History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

Columbia Univ

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East

Program Description

Columbia has been one of the most important centers of graduate education in history since modern Ph.D. programs began in America over a century ago, and the recipients of our degrees hold distinguished positions in virtually every major university in the United States, and in many abroad. Our program offers a broad education in most areas of historical scholarship and attempts to train students for a discipline and a profession in the midst of considerable change. That includes not simply assisting students in acquiring the knowledge and skills essential to becoming contributing scholars, but also helping them to become effective teachers and to exist comfortably within a demanding and complicated professional world.

Special Programs or Resources

Our strength derives not only from the distinction of our faculty and the talents of our students, but also from the University and the city in which we reside. Columbia provides rich physical and intellectual resources for historians. It has one of the nation's largest and greatest university libraries. It has departments of considerable distinction in many areas of interest to historians, whose faculties interact extensively with ours. It has one of the nation's great law schools, with a legal history faculty that shares with us a law and history program. It has one of the nation's great medical schools and one of its leading public health schools, with a program in the history of medicine and public health run jointly with our department. It has a School of Public and International Affairs and some of the nation's oldest and most important area studies programs, which offer opportunities for interdisciplinary work on many areas of the world. And it has one of America's premier women's colleges, our neighbor and partner Barnard, whose distinguished history department is closely associated with our own.

Financial Aid

Most students receive a five-year fellowship, which includes three years of service as a teaching assistant. Summer funding is also available.

Degree Requirements

Students must complete two years of coursework, pass language examinations, pass oral examinations in four subfields, and defend a dissertation to receive the Ph.D.

University Information:

University Type: Private, not-for-profit

Carnegie Institution Ranking: Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive

Department Demographics:

First PhD conferred: 1883

History PhDs conferred to Date: 2117

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

Faculty Mix:
	Full Professor	38
	Associate Professor	9
	Assistant Professor	13
	Instructor/Lecturer
	Joint Appointment	18
	Emeritus Faculty	8
	Part-time faculty	1

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

Number of Graduate Students in Program (Fall 2005): 255
(Graduate student counts include those enrolled in terminal Master's degree program)

Proportion of Full-Time Graduate Students: 97%

New Graduate Students Entering Program, Fall 2004: 19

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

 

Other Information

     Current Dissertations in Progress

     PhDs Conferred by Department