Master of Arts
The Department of History offers graduate training leading to the M.A. degree. While students may wish to earn the master’s degree to satisfy professional requirements in education and other fields, the master’s program is designed primarily as a first step toward the Ph.D. in history.
Course Requirements
Candidates for the M.A. degree must earn a minimum of 33 graduate credits. Each M.A. candidate must complete at least 12 credits in a major area of historical study, at least 6 credits in a second area of history, and 6 credits in either a third area of history or in an outside discipline related to the major area of study.
The only course required of all candidates for the M.A. degree is HIS 592, a history proseminar course, a broad introductory readings and methods course. Students who plan to concentrate in certain fields emphasized by the department must register for one appropriate 3-credit proseminar. At the present time, proseminars have been established for nineteenth-century U.S. History, twentieth-century U.S. history, early modern European history, and modern Europe. Proseminars in ancient history and other fields are being developed continuously, but if such a course is not available in a student’s chosen specialty, the student still must take the proseminar in the next closest field or obtain the approval of the director of graduate studies for a reasonable substitution for this requirement.
The Master's Thesis or Master's Paper
Each degree candidate, in consultation with a faculty advisor, must complete either a traditional research-based master’s thesis or a master’s paper in lieu of thesis. The master’s paper must be based on a paper previously completed in a regular schedule history seminar in the student’s major area of study. Those students choosing the thesis option must enroll for 6 hours of thesis research credits. Those who elect to submit a paper in lieu of thesis must take 6 additional hours of 500-level course work in place of the 6 credits of thesis research. These 6 hours are included in the minimum of 33 credit hours required for the M.A. degree.
Language Requirements
Each M.A. candidate in history must demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language appropriate to the student’s major area of study. The History Department offers its own language examination at the beginning of each semester, and incoming students are expected to take this test at the start of their first semester in residence. Students who are not prepared to take a language exam and students who do not pass the department language exam at that time must take language courses during their first year in residence. All candidates for the M.A. must satisfy their language requirements by the beginning of their second year in residence.
The Master's Examination
Upon completion of the master’s thesis or master’s paper, each candidate must take the master’s examination. A student who writes a master’s thesis will be given an oral examination on the thesis itself and on topics related to the thesis. Students offering a master’s paper in lieu of thesis will take an oral examination based on the paper and all course work the student has taken while a candidate for the master’s degree. In each case, the examination (normally about two hours in duration) will be administered by the student’s master’s committee, which includes the academic advisor and two additional faculty members who possess expertise in the student’s fields of study. A candidate who fails the master’s examination may be permitted to retake it a second (and final) time.
Doctor of Philosophy
Applicants to the doctoral program must meet the general Graduate School admission requirements as well as meet additional standards stipulated by the History Department. A student seeking a Doctor of Philosophy degree must possess a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution and must have completed one year of acceptable graduate work at Penn State or some other accredited institution. Students holding both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State will not be admitted to the doctoral program.
Admission to the Doctoral Program
Prospective applicants to the doctoral program in History who intend to receive, or have received, a master’s degree from Penn State’s Department of History should consult its Graduate Student Handbook or the Director of Graduate Studies for pertinent requirements and procedures.
Exceptional students who have completed at least 18 credits in Penn State’s master’s program in history may be eligible for expedited admission to the doctoral program without first completing the requirements for the master’s degree. This process requires the recommendation of at least two faculty members with whom the student has worked and the concurrence of the director of graduate studies and the department head.
Credits and Course of Study
Neither the Graduate School nor the History Department requires a specific number of credits for the Ph.D. degree. While the course of study usually consists of 36 to 45 credits beyond the baccalaureate degree, the student’s doctoral committee determines the number of credits required and the course of study to be pursued. At least 15 graduate credits must be taken at Penn State.
History 592 (Proseminar) is the only specific course required of all Ph.D. candidates. The History Department also strongly encourages all doctoral candidates to pursue study outside the discipline of history, either by taking a minor field of 15 credit hours in one discipline; fewer credit hours (as few as 6) in an outside discipline are acceptable but will result in no formal minor. Doctoral students should work closely with their academic advisors to make sure that their course selections take into consideration all the field and areas to be covered in the Ph.D. comprehensive examination.
Language and Research Techniques Requirements
Candidates for the Ph.D. in history are expected to demonstrate a reading and/or speaking knowledge of all languages and competence in all research techniques (statistical analysis, quantitative methods, computer programming, etc.) necessary for the candidate’s seminar work, dissertation research, and successful long-term career pursuits.
Authority to set language and research techniques requirements resides with each candidate’s doctoral committee, subject to review and amendment by the department head and the director of graduate studies. Credits for elementary language courses and courses in research techniques will not be applied to the requirements for the Ph.D. degree.
Advancement to Doctoral Candidacy
A Ph.D. candidacy examination is required of all students pursuing a doctorate in History. The examination may be taken upon completion of at least 18 credits of acceptable graduate work at Penn State, and must be taken by the third semester of full-time study in the doctoral program.
Before the exam, the doctoral student and academic advisor should work together to identify fields of study and appropriate faculty to guide advanced study in those fields; this is the student’s doctoral committee. At least ten days before the examination, the doctoral student must provide to each member of the committee a copy of a candidacy essay on the proposed research field, including consideration of the kinds of questions that could guide the search for a future dissertation topic. The candidacy examination itself will feature an open exchange between the student and his or her committee concerning the intellectual issues raised in the historiographical essay and the student’s academic preparation to conduct research in this specialty.
Thus, the candidacy exam is designed to assess a student’s readiness to proceed toward the doctoral comprehensives in four ways: 1) to evaluate the student’s ability to conceptualize significant historical issues; 2) to establish the level at which the student commands the historiography of the research field; 3) to guarantee competence in the use of the English language.
Most importantly, the candidacy examination is used as the opportunity for the student and his or her committee to define formally the four fields in which the student will prepare to take doctoral comprehensive exams. The committee also may identify gaps in the student’s formal academic preparation that must be remedied before the student takes those exams.
These fields must include:
- the research field (i.e., the field to which the proposed dissertation belongs, and in which the candidate expects to be qualified to offer graduate instruction upon completion of the PhD. degree)
- the primary area of teaching competence (i.e., an area including but larger in scope than the research field, in which the candidate expects to be qualified to offer undergraduate instruction)
- the secondary area of teaching competence (i.e., an area different---chronologically and/or geographically---from the primary area, in which the candidate expects to be qualified to offer introductory undergraduate instruction)
- a field outside the history department, but related to the subject or methodologies required for the dissertation is strongly encouraged; an additional history field may be acceptable, however.
Passing this examination formally advances a student to the status of doctoral candidate.
The Doctoral Comprehensive Examination
Upon completion of all course work required by their committee, doctoral candidates take a comprehensive written and oral examination. The examination, administered by the student’s doctoral committee, covers each of the four areas or fields defined at the time of the doctoral candidacy meeting. The examinations test the student’s knowledge of the historical sources, events, interpretations, and bibliography of each field.
Following the four written examinations, one in each field, a two-hour oral examination will delve deeper into specific issues raised in the written examinations.
The Dissertation
The dissertation, required of all doctoral candidates, represents an original contribution to knowledge, either an original interpretation or the presentation of new historical material. A public oral defense will be held to discuss the information and interpretation of the dissertation, any related questions raised by its arguments, and the relevant bibliography of the intellectual field it addresses.
