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.

Prerequisites for Admission

A general knowledge of American and European history and literature. Undergraduate study in the history of philosophy, political science, and sociology is recommended.

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 part-time study prior to the General Examination.
For the financial residence requirement, see the GSAS Guide to Admissions and Financial Aid.

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 may be substituted only with the permission of the committee. For example, on the basis of the student’s research interest and work with primary or secondary sources, knowledge of such languages as Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Yiddish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or an American Indian language may replace one of the languages generally required by the Program. 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. Students who have demonstrated fluency in one or more languages will receive a language citation with their PhD degree.

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 pro-gram 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 two substantial chapters 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.

At least one month before the date set by the Graduate School for the deposit of dissertation for the award of the degree in November, in March, or at Commencement in June, the candidate must submit to the dissertation advisors a completed draft of the dissertation for final approval. Ordinarily the course of studies can be completed within six years. Any candidate for the degree who has not submitted a completed dissertation within five years after passing the General Examination will be dropped from candidacy 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 committee. See The Form of the PhD Dissertation.

Recent PhD Dissertation Titles

“An American Type”: The Kikuchi Diaries, A Cultural Biography (1941-1947) by Matthew Manuel Briones (2005)

“Back to the Blanket: The Indian Fiction of Oliver La Farge, John Joseph Mathews, D’Arcy McNickle, Ruth Underhill, and Frank Waters, 1927-1944,” Nancy Elam Squires (2004)

“The Conservative Turn: Lionel Trilling, Whittaker Chambers, and the Lessons of Anti-Stalinism,” Michael Chapman Kimmage (2004)

“Postwar Liberalism and the Origins of Brown v. Board of Education,” Christopher William Schmidt (2004)

“The Nervous American,” Kevin Burke (2006)

“The Inward Fire: A History of Cruelty in Marriage in the Northeastern United States, 1800-1860” Elizabeth Blair Clark (2006)

“The Pirate Nest: The Impact of Piracy on Newport, Rhode Island and Charles Town, South Carolina, 1670-1730,” Mark Gillies Hanna (2006)

“The Birth of Postmodern New York: Gentrification, Postindustrialization, and Race in South Brooklyn, 1950-1980,” Suleiman Osman (2006)

History, Memory, and Myth: Children’s Literature and Classroom Conceptions of the Past,” Sara Lynn Schwebel (2006)

“‘We’re Going Yankee’: American Films, Mexican Nationalism, Transnational Cinema 1917-1935,” Laura Isabel Serna (2006)

Further information regarding study in the History of American Civilization Program may be obtained by writing to the Committee on the History of American Civilization, Barker Center 225, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, (617) 495-3325; This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ; 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, 3rd floor, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. The application may be submitted online; see https://apply.embark.com/grad/Harvard/GSAS .

Members of the Committee on Higher Degrees in the History of American Civilization

Beckert, Sven, Professor of History

Braude, Ann D., Senior Lecturer in American Religious History (Divinity School)

Brooks, Lisa T., Assistant Professor of History and Literature and of Folklore and Mythology

Buell, Lawrence, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature

Chaplin, Joyce, James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History

Cohen, Lizabeth, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies

Cott, Nancy F., Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History

Crawford, Margaret Lee, Professor of Urban Design and Planning Theory (School of Design)

Desan, Christine, Professor of Law (Law School)

Gates, Henry Louis Jr., Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor

Hall, David D, John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History (Divinity School)

Brooks Higginbotham, Evelyn, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies

Hochschild, Jennifer, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard College Professor

Horwitz, Morton J., Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History (Law School)

Johnson, Walter, Professor of History

Kelsey, Robin, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities

Keyssar, Alexander, Matthew W. Stirling, Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy (Kennedy School of Government)

Kloppenberg, James T., David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History, Harvard College Professor

Lepore, Jill, Professor of History

Lowery, Malinda, Assistant Professor of History

McGirr, Lisa, Dunwalke Associate Professor of American History

Mangabeira Unger, Roberto, Roscoe Pound Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Menand, Louis, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English and American Literature and Language

O’Donovan, Susan, Associate Professor of African and African American Studies and of History

Oja, Carol J., William Powell Mason Professor of Music

Reuben, Julie A., Professor of Education (School of Education)

Roberts, Jennifer L., Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Shell, Marc, Irving Babbitt Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of English

Sollors, Werner, Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of African and African American Studies

Sommer, Doris, Ira Jewell Williams Jr. Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures

St. John, Rachel, Assistant Professor of History

Stevens, Jason W., Assistant Professor of English and American Literature and Language

Stauffer, John, Professor of English and American Literature and Language and Professor of African and African American Studies (Chair)

Thatcher Ulrich, Laurel, 300th Anniversary University Professor