The Ph.D. is intended to prepare students for professional careers in historical research. In this department, all Ph.D. students specialize in U.S. history / colonial America. Students with a particularly strong secondary field outside of U.S. history may write dissertations that involve comparative studies of U.S. history / colonial America.
Before writing any dissertation, Ph.D. students must demonstrate competence in reading a foreign language, then pass a set of written and oral comprehensive examinations.

