Graduate Study at Chicago
From its 1892 establishment as one of the founding departments
of the University of Chicago, the History Department's attention has focused
on programs leading to the Ph.D. degree in a broad range of fields of study .
At Chicago you will find an academic environment in which basic research
on the history of culture and societies throughout the world thrives,
nurtured within the University's rich tradition of intellectual distinction
and rigor.
Theoretically sophisticated comparative and interdisciplinary approaches are a hallmark of the Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago. Along with graduate fields organized by traditional regional, national, and chronological boundaries, the History Department offers a comprehensive range of interdisciplinary, theoretical, and comparative fields of study. We strongly encourage students to take courses outside of History and to compose one of their three oral fields in a comparative discipline. An equally distinctive part of our program are the interdisciplinary workshops and special conferences that bring together students and faculty from throughout the University for intellectual exchange.
The History Department at Chicago is unique in affirmatively seeking a graduate program sufficiently large to sustain research and reading courses and a diversity of student cohorts in multiple fields - a structure that is vital to the Department's intellectual life. The History Department expects to welcome about thirty-five new graduate students each year. They are broadly distributed by field and backgrounds; perhaps a fifth arrive from outside the United States. The Department's distinguished faculty of forty-seven works in close concert with students in the graduate seminars, colloquia, and tutorials that form the core of advanced training at Chicago. It is here, in intense interaction with faculty and fellow students, that individual interests and the professional skills of the historian are honed. As in any history program, a student is expected to learn to read critically, search out and analyze primary materials with skill, and to write with rigor. At Chicago, we also expect that students will demonstrate through their own creativity a significant advancement in the field itself.
The University of Chicago calls itself a "teacher of teachers." The History Department proudly accepts this title. An intensive teaching internship program prepares post-orals students for a range of teaching assistantships and more independent teaching opportunities for advanced graduate students. The Department supports graduate student research and conference travel, sponsors workshops on professional issues, and maintains a strong placement program. In recent years Chicago has consistently ranked first among American graduate history programs in academic placements of recent Ph.D.s.
The History Department's vibrant graduate student community participates in departmental committees, supports an active graduate student professional and social organization, and maintains student-run workshops on historiographical, teaching, and dissertation-writing issues.
Students uncertain of their professional focus or interested in the study of history at the master's level only should request information on the divisional Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS). This innovative one-year program permits master's work with History Department faculty within a context of interdisciplinary social science training, individualized curriculum, and intensive counseling for subsequent employment or further study. M.A. programs in International Relations, Latin American Studies, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies also welcome applicants with historical interests.
The University, Hyde Park, and Chicago
The University of Chicago was established in 1892 with an endowment from John D. Rockefeller for a multipurpose research university bearing the name of the city. It has become one of the world's leading research institutions and a leader in graduate education. Unlike most other research universities, where undergraduates far outnumber graduate students, some 9,000 of the University's 13,000 students are enrolled in graduate and professional degree programs. This allows the University of Chicago to combine the advantages of manageable scale with the resources needed to sustain its distinction as a center for graduate study comparable in size to much larger private and state institutions, including one of the nation's leading university libraries with over 6 million volumes and 8 million non-book items. The University is located in Hyde Park, a politically independent and racially diverse neighborhood fifteen minutes from the Loop, the heart of downtown Chicago. Students have ready access to Chicago's outstanding cultural, leisure, and athletic events, and its rich array of research institutions. The University is less than a mile from the beaches, biking and jogging trails, and picnic areas of the Lake Michigan shore.