Programs

The graduate program in history is intended primarily for students who pursue full-time work toward a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree. Requirements for a Ph.D. degree include 48 course credits in history or in a supporting discipline and 24 research credits. Students must complete a minor field. Most major fields require two semesters of research seminars. Students must complete successfully examinations in their major and minor fields. Normally, these exams are taken in the second and third year. Doctoral candidates working in European, African, Latin American, and South Asian history must demonstrate appropriate reading knowledge of foreign languages, as required by each field. Candidates are required to prepare an acceptable dissertation based on original research and defend that dissertation successfully in a final examination conducted by a faculty committee. Credits for M.A. work in history done at other institutions likely will be transferred with the permission of the Graduate School–New Brunswick. Students may enroll for graduate courses at neighboring universities linked with Rutgers through a consortial arrangement.

The M.A. is offered within the framework of the doctoral program. Its requirements include eight courses in history and successful completion of an examination in the student's major field. A thesis is not required. Students whose sole objective is the M.A. should consider applying to the M.A. program in American history on the Rutgers-Camden campus or to the M.A. program in history on the Rutgers-Newark campus. For further information about these M.A. programs, write to: Department of History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden, NJ 08102; or Department of History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ 07102, respectively.

Students should apply to the program by December 15 for the September semester. Applications must be submitted online and in hard copy. Transcripts, Graduate Record Examination scores, three letters of recommendation, and a writing sample (preferably based on primary sources, using appropriate languages in proposed major field) are required for application to the program.

The Ph.D. program offers work in most fields of American, European, African, Latin American, and Asian history, but the department has particular strengths in the following areas of history: women's and gender, African American, cultural and intellectual, early American, 20th-century United States, modern Europe, Britain, global and comparative, and technology and medicine. Major fields exist for the history of science, technology, environment, and health; women's and gender history; and the history of Atlantic cultures and the African diaspora. Each is designed as an interdisciplinary curriculum. The department also is home to the Center for Historical Analysis, Thomas A. Edison Papers, the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers History Center, the Medieval and Early Modern Data Bank project, and the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony papers. Faculty members are affiliated with the centers and programs in African, Asian, British, European, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and South Asian studies and with the Department of Women's and Gender Studies and several of the women and gender centers of the university.

A full description of the program may be found in the brochure Graduate Study in History, available from the department or online at http://history.rutgers.edu. This brochure also offers information about fellowships (which in 2010-2011 pay $20,000, plus tuition remission), teaching assistantships, and other forms of financial aid.