Preliminary Examinations (for Ph.D. students entering before 2005-06 and after)
The following rules apply to Ph.D. students who enter the program in the Fall of 2005 and thereafter, as well as students who entered in the Fall of 2004, and who wish to avail themselves of the new approach to prelims.
Preliminary Certification
Before a student can move on to candidacy for the PhD (become “ABD”), he or she must receive Preliminary Certification from the department. Preliminary Certification is confirmation by a committee of advisors that the student has a strong conceptual grasp of the leading scholarship in the fields most relevant to his or her areas of interest; that he or she has developed independent positions on major historiographical issues (or, in fields outside history, independent positions on major theoretical and methodological issues); that he or she is ready to teach topics within the fields; and that he or she has the research tools (including language skills) and intellectual maturity to undertake independent dissertation research.
The Portfolio
Students will demonstrate their readiness to undertake independent dissertation research by submitting a portfolio of their best work to date. The portfolio format, modeled on the tenure dossier, is intended to combine a set of minimum requirements (most of which will be completed in the normal progression through coursework during years one and two) with sufficient flexibility to allow the students to display their historical knowledge, historiographical vision, and methodological skills to their best advantage. These minimum requirements include basic knowledge of historical methods, critical engagement with secondary literatures, ability to work with primary sources, clarity of written communication, and evidence of teaching ability.
Each student's portfolio will be divided into three or four fields of specialization, [Students will decide whether to prepare one or two minor fields in consultation with their major advisor. This is more fully explained in the “Fields” section below.] as well as teaching material, a dissertation prospectus, and a personal statement describing the student's overall intellectual agenda [The intellectual agenda is a statement of no more than three thousand words explaining how the student's fields and proposed dissertation cohere.] A faculty examiner will evaluate each field. The faculty examiner will provide the student with written guidelines identifying the kind and quantity of material the student should display in his or her portfolio [This is more fully explained in the “Timeline” section below.].
Upon the student's completion of these requirements, the faculty examiner for each of the student's fields will evaluate the relevant field section of the student's portfolio, submitting a detailed written assessment to the student, the student's major advisor, and the DGS. Upon receipt of faculty assessments of all sections of the portfolio, the student's major advisor will review the portfolio in its entirety, including the dissertation prospectus and intellectual agenda, at which point he or she will notify the student, other committee members, and the DGS as to whether the student may proceed to the oral examination.
The student's entire committee will participate in the two-hour oral discussion of the prelim portfolio. In addition to field examiners, students may wish to include on the committees additional members whose involvement may be limited to their teaching material or to the dissertation prospectus. Although the committee may wish to explore the relationship among the student's different fields as well as the student's overall historical vision or larger intellectual agenda during the oral, the dissertation prospectus will be the primary focus in most cases. While ordinarily it is expected that a student whose portfolio has been pre-approved will pass on to the dissertation stage, graduate school regulations preclude the history department from offering any assurances that students have passed their preliminary examination until the oral examination has actually occurred. Therefore, it is only at the close of the oral that the preliminary examination committee may decide whether the student has passed or failed their preliminary examination. Success is expected, but failure, although regarded as unlikely, may also be the result.
Timeline:
One of the advantages of the portfolio system is that all work (potentially) “counts” towards the prelim. Students will begin assembling their portfolios during their first year in the program, which is to say before they have finalized their choice of fields or faculty examiners. The process of organizing and reorganizing the material they are producing in classes and in independent studies should help students identify their prelim fields and examiners in a timelier manner. Though fields are intended to be subject-oriented, exceptional work of any sort that demonstrates the student's quality of mind or acquisition of relevant skills may also be included in the portfolio.
Students and examiners should agree upon the expected content of each field section of the portfolio when the faculty member agrees to examine the student (i. e. during the student's first two years in the program) and they should meet to discuss the student's progress as elements of their field section are completed.
Most of the portfolio's contents will have been produced during the student's first two years in the program. Students typically will have written at least three historiographical essays or the equivalent (annotated bibliographies and/or series of book reviews) during their first year in their program. All students are required to take two research seminars in which they will produce two research papers. Students will also produce two undergraduate course syllabi as well as a videotaped lecture in History 303.
At the end of the second year, students will present their reading lists and all work completed to date to the members of their committee. Students will also indicate the courses they are planning to take during their third year and what they expect to produce therein. Each field examiner will inform the student in writing of any revisions or additional material they would like to see displayed in their field's section of the portfolio as soon as possible and no later than September 1st. This communication between faculty and student will take the form of a contract, which the faculty examiner will sign and submit for DGS approval, at the beginning of the third year. After this point, faculty may not request additional material, although they may suggest that material submitted after this point (that produced in third year courses) be revised.
The third year will be largely devoted to the dissertation prospectus, to writing any synthetic essays [Faculty examiners may still pose the kinds of questions asked in the previous preliminary exam format, in answer to which questions students will write broad synthetic essays. These essays, however, will not be produced under the time constraints of the “exam” format.] required by field examiners, and to the revision of any material in the portfolio required by faculty examiners. Revisions may be requested in order to bring substandard work up to par or, conversely in the case of already excellent work, to submit for publication.
Students must complete at least one field section of their portfolio by the end of the fall semester of their third year. Most students will complete a draft of their dissertation prospectus in HST 304S, and distribute this to all members of their committee at that time in preparation for spring defense.
All students must submit a draft prospectus to all members of their committee at least three months before the portfolio defense. The remaining field sections of the portfolio must be submitted to all committee members no later than four weeks before the scheduled exam.
All field supervisors must submit a detailed written assessment of their field to the student and to other committee members two weeks after they receive the student's material. A final version of a dissertation prospectus and an intellectual agenda must be distributed to all committee members atleast two weeks before the portfolio defense.
Fields:
Not all fields are created equal. The contents of the different field sections of a student's portfolio will vary considerably in breadth and depth, depending upon whether a field is a major field, minor field, or outside field. Students are required to submit one major field, one (or two) minor field(s), and one outside field.
Major fields: should be defined along the lines of an undergraduate survey course or job listing in Perspectives. This is the primary teaching field, the field in which the student is most likely to be applying for jobs.
Examples of Major fields: |
Modern Britain 1688-present |
US History |
Modern Latin America and the Caribbean |
Medieval Europe |
Minor fields: These fields are specializations within the broader major field or closely related to it. In consultation with their advisors, students will decide whether they need to prepare one or two minor fields. Examples of minor fields for each of the major fields above:
Major fields 1 |
Modern Britain 1688-present |
US History |
Modern Latin America and the Caribbean |
Medieval Europe |
Minor field 2a |
British Empire |
US South |
Afro-Latin American and Caribbean history |
The Crusades |
Minor field 2b |
|
US Labor History |
Venezuela |
|
Outside fields: will be significantly different from the major field and minor field/s in chronological period, geographical location, or discipline. These fields may provide comparative perspective or follow transnational connections. These fields may also provide interdisciplinary perspective or methodological training.
Examples of a full slate of fields, some with three and some with four fields:
Major fields 1 |
Modern Britain 1688-present |
US History |
Modern Latin America and Caribbean |
Medieval Europe |
Minor field 2a |
British Empire |
US South |
Afro Latin America and Caribbean |
The Crusades |
Minor field 2b |
|
US Labor |
Venezuela |
|
Outside field 3 |
Colonial Africa |
Pre-colonial Africa |
African American Women |
History of Islam |
Summary Portfolio Requirements:
Every portfolio will contain
1. thematically organized reading lists displaying the chronological, geographical, and topical contours of each of the student's fields [These lists may be partially annotated should the student choose or the faculty examiner require. However, students cannot be required to annotate more than fifty entries on a major list field, twenty entries on a minor field list, or ten entries on an outside field list.]
2. at least one and no more than four historiographic essays (the equivalent in scope and length of a published review article in a journal)
3. at least one and no more than two research papers (the equivalent in scope and length of a research based journal article)
4. at least one and no more than five book reviews (along the lines of those published in scholarly journals)
5. one grant proposal
6. teaching material
7. the dissertation prospectus
8. the intellectual agenda
How these materials are distributed across the students' fields will vary, depending upon the kinds of courses offered in different fields, as will the amount of material in each field section of the portfolio, depending upon whether a field is the student's major, minor, or outside field. The contents of outside fields will be considerably less than that submitted for major and minor fields. An outside field may be represented by a single essay written for a class or independent study or an essay written in the third year that describes how the field or discipline in question illuminates the student's intellectual agenda.
In addition to the required material listed above, faculty examiners may ask students to write synthetic essays displaying a more comprehensive view of a field than is typically evidenced in papers written for more narrowly focused courses or independent studies [These essays would be similar to those currently submitted as written exams, but the student would not have to work under the present time constraints.]. This requirement must be stipulated in the contract between the student and examiner submitted at the beginning of the third year, with the question or topic fully described therein. Students may not be required to produce more than two such essays (of no more than three thousand words each) for any one field.
Students may also include an appendix of additional material, such as conference papers, op ed or other journalistic interventions relating to their historical expertise, public history contributions, visual material, etc.; anything in short that they believe reflects favorably on their scholarly or teaching potential [Our hope is that the portfolio will be of continuing use to the student; that the student will view the portfolio as a resource in which the student will continue to deposit any material they might wish to submit with job applications or that they might utilize for course preparation, research and the like.].
This appendix may also include exemplary material produced in course work or elsewhere on topics outside the geographical or temporal parameters of the student's prelim fields.
Portfolio approval/Prelim (ABD) Certification
A. Each field section of the portfolio must be approved by the committee member designated by the student as the examiner for that field. This approval will take the form of a written evaluation, signed by the faculty examiner and submitted to the DGS and committee chair [Successful completion of the preliminary examination requires at least three affirmative votes and no more than one negative vote. The sole exception to this policy is that a negative vote cast by the chair of the examining committee will mean a failure on the examination. A student who fails the preliminary examination may apply, with the consent of the full supervisory committee and Dean of the Graduate School , for the privilege of a second examination to be taken no earlier than three months after the date of the first. Successful completion of the second examination requires the affirmative vote of all committee members. Failure on the second examination will render a student ineligible to continue a program for the Ph.D. degree at Duke University .” ( Graduate School )].
1. If a faculty examiner refuses to approve his/her field section of the portfolio
a. the student may proceed to the oral discussion of the prospectus if this is a fourth field and the other three fields have been approved by their examiners and the committee chair. TP
b. the student may substitute another faculty examiner (which may or may not require redefining the field) if time permits [At least three months before the defense, the student must complete the Graduate School 's Preliminary Committee Approval Form (available from the Assistant to the DGS), and return it for forwarding to Allen Building . The Associate Dean of the Graduate School must approve the Committee listed on this form at least two months before the defense, and any changes in the committee require the completion and approval of the same form again. ( Graduate School ).].
2. If more than one faculty examiner refuses to approve his or her field's portfolio, the student has the option of convening the entire committee to appeal the decision/s and to defend orally his or her preparation to proceed to the dissertation phase of the program. If the student fails the oral, the student will be allowed to reschedule the exam only if the entire committee supports this recommendation (pending approval of the Graduate Dean).
B. When the entire portfolio has been approved (as will continue to happen in the vast majority of cases) in writing, the student will schedule the oral discussion.
1. This must be done no later than April 7th for students pursuing certification in spring semester and no later than November 20 P th P for students pursuing certification in the fall.
2. Please note that students who fail to defend their portfolio by the end of their third year risk not being allowed to continue in the program. Permission to schedule an oral in the fall of their fourth year will be granted in exceptional circumstances only [“Ordinarily a student registered for full-time study should pass the preliminary examination by the end of the third year. A student who has not passed the examination by this time must file with the Dean of the Graduate School a statement, approved by the Director of Graduate School in the major department, explaining the delay and setting a date for the examination. Except under unusual circumstances, extension will not be granted beyond the middle of the fourth year.” ( Graduate School ).].