History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Univ. of

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

U.S., modern Europe, ancient and global, science, Latin America

Program Description

The Graduate History program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is committed to training professional historians to be both scholars and teachers. Our program allows ample choice to students in designing academic programs to fit particular interests and needs while providing students with rigorous training in U.S. History, European History, Latin American History, Asian History, Global History, Russian and East European History, Women's and Gender History, and Military History. Degree requirements and departmental culture encourage comparative and interdisciplinary study. The program promotes close mentoring relationships with faculty and sustains a lively intellectual, community among the graduate students. In the course of graduate study, our students also receive valuable teaching experience.

Special Programs or Resources

The resources for historical study at Chapel Hill include excellent libraries at UNC-CH and in the larger Research Triangle community. The department also has close cooperative relationships with neighboring universities including Duke and North Carolina State. Students at UNC can seamlessly enroll in classes at these neighboring schools and faculty members from these schools take an active part in the graduate history program and regularly serve on student advisory committees at Chapel Hill. The graduate program in History at Chapel Hill promotes excellence in teaching. Because demonstrated teaching ability is an increasingly important prerequisite for most college and. university teaching positions, the department provides constructive instruction in teaching. In addition to orientation programs for teaching assistants, the department has a faculty-student Committee on Teaching that hosts programs on creative pedagogy throughout the academic year. A for-credit course, which addresses syllabus planning, assignment planning, and teaching methods, is also regularly offered.
To prepare our graduates for the competitive job market, each year our 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 and mock job talks are staged. The placement officer typically attends the annual meeting of the American Historical Association to provide additional support for any students who have job interviews at the convention. The History Department also hosts a monthly Departmental Research Colloquium at which graduate students can present their work, hear a faculty comment, and answer questions during a discussion period.

Financial Aid

The History Department at Chapel Hill is committed to offering financial aid to as many as possible of the graduate students in our program. Virtually all entering History Ph.D. students are recipients of five years of financial support. These packages include tuition, health insurance, and an annual stipend (to be $14,700 for 2009-10 academic year). The department also supplements this financial support with two years of summer research, funding. Exceptional applicants may be nominated for some of the one year and multi year competitive and prestigious fellowships awarded by the Graduate School at Chapel Hill. These fellowships 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. To help launch dissertation research, the History Department also supports students with a research fund (currently $1,500) upon passing their comprehensive exams.
Both the department and the Graduate School offer support for graduate student travel to scholarly conferences to present papers. Additional funds have been allocated for graduate students to acquire specialized skills (language skills, paleography training, etc.). In addition, the Graduate School offers funds on a competitive basis for pre-dissertation and dissertation research. Competitive fellowships for students completing their dissertations are awarded by both the Graduate School and the History Department.

Degree Requirements

Candidates for the Ph.D. degree typically complete 30 credit hours during their first two years in the program, and an additional 15 credit hours minimum by the time they defend their dissertations. The MA degree is typically earned by the end of the third or fourth semester and comprehensive exams are completed by the end of the sixth semester of study. In addition, Ph.D. candidates must also satisfy language and technical competency requirements appropriate to their particular fields of study by their sixth semester. Successful completion of these requirements and the comprehensive exams allows candidates to pursue dissertation research and writing, normally a three-year process.

University Information:

University Type: Public

Carnegie Institution Ranking: Doctoral/Research Universities—Extensive

Department Demographics:

First PhD conferred: 1926

History PhDs conferred to Date: 683

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

Faculty Mix:
	Full Professor	58
	Associate Professor	20
	Assistant Professor	8
	Instructor/Lecturer	2
	Joint Appointment	8
	Emeritus Faculty
	Part-time faculty	12

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

Number of Graduate Students in Program (Fall 2005): 146
(Graduate student counts include those enrolled in terminal Master's degree program)

Proportion of Full-Time Graduate Students: 100%

New Graduate Students Entering Program, Fall 2004: 24

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

 

Other Information

     Current Dissertations in Progress

     PhDs Conferred by Department