History

Degrees Offered

Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy

Facilities for Graduate Work

Graduate students in history have access to major collections of research materials in a number of fields. The Benson Latin American Collection of printed and manuscript materials is of international importance for research and study in the history of Latin America in general and Mexico in particular. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum and its Oral History Project offer an unprecedented wealth of material for the study of United States history in the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson years. In the Perry-Castaneda Library, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and the Center for American History are major collections related to the history of science, twentieth-century writers, British and European history, ancient history, and the history of Texas, the South, and the West, and documents of the United States and of the United Nations. The Natchez Trace Collection in the Center for American History provides an unparalleled resource for the study of the history of the lower Mississippi region in the nineteenth century. At the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest near the University campus are the national archives of the Episcopal Church, containing books and manuscripts from the colonial period onward.

Areas of Study

Graduate study in history is offered in the areas of Asian/African/Middle Eastern history (East Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and African), European history (ancient, medieval, early modern, modern), Latin American history, and United States history.

Graduate Studies Committee

The following faculty members served on the Graduate Studies Committee in the spring semester 1998-1999.

Robert H. Abzug
Marilyn C. Baseler
Shearer Davis Bowman
Carolyn P. Boyd
Jonathan C. Brown
Norman D. Brown
Susan L. Burns
Caroline Castiglione
Sally H. Clarke
Judith G. Coffin
David F. Crew
Alfred W. Crosby
Donald G. Davis Jr.
Susan Deans-Smith
Oloruntoyin O. Falola
Hafez Farmayan
Neil F. Foley
William E. Forbath
George B. Forgie
Alison Knowles Frazier
Kevin K. Gaines
William H. Goetzmann
Richard Graham
Sandra Lauderdale Graham
Myron P. Gutmann
Michael G. Hall
Aline Helg
Bruce J. Hunt
Peter C. Jelavich
Neil D. Kamil
Kevin G. Kenny
Robin W. Kilson
Patricia S. Kruppa
John E. Lamphear Jr.
Brian P. Levack
W. Roger Louis
Abraham Marcus
Standish Meacham
Janet A. Meisel
Howard Miller
Gail Minault
David Montejano
M. Gwyn Morgan
Joan Neuberger
Mary C. Neuberger
Martha G. Newman
Robert A. Olwell
Gunther W. Peck
Richard H. Pells
Ann W. Ramsey
Edward J. M. Rhoads
Ricardo Romo
Thomas David Russell
James Sidbury
Mark C. Smith
Denise A. Spellberg
Michael B. Stoff
Cynthia M. Talbot
Mauricio Tenorio
Ron C. Tyler
Penny M. Von Eschen
Philip L. White
Charters Wynn
Margherita Zanasi

Degree Requirements

Master of Arts

Each student should work out a specific program of study with the graduate adviser, the faculty adviser, and, finally, the thesis or report supervisor.

All students except those in United States history must demonstrate competence in a foreign language.

Master's degree program with thesis. The student must complete thirty semester hours at the University. Twenty-four semester hours must be in graduate history courses; these must include at least one research seminar and the six-hour thesis course. Supporting work of six hours must be taken outside the major field of interest in history; at least three of these hours must be taken outside the department.

The student writes the thesis under the direction of a supervisor, who serves as head of a supervisory committee of at least one other faculty member. The thesis must be approved by the committee and by the graduate dean.

Master's degree program with report. The student must complete thirty-three semester hours at the University. Twenty-seven hours must be in graduate history courses; these must include at least two research seminars and the three-hour report course. Supporting work of six hours must be taken outside the major field of interest in history; at least three of these hours must be taken outside the department.

The report is ordinarily an expansion and revision of a paper written in one of the research seminars. The report must be approved by the faculty supervisor and one other faculty member and by the graduate dean.

Doctor of Philosophy

The Graduate Program Committee maintains close control over admission to the doctoral program; a student is admitted only if the committee believes he or she will excel in doctoral work.

Students who enter the department with a master's degree are evaluated for admission to the doctoral program after completing their first semester in the department; those who enter with a bachelor's degree, after the second semester.

The doctoral degree student must complete at least thirty-nine hours of graduate work, at least twenty-seven of which must be in history. At least six of the required twenty-seven hours must be in research seminars (or at least three of the twenty-seven hours if the student has written a master's thesis at the University). The student must also complete a twelve-hour supporting field outside the major field of interest in history. At least six of the twelve hours must be taken outside the department; depending on the student's interests and needs, the other six hours may be taken outside the department or outside the student's major field in history. Courses taken at the University for the master's degree are counted toward the hours required for the doctoral degree. The graduate adviser may also permit transfer of up to twelve hours of graduate credit from another institution.

The student must fulfill the foreign language requirement for the major field as prescribed in the official Program of Study of the department.

To qualify for admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree, the student must pass both a written and an oral examination in the major field. He or she must then write a dissertation and defend it before a supervisory committee of at least five faculty members, including one member from a field other than history. At some point, each student must participate in the departmental dissertation colloquium.

The student must meet any other requirements prescribed individually by the Graduate Studies Committee or by the dissertation supervisory committee.

For More Information

Campus address: Garrison Hall (GAR) 103, phone (512) 471-6421, fax (512) 475-7222

Mailing address: Graduate Program, Department of History, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1163

E-mail: history@whitman.gar.utexas.edu

URL: http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/history/

History courses: HIS

Contents |  Chapter 1 |  Chapter 2 |  Chapter 3
Chapter 4 |  Chapter 5 |  Appendix

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