With some 130 graduate students and nearly 60 faculty members, the Department of History is home to one of the oldest, most distinguished, and most comprehensive graduate programs in the U.S., renowned for its long and valued tradition of collegiality and openness. We offer separate graduate degrees in History and in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology. All told, our internationally recognized faculty has been mentoring distinguished historians since 1893.
Our degree program in History is designed to meet the needs of the Ph.D. candidate, and we offer funding only to students who intend to pursue the Ph.D. However, we also welcome applications from students who wish to earn only the M.A. if they have external funding or are self-funded.
Graduate training in the History degree program is organized by primary fields of study. Although most of our students are trained in a single field of study, students whose research interests span more than one field have the option to craft an individual plan of study.
We offer the following primary fields of study in the History degree program:
- African History
- East Asian History
- European HistoryAncient, Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern
- Latin American and Caribbean History
- Middle East and North African History
- South Asian History
- Southeast Asian History
- U.S./North American History
Within their primary field of study, students also have the opportunity to organize their studies thematically. Our facultys special thematic strengths are in:
- Borderlands and diasporas
- Environmental history
- Gender and Womens History, Program in
- History of Science, Medicine, and Technology
- Intellectual and cultural history
- Jewish History, Program in
- Labor and political economy
- Race, ethnicity, and indigeneity
- Religion and ritual
- War in Society and Culture Program
Our faculty train resourceful researchers, committed teachers, and engaged public intellectuals. We offer a rigorous course of study that combines independent and collaborative work and that emphasizes scholarly and intellectual connectedness. The department strongly supports the Wisconsin Idea, the principle that education should influence and improve people's lives beyond the university classroom. For more than 100 years, this idea has guided the university's work. Students pursue a variety of careers, both inside and outside the academy.
Other Degree Options include:
This academic partnership designed is to allow students to complete the M.A. in Afro-American Studies and the Ph.D. in History. It enables the Afro-American Studies student who specializes in the History area to meet the basic requirements of the History M.A. while completing a degree in Afro-American Studies. Students may apply simultaneously to the two departments or may apply to the Department of History after they begin their program in the Department of Afro-American Studies, usually in the fall of the first or second M.A. year.
For details, see The Bridge Program or contact the graduate program coordinator.
Students who wish to obtain a joint Ph.D. in History and the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology are initially admitted to one of the degree programs, and should indicate interest in the joint Ph.D. program at that time. After completion of a masters degree in History or History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, the student applies for admission to the other degree program and, at the same time, to a standing committee of the two programs for admission to the joint program.
Having been admitted to the other degree program and to the joint Ph.D. program, the student then applies to the Graduate School for approval of the joint Ph.D. (See the Graduate School's academic policy regarding joint degrees for more information and deadlines.) The students application to the standing committee should take the same form as required by the Graduate School and should be prepared in close consultation with department faculty/staff.
Students in the joint Ph.D. program are assigned a home degree program and follow the regulations of that degree program with regard to seminar requirements, language requirements, financial aid, and regulations for satisfactory progress. Since the joint Ph.D. meets the doctoral minor requirement of the Graduate School, no formal minor is required of students receiving a joint Ph.D. However, students who wish to have a minor field recorded on the transcript may complete a regular Option A or Option B minor, or the internal minor of the department.
The joint Ph.D. students work is supervised by a committee consisting of three faculty members (two from the home degree program). The preliminary examinations test the students competence in both history and history of science, medicine, and technology, balancing the material and fields between the two departments (e.g. two in each, or three in one and two in the other). The number of prelim fields must equal the number required of students majoring exclusively in history or in history of science, medicine, and technology, plus one. Preparation of the Ph.D. dissertation is guided by the student's supervising committee. Satisfactory completion and defense of the dissertation constitute the final requirements for the joint Ph.D. degree.
History degree program students who wish to pursue a joint Ph.D. (one degree, two majors) with another degree program must first be admitted to the other degree program. The proposal for the degree must be approved by the Department of History's Graduate Council before it is submitted to the Graduate School. Students admitted to a joint Ph.D. will satisfy all the normal requirements of their field in History except the minor requirement.
For more information on joint Ph.D. options, please contact the graduate program coordinator.