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Joint Ph.D. in History
The Department of History offers a
Joint Ph.D. degree in association with a partner institution abroad.
Program Requirements:
History: Joint Ph.D.
Admission Requirements, Retention & Termination Standards
Admission to doctoral study requires the following:
1. Successful applicants will ordinarily have completed a bachelor’s
degree or equivalent with at least 20 hours of history or related
courses with a GPA of 3.3 or higher.
2. Students in the PhD program must maintain at least a 3.3 GPA (or
its equivalent at foreign institutions) after the first year of
study at Central Michigan University.
3. All applications should include a personal statement of 2-3 pages
(600-900 words) describing general fields of interest and proposed
subjects of research; preparation for the subjects proposed,
including specific coursework, languages, and other relevant
training; professional goals.
4. Candidates must submit GRE scores by January 3. The subject area
test in History is not required.
5. The application deadline is January 3.
Admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. requires:
1. Demonstration of comprehensive knowledge of appropriate fields in
history (defined below), by comprehensive examinations. Students
must present two major fields or one major and two minor fields.
2. Approval of dissertation prospectus.
3. Completion of language requirement for one language other than
English.
Candidates for the Central Michigan University Ph.D. must pass a
comprehensive examination in two major fields or one major field and
two minor fields. Comprehensive examinations in the two major fields
chosen or one major and two minor fields will normally be
administered during the year following completion of the Joint M.A.
in History. The timing of the examination may vary depending upon
the candidate's need for further preparation in particular fields,
either by coursework or by directed reading.
Degree Requirements
Students must complete the following sequence during their first two
years in the Joint Program:
Required Courses I
(18 hours)
At Central Michigan
University: 18 hours of which 12 hours must be at the 600 level or above,
including 3 hours in a research seminar at the 700 level, one colloquium in
transnational and comparative history (3 hours) and a second colloquium (3
hours). A maximum of 6 hours in cognate disciplines will be accepted if approved
by the student's CMU and partner institution's advisors.
Year at CMU
As evidence of scholarship, students must submit a research paper for a
permanent file. This paper must be prepared in connection with a research
seminar, an independent research course, or a graduate-level course in the
Department of History. The paper must receive a minimum grade of B. In addition
and normally after revision, the paper must be accepted by the professor
responsible for the course as satisfactory for permanent filing. The paper must
be well written and presented in a proper scholarly format. Its conclusions must
rest on interpretation of a substantial body of primary sources. A minimum
length of 7,500 words is suggested. Up to 3 hours of credit may be earned for a
practicum course in teaching history at the college level.
Required Courses II (18 hours)
At a partner
institution abroad: 18 hours (equivalent) including major research
paper/dissertation of 7,500 words or more (equivalent to a 700-level seminar
requirement at CMU).
Students admitted to the Joint PhD program who complete the requirements for the
first two years of study will be eligible to receive the Joint MA degree enroute
to completing the PhD.
Students continuing in the program in the third year and beyond must also
complete the following requirements:
Required Courses III (18 hours)
18 hours post-M.A.
elective course work in preparation for field examinations, of which 9 hours
must be at the 700 level or above excluding practicums.
Required Courses
IV (36 hours dissertation credit)
Additional Requirements for candidacy and completion of degree
program:
1. Candidates for the
Ph.D. in history must demonstrate reading knowledge of two languages other than
English or reading knowledge of one language other than English plus an
appropriate research tool such as statistics.
- a.
Completion of the language requirement is defined as reading
proficiency at least at a level sufficient to conduct graduate-level
research.
- b.
Completion of the language requirement may be fulfilled in one of
the following ways: 1) an examination in which the candidate with
the aid of a dictionary will translate into, idiomatically, at least
two passages totaling no less than 500 words within two hours; 2)
completion of CMU's 202 language course or its equivalent with a
grade of at least a B; or 3) an alternative approved by the Graduate
Studies Committee.
- c. The
successful completion of one language requirement is required prior
to admission to Ph.D. candidacy.
- d. Where
statistics is chosen as a second non-English language, completion of
the language requirement is defined as attainment of at least a B in
an appropriate statistics course.
2. Candidates for the Central Michigan
University Ph.D. must pass a comprehensive examination in two major fields or
one major field and two minor fields.
- a. The
student will submit the membership of her/his examination committee
to the Graduate Studies Committee for approval.
- b. The
examination committee will have a minimum of three members, at least
two members per major field and one or two members per minor field.
The examination committee will ordinarily provide the student with
reading lists relevant to the examination fields, but the
examination will not be limited to the lists.
- c.
Comprehensive examinations will be scheduled during the third year
of graduate study normally the year following the "study abroad
year" except in extraordinary circumstances. Examinations will not
be scheduled during summer months. The examination committee will
schedule the dates of the major and minor field examinations.
- d. A
major field examination will not exceed eight hours and minor field
examinations will not exceed four hours.
- e.
Comprehensive examinations will be taken on campus in a room
selected by the Department of History between the hours of 8 a.m.
and 12 noon, and 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Candidates may use the
department's lap-top computer, a typewriter, or may write the
examination by hand.
- f. A
candidate may retake any failed examination within a three-to-six
month period.
- g.
Candidates may take an examination a maximum of two times, and
failure to pass after two attempts will lead to dismissal from the
program.
- h.
Comprehensive examinations will be assessed by the candidate's
examination committee as either pass or fail.
3. The Ph.D. from Central Michigan
University will require a minimum of 54-90 hours (including 36 hours of
dissertation credit) of approved graduate-level study beyond the B.A. Students
who complete the requirements for the Joint M.A. (36 hours) before admission to
the Ph.D. program may include their hours earned at the M.A. level within the 90
hour total required for the Ph.D.
4. The Ph.D. from CMU requires completion of a doctoral dissertation
that makes significant contribution to knowledge, contains a significant
comparative element, and is successfully defended at a formal meeting of the
student's examining committee. Upon admission to candidacy, the student and the
chair of the history department of the university where the student is currently
in residence will select a committee of three faculty members, at least one from
each university, to advise the candidate and supervise the research and writing
of the dissertation. Dissertations grounded in two or more national histories
will be encouraged. The examining committee for the dissertation will consist of
three faculty members from the university where the majority of research has
been done, at least one faculty member from the other university, and at least
one external examiner. The chair of the examining committee will serve as
director of the candidate's dissertation and will be responsible for making all
arrangements for meetings of the committee.
Major Fields
- - United
States
- -
British Isles or Modern Continental Europe
- - Early
Modern Europe
- - The
Atlantic World: Comparative North American, European, African, and
Latin American History (Because of its scope, this meets all field
requirements).
Minor Fields
- - United
States*
- -
British Isles*
- - Modern
Continental Europe*
- -
Ancient Near East and Mediterranean
- -
Medieval Europe
- - Early
Modern Europe
- - Latin
America
- - East
Asia
- - India
- - Africa
- -
Topical Fields (must be transnational): e.g. Crime; Poverty and
Social Welfare; Business; Women; Slavery; Ethnicity and Race;
Minority Communities and Culture; Reform; Regionalism
*Not available for minor if chosen as
major.
When possible, Ph.D. candidates will be encouraged to do some
teaching in areas related to their specialization.
Because it is impossible to share the legal authority to award the
Ph.D., it will be awarded to some students by Central Michigan University and to
others by the partner institution upon successful completion of the shared
program. In all cases the relevant documents will say clearly that the degree
results from the shared program. Regulations governing residency requirements
and time limitations for completion of degrees will be those of the university
granting the degrees. Student work at either university will be treated as work
in residence by both partner institution and Central Michigan University.
Total: 90 Semester Hours
For more information regarding
applications and funding
opportunities, including university and department fellowships and
assistantships, please go to
Applications and Funding.
For more information regarding the CMU Department of History's other graduate
programs, please go to
Graduate Programs.
For other questions or
inquiries, please contact:
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of History
Central Michigan University
Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859
phone: (989) 774-4313
e-mail: ctch@cmich.edu |
