History (Ph.D.) Program Details
Degree Requirements
❱ Required coursework
❱ Qualifying or comprehensive examination
❱ Foreign language proficiency
❱ Graduate School writing proficiency requirement
❱ Graduate School Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) requirement
❱ Dissertation
❱ Final oral examination/Dissertation defense
Research Specializations
❱ United States history
❱ African-American history
❱ African history
❱ African diaspora history
❱ Latin American & Caribbean history
❱ Public history
Research Areas & Interests
Faculty Research Interests
A sampling of research interests
- Citizenship and repatriation as it relates to displaced African people during the Civil War and Reconstruction
- Women's history and cultural praxis
- Pan-Africanism and the African diaspora
- Africana women and their contributions to Hip Hop culture
- Impact of image, representation, and perception of race and culture in the United States from the end of slavery through the early twentieth century
- Historical and theological connections between the African Diaspora and the motherland
- Collecting and preserving Black queer D.C. history
- Black colonial resistance and Black Power movements
- Toussaint, Christophe, and Louverture's networks in Great Britain, France, and the United States
- Indexical meanings of the American flag and how various contemporary Black artists interpret it during the Civil Rights Movement and by comparison to the Black Lives Matter Movement
- Intersections of nineteenth and twentieth century African-American intellectual, political, and religious history
- The religious and political history of Liberia, which includes African American emigration, race and religion in the U.S., and the missionary impulses of the emerging black church
- U.S. colored troops who served at the Union prisoner of war camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, during the American Civil War
- The spiritual practice of Black women in the 20th century who engage in both Black American Christianity and traditional African spiritualities
- Relevance of 'Global Africa' in the construction of the black international
- Slavery, emancipation, and Black Power as a global phenomenon
- Transnational political/social movements
- Memorialization of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery
- Public memory, heritage, visual culture, and the material culture of slavery
- The long history of demands for reparations for slavery and colonialism
- Transnational connections between African American and British abolitionist movements
Program of Study*
CORE COURSES (21 CR)
HIST 200 Historiography (3 CR)
Major Field Courses (12 CR)
6 credits of Readings courses in a major field
6 credits of Seminar courses in a major field
Minor Field Courses (6 CR)
6 credits of Readings courses in a minor field
DIRECTED READINGS (12 CR)
ELECTIVE COURSES (33 CR)
A sampling of elective courses by major subfield
United States History
HIST 175 Women in American Society since 1890
HIST 223 Jacksonian Era, Reform, and Sectionalism
HIST 227 U.S. Reform Movements
African-American History
HIST 324 Readings in Afro- American History
HIST 312 Afro-American Social Institutions and Culture
HIST 177 Afro-American History
African History
HIST 382 Colonialism in Africa
HIST 235 West Africa Since 1800
HIST 387 African Americans and Africa
African Diaspora History
HIST 173 Comparative Slavery in the Americas
HIST 193 Pan-Africanism
HIST 385 Readings in the African Diaspora
Latin American & Caribbean History
HIST 340 Race Relations in Latin America and the Caribbean
HIST 444 Seminar in the History of Afro-Latinos
HIST 241 History of the Caribbean II
Public History
HIST 403 Archives and Film
HIST 402 Museums and Archives
HIST 408 Historical Editing
DISSERTATION (6 CR)
*Courses included in the sample program of study are subject to change. Students should consult with their programs regarding their required program of study.
Admission to Candidacy
Students are admitted to formal candidacy by the Graduate School when they have completed the required coursework, passed the qualifying or comprehensive examination and shown evidence of proficiency in a foreign language, submitted an approved topic for research, and been recommended by the Department. Candidates must also have satisfied the Graduate School writing proficiency requirement and Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Workshop requirement.
Graduate Funding
Admitted students may be eligible to compete for Graduate School competitive awards, which provide tuition remission and a stipend during the academic year. Additionally, graduate research or teaching assistantships may be available at the department level. Research assistants and teaching assistants work no more than 20 hours a week under the program's direction, usually in support of faculty research (research assistants) or in support of assigned courses (teaching assistants). Please see the Funding website for more detailed information.