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Requirements for Completing the Ph.D. |
All the following requirements (total hours, specific courses, tools of research, etc.) are in addition to the M.A. requirements, except where specifically noted. The Ph.D. student who enters the program without an M.A. must complete both the requirements for the M.A. and those listed here. Those who enter with an M.A. in history from American University or from another university need complete only the course requirements listed immediately below. There are some variations for those who went through the M.A. program in history at American University. |
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I. Forty-two credit hours of approved graduate-level course work including:
A) the course HIST-744, The Historian's Craft, (three hours) which is normally to be taken by all graduate students their first fall semester; a grade of B (3.0) or better is required. (Need not be repeated by students with an M.A. from American University); B) two research seminars or approved substitutes with grades of B (3.0) or better. One of these seminars must be used to develop the student's dissertation proposal or to work on a portion of the dissertation itself; C) one or two colloquia with grade(s) of B (3.0) or better. If the student has an M.A. from another university, two colloquia are required. If the student has an M.A. in history and has already taken two colloquia in the department as part of the master's program, only one additional colloquium or colloquium substitute is required; D) one or two courses in HIST-500, Studies in History, which are seminars with topics that change from semester to semester, with grade(s) of B (3.0) or better. If the student has an M.A. from another university, two of these courses are required. If the student has an M.A. in history from American University, one such course is required; E) at least six and no more than 24 hours of HIST-799, Doctoral Dissertation Seminar; F) completion of enough elective graduate-level courses to make the required total of 42 credit hours above and beyond M.A. work. The student may add elective courses at the 500 or 600 level in the History Department at American University. With the approval of his or her advisor, the student may also select graduate-level courses at other universities in the Washington D. C. area Consortium of universities, or graduate-level courses in other departments at American University; G) continuous status in the program every semester from the time of first registration until the receipt of the Ph.D. degree. Students may register in courses, register for at least one hour of Doctoral Dissertation Seminar, or pay the fee to maintain matriculation to preserve their status. If a student fails to register for either fall or spring semester, he or she will automatically be dropped from the program. II. Competence with two tools of research Ph.D. students must demonstrate competence with two tools of research, with competence measured by written examinations. Those students who already have an M.A. in history and have demonstrated competence with a tool of research are required only to pass an exam for one additional tool of research. The student's tools of research are designed to help him or her with course work and dissertation work in the Ph.D. program, and throughout his or her career. Therefore, the student, in consultation with an advisor, should at the start of his or her Ph.D. program select tools of research that are related to projected research interests, and the student should get to work on mastering these tools early in the Ph.D. program. The Department accepts languages, statistics, computer science, and oral history as standard tools of research. Ph.D. students in American history may select any two of these tools. Students in European history, however, must select at least one language as a tool of research. A Ph.D. student who has passed a tool of research exam in a language, statistics, computer science, or oral history at another institution will be considered to have demonstrated competence with that tool of research if the exam is comparable to the Department's exam. With the support of his or her advisor, a Ph.D. student may petition the Graduate Committee to approve an alternative tool of research, a methodology applicable to his or her specific area of history, as one tool. Past examples of tools approved after petitions include linguistic analysis, and feminist methods. The Graduate Committee will approve petitions for alternative tools of research only if they are directly related to students' work. It will not approve petitions submitted after students' course work is completed. Students are not allowed to satisfy the tool of research requirement with two alternative tools; one must be a standard tool. Ph.D. students must also have demonstrated competence with at least one tool of research before they may take their second comprehensive examination, and competence with both tools of research before they may take the dissertation comprehensive. continued next page |
