Admission to the Program

In addition to meeting the minimum university requirements for graduate study, applicants normally have completed an M.A. in History or a related field, have earned a satisfactory score on the Graduate Record Exam (Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytic), and have made a substantial beginning in one tool of research. Admission is based on academic record, letters of recommendation from two professors with whom work was taken recently, a sample of recent written work of substantial length (M.A. thesis, research paper, or interpretative essay) and favorable judgment by the department’s graduate committee and department chair. 

Degree Requirements

• 72 credit hours of approved graduate work 
• Two of the following as tools of research: relevant foreign languages, quantitative methods, digital history, oral history, or a methodology approved by the graduate committee of the Department of History 
• Comprehensive examinations in four fields: Comprehensive examinations are offered in the areas of ancient history, United States history, modern European history, British history, Latin American history, modern Asian history, Russian history, Middle Eastern history, and diplomatic history.  

One field must be a historical field outside the student’s main area of concentration, a comparative or multidisciplinary field, or a field in another discipline. 

• Dissertation and oral defense (Dissertation work is not usually available in ancient, Russian, Asian, or Latin American history.) 

Course Requirements

Specific course requirements depend on whether students received their M.A. in History from American University. For more information, consult the Department of History. 

• HIST-744 The Historian’s Craft (3) with a grade of B or better, taken in the student’s first semester of course work 
• HIST-799 Doctoral Dissertation Seminar (12–24)