Coursework Requirements
The goals of the graduate curriculum are twofold: to maintain the flexibility that has traditionally characterized the program, while providing more guidance and structure so that students can take advantage of the intellectual opportunities at Duke.
The requirements specified here are intended to encourage breadth and depth in graduate students' experience in the first two years. Those two years, though, need to be understood as part of a larger program that directs students toward specific areas of interest: beginning in the third year, the students will turn to more individualized work on their dissertation proposals, in consultation with their advisors and other committee members. Even in the first two years, however, students still will focus on their own research interests. Independent study credits, for instance, provide for specialized readings in particular fields. Research seminars, while broadly framed around general topics, also provide an organized venue to pursue and to refine individual research agendas.
Requirements by Semester and Year
The normal course load in the first three years is represented by the following schematic:
First Year: first semester
- 301: Required course focusing on historiography and theory
- 2 readings colloquia (It is strongly recommended that both readings colloquia be organized courses rather than independent studies in the first semester of the first year, so that students can make contacts with faculty and other students before beginning more individualized work.)
First Year: second semester
- 302: Required course focusing on research methods and interpretation of primary sources
- 2 readings colloquia (one of these two courses can be an independent study) OR 1 readings colloquia and 1 research seminar (one of these two courses can be an independent study, but only one of the two required research courses can be independent studies)
Second Year: first semester
- 1 readings colloquium
- 303: Required course focusing on teaching and pedagogy
- 1 research seminar
Second Year: second semester
- 2 readings colloquia
- 1 research seminar
Third year: first semester
- 304: Required course focusing on initial preparation for prelims, specifically the dissertation proposal and the work associated with the primary field
- Independent studies with committee members, if desired
Third year, second semester
- Independent studies with committee members, if desired
- Prelims
Summarycoursework in the first three years:
301, 302, 303, 304
- 6 or 7 readings colloquia in the first two years (2 of which can be independent studies)
- 2 or 3 research seminars in the first two years (only one can be an independent study)
- Independent studies in the third year are at the discretion of the students and their advisors, with the goal of preparing for specific prelim fields.
Optional, accelerated path for students entering with an M.A.
Students who enter with the M.A. have the option to move directly to prelims and the prospectus in their second year, should they choose to do so. The requirements are: 301, 302, 303, 304,1 research seminar, and 2 readings colloquia. Independent studies would be determined in consultations with advisor and DGS. Students who wish to pursue this option need the approval of their advisors and the DGS.
Optional accelerated path for students wishing to complete the Ph.D. in four years or less
Students who enter under special programs that require completion of the Ph.D. in four years or less will work out a specific plan of study with the DGS and their advisors. The department understands that a certain amount of flexibility is required in such cases and the DGS will work to keep the academic spirit of the requirements, without creating insurmountable programmatic barriers for the students.
Course Descriptions
History 301
The primary goal is to introduce students to basic theoretical and historiographical readings in the discipline. The secondary goal is to encourage the creation of community among graduate students around intellectual ideas. Although instructors of 301 will build the course around their areas of expertise, the course will be structured around a selection of key conceptual issues. Readings and discussion will relate to those questions, with the goal of covering some basic historiographical debates and theoretical works in the discipline. The course is not intended to be comprehensive: the emphasis is on covering some of the key readings and debates in depth and giving students a chance to work through them together.
History 302
The primary goal is to introduce students to the process of finding and interpreting sources, with the emphasis on research as an intellectual project, not just a process of collection. Specifically, students will work different kinds of sources and become acquainted with different methodological approaches to those sources. The emphasis will be on working with the sources, rather than on producing a polished, article-length piece of written work. The research base and skills developed in 302 will prepare students for required research seminars and for their dissertation research thereafter. Students thus will have the opportunity to pursue their own individual research interests in 302, while also engaging in exercises and discussions that will broaden and deepen their understanding of that research. This course is an expression of the department, rather than of the interests of individual instructors alone. Instructors use a series of classes developed by the department in the course. The course makes use of the entire faculty's skills as instructors call on others in the department to lead specific classes in their areas of expertise.
History 303
This is a 3-credit course on teaching. The goals of the course are twofold: to provide support for T.A.s in their first year in the classroom, and to allow students to develop teaching techniques and approaches they can draw on to create a teaching portfolio, for use on the job market and when they begin teaching their own courses.
History 304
This course is designed to support third year students in compiling their prelim portfolios. To keep the emphasis on support (as opposed to assessment, a task which falls on field examiners alone), and also to acknowledge the wide variety of students' needs along these lines, the course is not graded. Any student who (1) submits a draft of their dissertation prospectus and (2) completes one field section of their prelim portfolio (verified by faculty examiner) by term's end will pass. The first part of the semester will include discussion of the following: 1. the certification requirements; 2. how to write a dissertation proposal; 3. how to apply for research fellowships; 4. how to revise a research paper for the purposes of publication. The remainder of the course allows students to pursue their individual work for prelims, in consultation with the professor.
Readings Colloquia
These courses provide students with a solid background in the literature of different historical fields, focusing on secondary reading and discussion of that literature rather than primary research, and requiring an historiographical, conceptual, or methodological paper, not a research paper based in primary sources. There are two basic kinds of readings colloquia. The first groups of courses are taught under the rubric of thematic or methodological topics that cross field boundaries and do not necessarily focus on one place or time period, such as, Topics in Law or Topics in Empire. The second group is taught under the rubric of topics cast in terms of geographic or chronological time periods, such as, Topics in US History or Topics in Latin American History. Topics are umbrellas; the specific courses taught under the rubric of the topics will change, according to the specialties of the instructors. For instance, the specific course under Topics in US History might be, Readings in Twentieth-Century History.
Research Seminars
Research seminars allow students to frame and wrote a polished, original piece of scholarly work, based in primary research. Research seminars are organized around broad themes that allow students from a range of different specialties to take the courses. They are based in either a research method or topical area that crosses geographic and chronological fields, such as Topics in Legal History, Topics in the British Archives, Topics in Intellectual History, or Topics in North American History.
Limits on Independent Studies
In the first two years of course work, students may take three independent studies that count toward their requirements. One can be a research seminar; two can be readings colloquia. Students are, of course, welcome to take additional independent studies, beyond those three; those courses, however, will not apply to the requirements.
Numbering System for 300-level Courses
301: Required course, on historiography and theory
302: Required course, on research methods
303: Required course, ungraded, on teaching and pedagogy
304: Required course, ungraded, supporting students, most commonly in the third year, as they prepare portfolios for preliminary certification
Readings (310-359)
310: Readings in North American History
311: Readings in European History
312: Readings in Latin American History
313: Readings in African and Asian History
315: Readings in Global Connections
320: Readings in Law and Society
325: Readings in Politics, Public Life, the State
330: Readings in Gender
335: Readings in Methods, Theory
340: Readings in Racial Formations
345: Readings in Empires, Colonial Encounters
350: Readings in Labor Systems, Capitalism, Business Cultures
359: Readings in Military History, Science, Technology
Research (360-389)
360: Research in North American History
361: Research in European History
362: Research in Latin American History
363: Research in African and Asian History
365: Research in Global Connections
368: Research in Law and Society
371: Research in Politics, Public Life, the State
372: Research in Gender
374: Research in Methods, Theory
376: Research in Racial Formations
378: Research in Empires, Colonial Encounters
380: Research in Labor Systems, Capitalism, Business Cultures
382: Research in Military History, Science, Technology
Taking Classes at Other Local Universities
Students are encouraged to take readings courses outside the department. Research seminars also may be from outside the department, as long as the primary result is a research paper, based in primary materials. Duke students can take graduate classes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , North Carolina Central University in Durham , and North Carolina State University in Raleigh , and at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro . These opportunities expand the number of available History faculty and widen the range of course offerings in any given semester. UNC-Chapel Hill is the most frequently used of these options. The numbering system at UNC-CH differs from Duke's: UNC's 100-level courses are the equivalent of 200-level courses at Duke; UNC's 200-level is like Duke's 300-level.
WARNING: Duke's academic calendar may not coincide with that of other institutions. Students are responsible for finding out exact schedules and making any accommodations necessary.
To register for a class at another institution:
1. Students should register for desired courses at Duke first, then obtain an Inter-institutional Registration Form from the Graduate Studies Office. Students should complete this form, have it signed by the DGS, and take it to the Duke Registrar.
2. Students should obtain a form from the Duke Registrar certifying eligibility as a full-time student and request information on registration dates at the other school.
3. Students should complete the registration process at the cooperating institution. Tuition will be charged at the Duke rate. Additional course costs, such as lab and computer fees, are not considered part of the Duke tuition.
4. A free bus service runs regularly between the Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill campuses.
The Registration Process
New graduate students register during new student week, after the departmental orientation, after they meet with the DGS to discuss courses and obtain a pin number from the DGS assistant. Enrolled students register in November for the spring semester and in March for the summer sessions and the fall semester. All students must register each fall and spring semester for credit towards their degrees and must pay a registration fee each semester unless waived by a previously approved leave of absence. All students must get their Personal Identification Number (PIN) from the DGS Assistant. The student then goes to a computer and registers using the Automated Computer Enrollment System (ACES).
The Grading System for Graduate Classes
Official grades in the Graduate School are A, B, C and F. All graduate students must maintain 3.0 cumulative GGPA in order to be considered making satisfactory progress toward the degree. These averages will be calculated each semester by the University Registrar. Students falling below the 3.0 GGPA will risk either academic probation or termination from their graduate program. [Grade point equivalents will be the same as for Duke undergraduates: i.e., A=4.0; A-=3.7; B+=3.3; B=3.0; B-=2.7.] Grades can be modified by a plus or minus. All professors would agree that a straight A reflects superior work. A grade of A- or lower strongly suggests work that needs improvement. The grade of F (failing) in a history course normally occasions withdrawal from a degree program not later than the end of the ensuing semester.
The Grade of "Incomplete"
A grade of I (incomplete) indicates that some portion of the student's course work was missing. Unforeseen difficulties can make this grade necessary. But it is an option to be avoided if at all possible, for it puts students behind in work, and the make-up time eats into the subsequent semesters. If the course is not completed within one calendar year from the date the course ended, the grade of "I" becomes permanent; it cannot be replaced with another grade, and it becomes necessary to take, and pay for, an additional course.
Transferring Credits
A student who has completed at least 12 units of graduate study at Duke may apply to transfer credit for graduate work completed at another school. To do this, a student must fill out a "Request for Transfer of Credit Form" available at the DGS office. This request needs to be signed by the DGS and the primary advisor and submitted to the Associate Dean of the Graduate School sometime before taking preliminary exams. Transferring course work does not reduce the minimum of 30 units required for a Master's degree, so students must register for units at Duke equivalent to the number of transferred units. This registration may consist of additional course work or "Research" hours.
Annual Progress Toward Degree Requirement
All doctoral students beyond their initial year of study at Duke University are required, as a condition of their enrollment, to file an annual written report with the DGS that discusses their progress towards the Ph.D. degree. This report will be due on April 1 of each year a student is enrolled in the Graduate School . The DGS will subsequently certify to the Associate Dean of the Graduate School that this report has been received and will, where deemed appropriate, forward copies to the student's doctoral committee. The Graduate School will track the submission of the annual reports as a milestone in the student's official record. Failure to submit this annual progress report will jeopardize a student's continuation in the graduate program.
For students who have not completed coursework or preliminary certification, this report should identify the likely schedule of courses still to be taken, the likely dates at which the student will submit a portfolio for preliminary certification (or in the case of students who entered the program prior to 2005-06, take their preliminary examinations), and remaining plans to fulfill language requirements. For students who are ABD, the report should specify annually the progress of their dissertation research, identify any portions of completed written work, establish a clear time-line for completion of any remaining chapters of the dissertation, and set a target date for final defense.
CURRICULAR GOALS FOR PH.D. STUDENTS IN THE COURSEWORK STAGE
The following discussion deals with the pedagogical assumptions of the graduate curriculum, suggesting general guidelines for students' intellectual trajectory in the Duke History Department. We hope these guidelines will help graduate students orient themselves and make sense of their coursework; we similarly hope that the guidelines will assist faculty as they develop either readings or research seminars for our graduate students.
Obviously, very few graduate students will hit these intellectual milestones at exactly the same times or in the same combinations. In some fields, taxing demands such as foreign language study, methodological training, and/or the need to travel to distant archives may result in a different pace through the program. In a similar vein, the terms of some students' grants may preclude experience in teaching until after the first few years in the program. We nonetheless believe that our students will greatly benefit from having a clear sense of the general logic of the department's new curriculum, and its more specific academic goals, as they proceed through the program. We similarly believe that the members of the graduate faculty should keep these goals in mind as they counsel to their advisees and teach their graduate courses.
Goals for the First Year
By the end of the first year, a student making good progress in the program should have developed a basic familiarity with what distinguishes history as an academic discipline and how the concepts and methodologies used by historians overlap with and diverge from those of other disciplines. She/he should have ranged outside her/his primary fields of interest in coursework, while also building on preexisting knowledge in a primary field, developing a familiarity with crucial scholarly debates in that field. By this time, history graduate students should be developing an independent scholarly agenda, reading beyond assigned books and articles, and forming at least tentative ideas of their likely preliminary examination fields, as well as the likely membership of their preliminary examination committee. A graduate student who has entered the Ph.D. program without pursuing a Masters degree elsewhere should have moved well beyond the intellectual horizons of even the best undergraduates, seeing her/himself as an individual who is learning how to create and disseminate historical knowledge.
As a reader, he/she should demonstrate the ability:
to identify the central arguments of particular scholarly works;
to assess the use of evidence by historians;
to relate a given piece of history to larger intellectual trends and debates;
to interpret primary sources imaginatively and with attention to context.
As a writer, he/she should demonstrate:
the capacity to fashion clear and engaging prose; and
skill in executing key disciplinary genres, such as the book review and the historiographic essay.
As a researcher, she/he should demonstrate:
creativity in devising strategies to corroborate evidence in a primary source;
familiarity with a range of research methodologies, including some approaches that extend beyond previous experience in historical research;
familiarity in finding and using a wide range of historical primary sources archival, printed, visual, oral, and virtual;
familiarity in identifying scholarship on a particular subject, through both traditional library techniques, and the use of web databases;
familiarity with note-taking software, extending to significant experience in using such software to organize research work and assist in research-related writing;
facility in developing compelling research questions from rich historical documents or from vibrant scholarly debates;
facility in connecting those questions to plausible research agendas, with sensible methodological approaches, clear historiographic relevance, and accessible primary sources.
As a seminar participant, he/she should demonstrate the ability
to ask good questions -- of historical works, of pieces of historical evidence, and of other members in the seminar;
to engage in constructive criticism of research methodology and use of evidence;
to think on his/her feet; and
to disagree agreeably, and listen constructively to the agreeable disagreements of others.
Goals for the Second Year
At the end of the second year of courses, we expect students to have identified clear fields of study, ones that balance intensive intellectual focus with chronological and geographic breadth. Students making good progress should have a deeper grasp of the relationship between history and its related disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, and a sharper sense of how to relate wide-angle synthetic views of the past to more particular scholarly inquiries.
As a reader, she/he should show:
a more sophisticated capacity to assess the strengths of scholarship, along with its weaknesses;
greater skills in conceptualizing particular historical fields -- in periodizing change within those fields, and relating specific developments to more global contexts; and
significant progress toward fulfillment of the department's language requirements;
As a writer, he/she should demonstrate the ability to:
conceptualize a complex historical argument;
complete two strong essays based on original research and reflecting solid historical logic (these essays will typically constitute the research component for the M.A. degree);
engage effectively with constructive criticism -- when advisable, reconceive the basic contours of an historical argument, rework narrative flow, and/or tighten up presentations of evidence or historiography;
As a researcher, she/he should have:
demonstrated the ability to craft and refine a research problem of appropriate scale for a semester-long project;
developed extensive familiarity with Perkins Library and its databases, building on the training provided in the first-year course on research methods (History 302);
had some significant experience in working in archives beyond Duke, subject to the availability of funding to support such work;
pursued extended detective work (both bibliographic and archival) in the research for the year's two research papers;
kept track of "data" in a system that works for the individual student; most likely in some kind of database software;
placed research findings within broader historical and historiographic frameworks; and shown the capacity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the methodologies used in the two research papers, and as a result, possess a healthy respect for the difficulties of connecting historiographical debates to concrete research agendas.
As a teacher, he/she should have:
developed the basic skills of leading section discussions, fostering close readings by students, and responding constructively to student writing;
begun to develop the crucial skill of synthesizing large amounts of material into accessible public presentations, such as the lecture;
begun to find his/her way around the key information technologies used in the collegiate teaching of history;
begun the process of developing syllabi;
begun the process of developing innovative assignments; and
possibly begun to develop the basic skills of overseeing undergraduate research
As a seminar participant and member of the department's intellectual community, she/he should have:
developed the skill of leading a discussion in a graduate seminar context;
engaged substantively, intensively, and constructively with the research and writing of fellow students, particularly in the context of research seminars;
honed the skill of posing challenging questions in public settings, whether in seminars or public presentations;
participated regularly in departmental, university, and area intellectual events, such as a lectures, seminars, or workshops
As someone moving closer to membership in the historical profession, he/she should have:
developed grant-writing skills, and applied for at least one competitive grant beyond Duke;
attended at least one professional meeting, whether regional, national, or international.