History Graduate Student Association
History graduate students maintain a distinctive tradition of volunteering personal and professional support for their colleagues within the department. Organized as the History Graduate Student Association (HGSA) in 1990, we orient new students, enhance community social life, serve as student advocates on departmental committees, and bring faculty and students together to discuss professional issues. We play an indispensable role in helping the department develop and maintain a culture in keeping with the best tradition and promise of the academy by addressing issues of common concern, including the nature and structure of the graduate and undergraduate programs; the hiring of new faculty; the availability of teaching within the department and the college for graduate students; professional development of graduate students and faculty as teachers, researchers, and responsible members of academic institutions; and, last but not least, the successful placement of Chicago History Ph.D.s in a difficult job market. Graduate students volunteer to serve on a number of committees, providing input for departmental decision making on its most practical level. A call for volunteers is issued during spring quarter.
- HGSA Representatives
- Student Coordinators
- Graduate Student Affairs Committee
- Collegiate Affairs Committee
- Search Committees
- Student-Sponsored Activities
History Graduate Student Association Representatives
History Graduate Student Association Representatives serve as liaisons between students, faculty, and department administrators. They assist with orientation of incoming students, initiate social events and professional workshops, and sponsor student forums. HGSA Representatives are available as a sounding board for graduate student concerns and can also answer questions on an informal basis about who or where to go with particular problems and questions. Students volunteer each spring to serve as HGSA representatives during the following academic year. They meet with the Department Chairperson, plan and keep track of a HGSA budget funded by the Social Sciences Finance Committee (SSFC), attend quarterly SSFC meetings, and represent students at the annual faculty priorities meeting.
All graduate students are welcome to submit questions, ideas,
and concerns to the HGSA Academic Chairs by sending an email
to histconcerns@listhost.uchicago.edu. A locked "suggestion
box" is also available on the third floor of the Social
Sciences building, next to the graduate student mail folders.
Emails and suggestions will be addressed at the monthly HGSA
meetings.
Graduate Student Affairs Committee
The role of the Graduate Student Affairs Committee is broadly defined as caring for graduate student needs. This includes formulating policies with regard to the graduate program, making funding decisions for students at the end of the academic year, advising first- and second-year students on their programs, and dealing with particular problems of graduate students, generally through the petition process. Students who have suggestions for the Committee can first contact a student representative, or Kelly Pollock, the Graduate Affairs Administrator. Graduate students who sit on the Committee have no role in evaluating other graduate students or in particular funding decisions. Student representatives are particularly involved in developing, in conjunction with the faculty, prospective core experiences and courses within the department.
The student representatives for 2007-2008 are Miranda Johnson (International History) and Anthony Todd (United States History).
The Collegiate Affairs Committee selects graduate student preceptors (who serve as concentration advisors for undergraduates) and Von Holst lecturers. The Committee also formulates requirements and curriculum and decides which undergraduate concentrators receive departmental honors. The graduate student reps play no role in the hiring of other graduate students, but do participate in all other committee activities.
Search Committees
The Department Chair appoints an ad hoc search committee when there is a search for new faculty. A Search Committee is composed of History faculty and includes a graduate student representative. The graduate student is generally an advanced student whose research is in the same field being considered by the search. The Search Committee Chair will contact an appropriate student directly to see if she or he wishes to volunteer to join the committee.
Orientation Week Party
History students host a kick-off party to welcome their incoming colleagues before classes start. Don’t miss it.
Student Mentors
Students are encouraged to take advantage of the mentor program, which pairs new graduate students with advanced students for advice and guidance on writing seminar papers and making your way through the first year.
Professional Issues Program
Students coordinate a series of workshops throughout the year on a variety of topics. The Historiography Workshops bring faculty and students together to consider questions defining the historical discipline as well as issues of craft and method. A student-led Research Skills Workshop addresses academic time management, fellowship and grant applications, working in local or foreign archives and libraries, technology for historical research, dissertation planning, and the transition from student to professional. Faculty members are invited to discuss their pedagogical styles in Teaching Skills Workshops. Orals and Dissertation Workshops help students prepare for these academic milestones.
Happy Hours
On selected Fridays, students gather in the student lounge for drinks, snacks, and conversation.
Design Your Own Event
Students are encouraged to sponsor one-time or continuing social or academic events; HGSA reps and work-study students can help facilitate these initiatives. Examples include screenings of foreign films, study breaks, interdisciplinary teas, tours of Chicago landmarks, or discussions of current events.
Winter Gala
See your fellow students in their best clothes and on their worst behavior! The Winter Gala is a student-only carnival where our normally strictly-observed rules of propriety are forsaken for a night of revelry. This is a formal event with a catered dinner, held in Ida Noyes Hall or another campus location. After dinner, students may perform skits in which they mock themselves, their professors (especially), and anything else about their profession they can think of.
Seminar Paper Symposium
This day-long symposium affords first- and second-year students the opportunity to present their seminar papers, for students in different fields the opportunity to discuss each others’ work, and for more advanced students to come and see what newer students are doing. It is unofficially required of first-year students to present a portion of their seminar research. Panels of three or four papers from different seminars are assembled thematically, rather than by time period or region. Each panel is chaired by a more advanced graduate student working on the same theme who ties the papers together with an initial presentation and moderates the discussion. The event includes a catered lunch.
Student Forums
HGSA reps sponsor student forums during winter and spring quarters to plan initiatives, gather feedback, and organize new volunteers for HGSA and departmental committees.
Softball
The Department has fielded teams that competed with great success in the University intramural leagues. Students sponsor an annual student-faculty match and picnic each spring. Watch HistGrad for announcements.