History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

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Texas A&M Univ.

Department Web Site

Areas of Specialization:

comparative border studies, diplomatic and military, Americas, Europe

Program Description

Our graduate program has four areas of emphasis: Modern United States, Modern Europe, Military & Diplomatic, and Comparative Border Studies.
Modern United States
The history of the United States since the mid 19th Century is a broad field in which the Department has enjoyed great success. Since the advent of graduate study in History at Texas A&M, this has been both the most thoroughly staffed and, among students, the most subscribed area within the Department. The primary research interest of current faculty in this period encompasses a wide range of approaches and specialties including politics, culture, race, immigration, gender, education, and ethnicity. Training also is offered in the history of labor, economics, business, and ideas. Students are encouraged to first think broadly about the history of the United States and then to concentrate in one of these areas.
Modern Europe
The second area of emphasis is modern European and, in particular, modern British history. The European history faculty include scholars of the medieval, early modern, and modern periods and of British, German, French, Russian, Italian, and eastern European history. Offerings include political, economic, military, social, cultural and intellectual history. Though the graduate program in European history is a relatively recent phenomenon at Texas A&M the department has already achieved considerable success. Graduate student research in Europe is supported by dissertation fellowships and other funds awarded on a competitive basis.

Special Programs or Resources

The department awards two research grants of up to $5,000 each year to doctoral students who have passed their qualifying exams and are working on their dissertations.

Financial Aid

There are four types of financial aids available to graduate students: Graduate Assistantships (GAT), Graduate Assistantships-Lecturer (GAL), Fellowships and Scholarships, Outside Graduate Assistantships (GAT), and Travel and Research Grants. Please visit our web site at http://www.tamu.edu/history/graduate/financialaid.htm.

Degree Requirements

The PhD in History requires a mix of 30-46 credit hours of coursework and 18-34 credit hours of research to reach the total hour requirement of 64. The required 30 hours of coursework includes 6 semester hours in a minor field outside the department, 6 hours in a minor history field, and 18 hours in a major history field. Additionally, students must complete a minimum of 18 hours of research. The remaining hours may be applied either as coursework or as research hours; most doctoral students use those hours for research (History 691).Doctoral students are required to possess reading knowledge of two foreign languages prior to taking their preliminary examinations.
PhD students must complete their degrees within ten consecutive calendar years and within three years after passing their preliminary examinations. The student enters candidacy for the degree upon completing coursework, fulfilling language requirements, meeting the residency requirement, passing the preliminary examinations (written and oral exams administered by the committee), and filing an approved dissertation proposal. The dissertation must reflect original, independent research and have scholarly merit. Final copies of the dissertation must be filed with the Thesis Clerk no later than one year after the final examination (aka the oral dissertation defense) or within the ten year limit, whichever comes first.