History of American Civilization
History of American Civilization
Harvard’s doctoral program in American Civilization emphasizes interdisciplinary study within a broad historical framework. Students have the opportunity to study with faculty from many departments in the University while completing core requirements that emphasize classic works in American studies as well as emerging themes and methods. The program is governed by a faculty committee drawn from the Departments of African and African American Studies, English and American Literature and Language, Government, History, History of Art and Architecture, History of Science, Music, and Sociology. The committee also includes professors from the Graduate Schools of Business, Design, Divinity, Education, Government, and Law.
Requirements for the Degree
Academic Residence
A minimum of two years of full-time study (16 half-courses or equivalent). Normally a student is not permitted to engage in parttime study prior to the General Examination.
For the financial residence requirement, see the Prospective Students page.
Program of Study
The interdepartmental nature and purposes of the program require that students cut across departments in selecting courses. However, to ensure a coherent program of study, they should plan their schedules in consultation with the program chair.
All students are required to enroll in the Colloquium in American Civilization during the fall term of their first and second years. Among their courses students should include two courses in a coherent field from outside the United States (e.g., English literature; Latin American history; comparative gender).
In the course of their residence, all students will take two seminars. These seminars should be taken from among the offerings of two different departments. Normally the student will take one seminar in each term of the first year of residence.
The remainder of the student’s program (lecture courses, reading courses, and, with the approval of the chair, TIME) will consist of work in fields appropriate to the student’s general examination. (See under Examinations.) Reading courses and TIME are ordinarily not part of a student’s program until the second term of the second year. If such courses are taken earlier, 11 half-courses (lectures, conference courses, and seminars) must be completed by the end of the fourth term. All coursework and language requirements must be met before taking the oral exam. All programs must be approved by the chair.
Languages
Candidates for the degree must have a reading knowledge of two of the following languages: French, German, Spanish. Other languages relevant to the student’s program may be substituted with the permission of the student’s adviser and the Chair. No student may take the General Examination until the language requirements have been met.
The student must fulfill language requirements by passing two examinations given by the History Department or the English Department; and in case of a substitution, by passing an equivalent examination in a language department. Fellowships for developing language fluency are available for the summer between the first and the second year. Students are also encouraged to enroll in at least one course for credit in which advanced work with texts in other languages is undertaken.
One language examination must be passed in the course of the student’s first year of residence. Students who fail to do so may be denied continuation in the program.
Students who have one language requirement unfulfilled at the beginning of their second year of residence must pass a history or English department language examination in September of their second year. If they do not pass the language examination, they must enroll in an approved language course and pass a history or English department language exam in January.
Grade Requirements
Students must maintain a grade average of B+ or better in each year of graduate work. Each student must do work of A or A- level in at least one seminar.
Examinations
Students must pass a two-hour oral examination conducted by four members of the faculty no later than the end of September in their third year. One hour of that exam will be devoted to the student’s major field, and one half-hour each to two minor fields.
The major field must cover the full chronological sweep in a single discipline such as history, literature, law, or musicology. Normally, there will be two examiners in the major field. They may divide the field chronologically or thematically as long as there is full coverage of themes central to teaching and scholarship in the discipline.
Minor fields should be chosen from two areas of study distinct from the major field. A minor field may be defined chronologically or thematically as long as it covers a significant range of material, minimally a century. For example, a student whose major field is American literature and whose primary area of interest is 19th-century fiction, might prepare one minor field in 19th-century US history and another in 19th-century music. Or, a student whose major field is US history, and who plans to write a dissertation on race relations in the 1930s, might prepare a minor field in American protest literature over time and another in African American studies.
Field preparation should be seen as laying a broad foundation for future teaching and scholarship rather than as specific preparation for writing a dissertation. Although the program will supply guidelines, students should work closely with individual faculty in selecting courses appropriate to their fields and in designing reading lists for oral exams. In the semester before taking exams, they should submit their reading lists to the committee for approval.
If a student fails the oral examination, and the examining committee agrees that the student may retake it, the committee will set a date (not earlier than six months after the date of the first examination) by which the second examination must be taken.
Dissertation
After the general examination has been passed, the student will select a dissertation topic and arrange for dissertation advisors. The choice of a topic and advisors must be submitted to the committee for approval. Students must also submit a draft of the dissertation prospectus to their primary advisor no later than April 1 in their third year. The dissertation should be characterized by a familiarity with the historical treatment of two or more fields in the program. Before the end of May of their third year the student will present at a conference at which a discussion of the prospectus will take place before faculty and students in the program. Upon completion of one substantial chapter, and upon recommendation of the advisors, students defend the finished part of the work as well as an outline for the completion of the dissertation in front of an audience consisting of faculty and students in the program as well as a broader academic public.
Any candidate for the degree who has not submitted a completed dissertation within five years after passing the general examination will be withdrawn unless, prior to the deadline, the candidate presents evidence that the dissertation can be finished within a specified extension and therefore receives an extension from the committeee.
The final dissertation manuscript should conform to the requirements described in The Form of the PhD Dissertation.
Dissertation Review
- Students entering the program will defend their dissertation. The review committee will consist of the student's dissertation committee plus one additional member drawn from the American Civilization program, a Harvard Department, or from outside the university.
- The Student should submit the final draft of the dissertation to her/his committee no later than two months before the Registrar's deadline for final submission. The student will inform the American Civilization administrator that the draft has been submitted, and the administrator will gain the approval of the dissertation director before scheduling the review, The dissertation review will normally occur not later than April 15 for a May degree, not later than September 15 for a November degree, and not later than Devember 15 for a March degree.
- The review itself will last 90 minutes. It will begin with a five to ten minute presentation, in which the student will offer an overview of the dissertation's thesis, method, argument, and findings. The candidate will also offer her/his assessment of the work's contributions to scholarship and indicate areas in which feedback is sought. Following this brief presentation, each committee member will offer approximately five to ten minutes of comment, during or after which a conversation will ensue, the objective of which is to indicate the dissertation's strengths and weaknesses and provide advice for publication. The committee may require minor revisions that can be completed quickly, before the registrar's submission deadline.
- Once the dissertation has been successfully defended, members of the dissertation committee will sign the dissertation acceptance certificate. The dissertation director will then write a report, ranging from a paragraph to a few pages, which summarizes the discussions of the review committee. The reports shall be sent to the student with a copy to the American Civilization administrator, ideally no later than two weeks after the review.
- Upon successful defense of the dissertation, the student must submit one bound and one unbound copy of the dissertation to the FAS Registrar, plus one bound copy to the American Civilization Program office. it is additionally suggested that and inexpensively bound copy of the final version be given to the dissertation director.
*This requirement is for all students in the program filing for the PhD degree after May, 2009. A student may petition to have the dissertation review waived for reasons of hardship.
Recent PhD Dissertation Titles
“Mastering Emotions: The Emotional Politics of Slavery,” Erin Dwyer (2012)
“Skeletons in the American Attic: Curiosity, Science and the Appropriation of the American Indian Past,” Judy Kertesz (2012)
“Recovering Green in Bronzeville: An Environmental and Cultural History of the African American Great Migration to Chicago, 1915–1940,” Brian McCammack (2012)
“From Memory to Mastery: Accounting for Control in America, 1750–1880,” Caitlin Clare Rosenthal (2012)
“Snowshoe Country: Indians, Colonists, and Winter Spaces of Power in the Northeast, 1620–1727,” Thomas Wickman (2012)
“Savage Preservation: Race, Culture,and the Making of Modern Media” Brian Hochman (2011)
“American Whaling in Culture and Memory, 1820–1930,” Jamie Lynn Jones (2011)
“The American System in the World Depression, 1932–1941: The Case of the Coffee Trade,” Augustine Sedgewick (2011)
“‘These Teenagers are Not Delinquent’: The Rhetoric of Maturity for Evangelical Young Adults, 1945–1965,” Eliza Barstow (2010)
“Object Lessons in American Culture,” Sarah Carter (2010)
“Walking Where Jesus Walked: American Christian Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Post-War Period,” Hillary Kaell (2010)
“To the Heart of Europe: Americanism, the Salzburg Seminar, and Cultural Diplomacy,” George Holt Blaustein, Jr. (2010)
“Like Me: Identity Immersion Journalism and the Dilemmas of Self-Making,” Sara Karpel Gebhardt (2010)
“Politics of Property: Urban Democracy in the Age of Capital, Boston 1865–1900,” Noam Maggor (2010)
Further information regarding study in the History of American Civilization Program may be obtained by contacting:
Arthur Patton-Hock
Administrative Director of the American Civilization Program
12 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Telephone: (617) 495-3325
e-mail:
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www.fas.harvard.edu/~amciv/
Applications for admission and financial aid may be obtained from the Admissions Office, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Holyoke Center 350, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. We encourage online submission of the application.