United States: Research and Teaching
Teaching Opportunities at the University of Chicago
The Americanists place particular emphasis on training for teaching. We try to insure that every U.S. history graduate student can work with a faculty member as a teaching intern in at least one quarter of our three-quarter America in Western Civilization course, which is part of the College Core. These internships usually occur during the third year in the program, and are funded as teaching assistantships. The American Civ course is a documents-based discussion course taught in sections of 22-25 students; interns work closely with faculty to plan and conduct discussions and evaluate assignments. A successful internship qualifies graduate students to teach their own independent sections of the course as lecturers; in most years, 5 of the 12 sections of American Civ are taught by advanced graduate students. There are sometimes also opportunities to teach American Civ sections during the summer quarter.
The History Department's von Holst Prize Lectureships, four of which are awarded competitively each year, give students a chance to teach an undergraduate course of their own design; in most years, Americanists teach two such courses. Recent U.S. history von Holst courses include "The City in American Culture, 1800-1999," "American Frontiers & Borderlands", and "American Medical History from the Colonial to the Progressive Era." Americanists have also been successful in the competition for Collegiate-Divisional Teaching Research Fellowship, which offers two fellowships to history graduate students every year.
Opportunities are also frequently available for U.S. history students to assist in lecture courses when undergraduate enrollments are large enough to justify a T.A. In recent years, up to ten U.S. history courses a year have required T.A.s. Graduate students also serve as History Department preceptors, acting as program advisors and directing B.A. thesis seminars; in most years at least two of the preceptors are Americanists. Americanists can also find teaching positions outside the department, as tutors in the College's writing program and instructors in its Little Red Schoolhouse, for example, or as preceptors in the Social Science Division's Master of Arts in Political and Social Science program. U.S. History students also T.A. in the College's Environmental Studies Program, and have occasionally taught their own Environmental History lecture course. Americanists also fairly regularly design and teach courses in the University's Graham School of General Studies. Recently, they have taught courses such as "Religion & the Origins of American Politics" in the history department and "Introduction to Sexuality" for gender studies.
U. S. History students who have received their Ph.D.s from the Department within the last five years have held an average of .5 T.A. positions and .8 lectureships, with the combined totals ranging from 0 to 4.
Teaching Opportunities in the Chicago Area
The Chicago area also affords numerous other possibilities for gaining additional teaching experience with a broad range of student abilities. U.S. history grads in recent years have done adjunct teaching at Columbia College, Lake Forest College, Roosevelt University, and DePaul University.
Research and Dissertation Funding
Americanists often find that they have fewer opportunities for year-long dissertation research grants than students whose projects require them to spend significant time abroad where the funding needs are more obvious. Nevertheless, our students have been quite successful in gaining support for their research. Two History Department funds, the Freehling and the Mann, support summer and short-term research in U.S. history; a third fund, the Barnard, provides one U.S. history student each year with partial support for dissertation write-up. U.S. history students can also apply for other departmental and extra-departmental awards. In recent years Americanists received funding from the University's Doolittle Research Travel Fellowship, the Social Sciences Division, the Center for Gender Studies, and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture.
U.S. history students have also been notably successful in gaining outside support for dissertation research and writing. They have recently received awards from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and various universities.