History
For a complete statement of regulations regarding graduate work in the Department of History, candidates should refer to “Higher Degrees in History” in the Programs of Study publication. An offprint of “Higher Degrees in History” is available from the Department of History.
The First Two Years
Coursework
• During the first two years of graduate study in history at Harvard, the candidate must take at least nine half-courses, chosen in consultation with his or her faculty advisor. Of these half-courses, at least six must be in history, and of these six halfcourses, two must be research seminars in history with letter grades. A minimum grade of B is required in each course with the exception of “The Writing of History: Approaches and Practices” in the fall term of his or her first full year of residence, which is given a grade of satisfactory.Languages
• Candidates admitted to graduate study in history will be required to show a satisfactory reading knowledge of at least two foreign languages. They must take at least one departmental language examination in September of their first year of study, and the second in January of that year. All language requirements must be fulfilled prior to the General Examination. (Refer to “Higher Degrees in History” for a listing of language requirements by field of history, and further regulations regarding the timing of the language examinations.)Policy on Incompletes
• It is expected that students will ordinarily complete coursework in the term of enrollment in the course. For the GSAS rules regarding Incompletes, see Chapter V, Grade and Examination Requirements of this handbook. Incompletes are not permitted in any course (unless the student has a certified medical excuse).Advising
• When applying, students often make quite explicit statements regarding their research interests and the faculty with whom they wish to work. Based on this information, students are assigned an advisor with whom they consult from the point of initial enrollment. The advisor must approve the student’s plans of study in the first four terms, and is often the chair of both the general examination and dissertation committees. Effecting a change of advisors typically involves conversations with both the new advisor and the original advisor. Once an agreement has been reached, the coordinator of graduate studies must be informed. The advisor must ordinarily be a permanent member of the department.Master of Arts (AM)
The Department of History admits candidates for the PhD only. The AM is ordinarily awarded to candidates for the PhD after they have met the coursework requirements outlined above, completed two years of academic residence, and have satisfied the language requirements specified for their field of study.General Examinations
The purpose of the general examination is to expand and deepen students’ general historical knowledge, provide them with the tools to conduct research in history, and prepare them to teach. The examination is composed of four fields; the candidate is examined orally in each field for thirty minutes, so that the entire examination occupies two hours.Guidelines for constructing fields
• Field definitions should be constructed with the guidance of the candidate’s advisor and individual examiners and must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Fields may be defined temporally within regions, nations or empires (e.g., Byzantine Empire, colonial Latin America, China since 1800) or thematically or comparatively (e.g., European intellectual history, comparative empires, comparative gender history, diasporic histories). Within each field, an encyclopedic knowledge of detail is not expected, but the candidate should demonstrate familiarity with the important problems and substantial mastery of the basic literature in each field.• Since the purpose of the general examination is to achieve breadth of knowledge, the selection of the four fields should be made with the aim of achieving range across time and space. Students are required to include an early and a modern field (with chronological coverage suitable to the particular regional frame). It is strongly recommended that all students present a field that includes a region of the world beyond their area of specialization
• a) Students whose main pursuit is European history will ordinarily cover three of the following four periods in their choice of fields: Ancient, Medieval, Early modern, Modern. If one examination field is outside the history of both Europe and the United States, however, fields in two of these temporal periods will suffice.
b) Students whose main pursuit is United States history will ordinarily cover fields in the U.S. to 1815 and the U.S. since 1815. If one additional examination field is outside the history of both Europe and the United States, these two fields will suffice for temporal diversity.
c) It is strongly recommended that students in Asian, African, Latin American or Middle Eastern history, in addition to the early and modern fields in their area of specialization, present at least one field outside these areas, or an international or comparative field.
d) Students are permitted to present a field outside the history department comparable in scope to departmental fields.
e) A candidate may not present more than two fields in a single national history.
Preparation for examinations
• Candidates prepare for General Examinations both by taking graduate seminars and by arranging for reading courses (History 3010) with the faculty members who will serve as examiners in the several fields. Faculty members may conduct History 3010 either as individual tutorials or as small-group discussions (when several students are simultaneously preparing similar fields for examination). The four fields are prepared with four different faculty members, one of whom is ordinarily the primary advisor.Examiners
• Candidates may select a faculty member at the assistant professor level or above and must consult the Graduate Coordinator if proposing to select a faculty member outside the University.Extensions
• The examination is taken late in the fourth term. Candidates may petition the Director of Graduate Studies for extension to the fifth term. The last possible extension, to the sixth term, requires a petition to the Director, subject to the approval of the Department. Candidates make examination arrangements with the Graduate Coordinator.Evaluation
• A candidate’s advisor ordinarily chairs the examination committee. The candidate determines the order of fields to be examined. At the conclusion of the examination, the chair will ask the candidate to wait outside the room while the committee deliberates. The candidate will be informed directly after the examination whether he orshe has passed, and the Department will follow up with official notification. The grade is final. The overall grade may be requested from the Graduate Coordinator one month after the examination date.
Interpretation of the Final Grade
• The passing final grades are Excellent, Good, or Fair, and a plus or minus can be attached to each grade. A candidate can be failed with no bar to reexamination, or failed without the possibility of reexamination. If one fails the General Examination with no bar to reexamination, he or she will be allowed to take the examination a second time in the fifth or sixth term. The mark of Excellent is rare and represents an exceptional performance. A mark of Good shows a solid grasp of the historiography and problems of each field, with no significant weaknesses, although varying (Good Plus to Good Minus) in articulateness. A mark of Fair indicates significant weaknesses in at least some fields, and some difficulty in articulating historiography and problems.• The grade does not become public record; it is held internally by the Department, not by the Registrar. It is used when assessing departmental nominations for Harvard fellowships, but will not be a part of the candidate’s dossier for applying for academic positions.