Department of History
Director of Graduate Studies (DGS): Alison Games (on leave Spring 2008)
Acting Director of Graduate Studies, Spring 2008: John McNeill
Department Administrative Officer: Kathleen Buc Gallagher
Student Assistant to the DGS: Kevin Powers
1. Program of Study
2. Financial Aid
3. Teaching Experience
4. Research Grants
5. Job Placement
6. Scholarship by Recent Graduates
7. Research Facilities
8. Intellectual Atmosphere
9. Application Information
1. Program of Study
The mandatory courses are an Introductory Colloquium, taken in the first semester, and a year-long seminar in the major field. Students consult with their advisory committees (led by a mentor, and composed of the faculty overseeing each field of study) to choose their other courses, seeking to cover the four fields of the Comprehensive Exams: major, research, and two minor fields. These fields can be defined geographically or thematically, but the major and one of the two minor fields must cover separate geographic regions. Students are strongly urged to use another discipline for their second minor field. Students who have done graduate work elsewhere can obtain up to 9 hours of advanced standing. Students may also take courses at Washington-area Consortium universities.
Comprehensive Exams consist of two or three writtens and a two-hour oral exam, which are usually taken at the end of the third year.
The dissertation committee consists of three or four advisors. After completing a polished draft of the dissertation, the student makes an oral defense. Students are strongly encouraged to have a dissertation reader from outside the University.
Fields of Study
Georgetown’s history curriculum comprises over 200 courses from ancient to modern eras encompassing many of the world’s cultures. The department offers the following graduate fields:
Students organize individual programs of study around four fields:
Coursework
Students in the doctoral program must complete 36 credit hours of graduate coursework with a minimum of a 3.3 GPA. Up to nine credits of advanced standing may be awarded, as determined by the student's advisory committee and the DGS, to those students entering with a Master's degree in History.
All students must complete the Core Colloquium (HIST-501), normally in the Fall semester of the first year. All complete a two-semester seminar in the Major field; in this course the student writes a major seminar paper, based on primary research and informed by the historical literature, developed over two semesters, with the guidance of the faculty mentor.
The remaining course work is selected to prepare fields and develop analytical skills, within history and related disciplines, with the guidance of the mentor and advisory committee. There is no mandatory allocation of courses to fields.
Language Exams
Entering students are expected to have reading competency in at least one relevant language, and are tested before they start their first semester of classes. They cannot register for their third semester of classes until they pass at least one language exam. All students, except those whose major field is United States History, must pass a minimum of two language exams before they can schedule comprehensive examinations.
Comprehensive Examinations and the Doctoral Dissertation
After completing all course work and passing the required language exams, students take comprehensive examinations (normally in the third or fourth year). Two or three written exams are required: all students write in their research field; all write in one of the two minor fields (some write in both). Following the written exams, the two-hour oral examination focuses on the major field, while reaching into the student's entire program. Students have two chances to pass the comprehensive exams.
Students who pass their comprehensive examinations are allowed to write a doctoral dissertation, a substantial work of original historical research and analysis. After completing a polished draft of the dissertation, the student makes an oral defense; this defense of the thesis is the final requirement for the degree.
The Department offers a variety of forms of financial aid to students.
Patrick Healy Graduate Fellowship: The Patrick Healy Graduate Fellowship is a competitive award designed to attract and support the most talented students from those groups least represented in the professoriate. Named in honor of
Teaching assistants lead discussion sections in lecture classes, help grade student work, and usually give one lecture each semester. A teaching assistant's work is limited to 15 hours per week; most find that they work about 10-12 hours per week, except during those weeks when they are grading papers or exams.
Competition for aid, due to the limited amount available, is extremely rigorous. The application for admission serves as the application for financial aid and is due January 3, 2006.
3. Teaching Experience
Because the Department places such a high priority on providing our Ph.D. students with teaching experience, we have three teaching programs.
4. Research Grants
Georgetown's students have a superior record in research fellowship competitions. In the past five years, our students have held DAAD, Fulbright-Hays, Fulbright, IREX, Marandon, NEH, SHAFR, SSRC, and other grants. In some fields, such as early-modern Europe, modern Germany, modern Russia, Poland, and the Middle East, nearly every eligible student who has applied for an outside research fellowship has obtained one (1995-2005, inclusive).
The Department also offers a limited number of research stipends for those in fields of study in which research funding is not easily available. Non-U.S. citizens ineligible for regular research funding (Fulbright, SSRC, etc.) are provided with a year of research funding through this program. The research year does not count against the five years of the assistantship.
Georgetown has a consistently strong record of placement in academic and non-academic positions. Recent Georgetown graduates include such prominent historians as Douglas Brinkley (20th-century US, University of New Orleans, Eisenhower Center), Beshara Doumani (Modern Middle East, California-Berkeley), Karin Friedrich (early-modern Europe, University of London, School of Slavonic Studies), and Alan Gallay (early American history, Ohio State University). During the past ten years, Georgetown has also placed Ph.D.s at Princeton, Cambridge University, Indiana University (three), Purdue (two), Colorado, the National University of Ireland at Galway, Smith College, Carleton College, George Washington University, and a wide range of U.S. and foreign colleges and universities. Many of our graduates prefer to seek non-academic employment: Georgetown Ph.D.s currently hold positions as historians of such U.S. government agencies as the Library of Congress, the FBI, and the State Department.
6. Scholarship by Recent Graduates
A selection of books by recent Georgetown Ph.D.s includes: Douglas Brinkley, The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House (Viking, 1998); Ruth Harwood Cline, trans., Chrétien de Troyes' Cligès (University of Georgia, 2000); Beshara Doumani, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants of Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 (California, 1995); Karin Friedrich, The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569-1772 (Cambridge, 2000); June Hopkins, Harry Hopkins. Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer (St. Martin's Press, 1999); Dina Khoury, State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire: Mosul, 1540-1834 (Cambridge, 1997); David Rich, The Tsar's Colonels: Professionalism, Strategy, and Subversion in Late Imperial Russia (Harvard, 1998); Melinda Zook, Radical Whigs and Conspiratorial Politics in Late Stuart England (Pennsylvania State, 1999). Other recent graduates have books in press or under consideration at Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press, the Société de l'Histoire Économique et Financière de la France (Paris), and elsewhere.
7. Research Facilities
Georgetown offers the unparalleled research resources of Washington, D.C.: the 26 million volumes of the Library of Congress; the National Archives; the remarkable range of specialized libraries, such as the National Library of Medicine at NIH, the Folger Shakespeare Library (which contains a superb collection on early-modern Continental European and English history), the Department of Agriculture's library, the finest of its kind in the world, and several others. The University's Lauinger Library contains over 1.3 million volumes and a range of special collections, including the nearly 350,000 items of the Government Documents Depository.
8. Intellectual Atmosphere
Washington, D.C. offers a staggering smorgasbord of cultural life, from museums to lectures to theater and music. The University has a constant flow of speakers, ranging from political leaders such as the President, Cabinet members, ambassadors, and foreign dignitaries, to preeminent cultural figures. The Department offers a monthly seminar on faculty research, the annual Quigley Lecture (a two-day mini-conference), and regular presentations by scholars visiting Georgetown. Past speakers have included such guests as Natalie Zemon Davis, Christopher Hill, Orlando Patterson, and Benedict Anderson.
The History Department uses the standard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Application. Please indicate on the application if you are applying for a joint program and be aware that the other program may require an additional or special application; consult the respective program for more information. Visit the Graduate School Catalogue for additional information on applying to the History Department. Send your application and all supporting materials to the Graduate School, not the History Department.
The key materials to provide with the application are: transcripts; test scores from the GRE General Test; a two-page statement of purpose; a substantive sample of work (we prefer a research paper); and three letters of recommendation. If at all possible, the sample of work should demonstrate your ability to work with primary sources. Georgetown has a highly selective program: we accept only 20 percent of those who apply. Incoming classes average about 15 students.
Please visit the rest of the Department's website, where you can find information about faculty publications and current research projects, as well as e-mail contacts for faculty, for current Ph.D. students, and for recent graduates. We encourage you to write to students to get their perspective on our program.
Applications for the 2008-2009 academic year are due December 15, 2007.[Last updated September 2007]
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