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 successfully complete 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 non-English languages, as required by each field. Candidates
are required to prepare a doctoral dissertation based on
original research and successfully defend that dissertation in a
final examination conducted by a faculty committee. Credits for master of arts (M.A.)
work in history done at other institutions can usually be transferred
with the permission of the Graduate School-New Brunswick, though students may still need to fulfill particular program course requirements. 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. The M.A. is an option for students who start in the Ph.D. program, but who are not able to complete it. Students whose terminal degree objective at Rutgers is the M.A. should not apply to this program, but rather should consider applying to the M.A. program in global and comparative history in this department, or 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 latter 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, and where possible using appropriate languages in the 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 of these is designed as an interdisciplinary curriculum. The
department also is home to the Center for Historical Analysis, the 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 related centers.
A full description of the
program may be found online at http://history.rutgers.edu. The website also offers information about multiyear funding packages, constituted by fellowships (which in 2012-2013 pay $21,000,
plus tuition remission), teaching assistantships, and other forms of
financial aid.