narration. Structural complexity may interfere with comprehension; for example, basic grammatical relations may be misinterpreted and temporal references may rely primarily on lexical items. Has some difficulty with the cohesive factors in discourse, such as matching pronouns with referents. While texts do not differ significantly from those at the Advanced level, comprehension is less consistent. May have to read material several times for understanding.
Supervisory committees may specify which of the three methods the student must use to demonstrate proficiency. Further, the supervisory committee may require that the student demonstrate a higher standard of proficiency in a foreign language, and/or additional specialized research skills, including an additional foreign language.
All Ph.D. students must complete the foreign language requirement and any other research proficiencies required by their supervisory committee prior to the taking of the preliminary examination.