Ph.D. Degree Requirements

A minimum of three full years of graduate study beyond the master's degree is normally required to complete a program for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Neither the courses taken nor the time spent in study determines the granting of the degree. It is given primarily for high attainment in some special field of scholarship and for demonstrated power of independent research in a subdivision of this field.

Students must complete at least 90 credit hours, including a doctoral dissertation and previous graduate credit earned either at the University of Nebraska or elsewhere in a master's degree program. Not fewer than 45 hours must be completed at the University of Nebraska. Students are required to complete a minimum of 33 credit hours in 900-level courses, including those taken for the M.A. degree.

Courses

Courses at the 900 level constitute the core of a graduate student's classroom education. These courses are structured exclusively for the needs of graduate students, which are fundamentally different than those of undergraduates. There are five categories of 900-level courses in the History Department:

• History 900, "The Professional Study of History," introduces incoming graduate students to the culture, expectations, and practices of professional historians. It is organized methodologically and casts a wide geographical net regarding the topics on which it focuses. Each Ph.D. student will take History 900 during her/his first year in the program. (Students who completed History 900 for their M.A. degree in History at UNL do not need to repeat this course.)
• History 990, "Seminar in Teaching History," introduces students to the theoretical literature on teaching and learning, familiarizes them with a variety of approaches to classroom instruction, and provides opportunities to work on course design and effective discussion and lecture techniques. This course is required of all doctoral students. (Students who completed History 990 during their work for the M.A. degree in History at UNL do not need to repeat this course.)
• 900-level readings courses emphasize critical reading, analysis, and discussion of major books and articles of broad geographical and chronological scope. Students will gain familiarity with writing book reviews and a historiographical paper or equivalent project.
• 900-level research seminars provide students with a guided research experience, culminating in a substantial research paper or digital project based on primary sources and modeled on articles published in professional historical journals or digital projects of a similar scope. Students will normally take a 900-level research seminar after completing a relevant 900-level readings course.
• 900-level special topics courses center on a specific faculty research area and may be structured around readings and/or student research projects. Special topics courses that require substantial research papers or digital research projects may be substitute for a 900-level research seminar requirement.

Credit hours: course and distribution requirements

For students entering with an M.A. degree in History from UNL.

Students who have completed an M.A. degree at UNL will already have taken:

• History 900: The Professional Study of History (3 credit hours).
• 9 credit hours in their global areas of study, including one 900-level readings course and one 900-level research seminar.
• 9 credit hours in a second global area of study, including one 900-level readings course or 9 credit hours in an external minor in another department, including one 900-level readings course.
• The student may also have already taken History 990, for a total of 15 completed credit hours in 900 level courses.

In addition to courses taken at the M.A. level, doctoral students are expected to complete 30 credit hours of course work, with 18 credit hours in 900-level courses:

• 9 credit hours in their global area of study. Of these, one course must be a 900-level readings course and one must be a 900-level research seminar.
• 6 credit hours in a different global area of study, including a 900-level readings course in Comparative World history.
• An additional 3 credit hours in a 900-level readings course and 3 credit hours in a 900-level research seminar in History.
• An additional 3 credit hours in a 900-level course in another department. This requirement broadens students' intellectual horizons and assures their introduction to the multidisciplinary perspective common to successful historians.

For students entering with an M.A. degree in History from another institution.

As noted above, in the section about the adviser and the Supervisory Committee, a student entering with an M.A. degree in History from another institution will have graduate credits applied towards their doctoral degree at UNL. How these credits are counted for the area distribution and 900-level course requirements will depend upon the student's M.A. program. We expect that such students will have up to 30 credit hours applied to the 90 credit hours required for the doctoral degree. Entering Ph.D. students will normally be expected to take 30 credit hours, consisting of:

• History 900: The Professional Study of History (3 credit hours) during their first semester.
• History 990: Seminar on Teaching History (3 credit hours)
• 9 credit hours in their global area of study. Of these, one course must be a 900-level readings course and one must be a 900-level research seminar (6 credit hours)
• 6 credit hours in a different global area of study, including a 900-level readings course in Comparative World history.
• An additional 3 credit hours in a 900-level readings course and 3 credit hours in a 900-level research seminar in History.
• An additional 3 credit hours in a 900-level course in another department. This requirement broadens students' intellectual horizons and assures their introduction to the multidisciplinary perspective common to successful historians.

Residency Requirements

To meet Graduate College residency requirements, all Ph.D. students must complete 27 credit hours within a consecutive 18-month period. Students who have completed their M.A. at the University of Nebraska may apply 12 hours of their M.A. work towards this requirement. No more than 9 credits applied towards residency may be taken during summer sessions. The graduate school provides limited exemptions from these requirements for the following:

• university staff who are engaged at least half-time in research or teaching.
• those employed in their major field may take 24 hours within a consecutive 24 month period, provided that at least 12 of these credits are taken after the M.A.

Language and Research Tool Requirements

Students must demonstrate a reading knowledge of at least one foreign language. In addition to the necessary foreign languages, the Supervisory Committee may expect the student to gain expertise in certain specialized research tools, such as digital media, statistics, or a computer programing language. The Supervisory Committee shall determine which foreign languages and/or research tools to include in a student's Ph.D. program. Students admitted to the program with language deficiencies must remove them within two calendar years after beginning the program. Prior to admission to candidacy and at least seven months before the final oral examination, the student must have satisfied the language requirement. Fulfillment of the language requirement must be demonstrated through coursework with a grade of B or better or by an examination certifying language competency by an outside expert approved by the Supervisory Committee.

A student who is a foreign national expecting to return to his/her own county may, with the approval of the Supervisory Committee, be permitted to meet the language requirements by demonstrating competence in spoken and written English.

Comprehensive Fields

By the end of their first year in the doctoral program, if not earlier, students identify three fields for their comprehensive examinations.

Field I: Primary Area

The first field defines the "survey" breadth expected for students in their general dissertation area. Students choose one of the following five areas for this examination:

• North America
• Europe to 1715
• Europe after 1715
• Latin America
• Africa

Field II: Comparative World

This second field encourages students to develop an expansive comparative perspective on historical events, issues and methodologies. Students prepare for this field by taking courses in geographical areas outside their primary global area, as well as taking at least one readings course in Comparative World history. Students whose global areas are North America and Europe are encouraged to take classes in Latin American, East Asian or African history. Similarly, students who are concentrating in Latin American or African history are encouraged to take courses in North American history or European history. What will best support each student's research and teaching interests will be determined in consultation with his or her adviser and Supervisory Committee.

Field III: The Focus

The focus area will normally be the field in which the student plans to pursue his or her dissertation research. These fields are those customarily understood as specialty areas within history, although their boundaries are inevitably imprecise. Some of these are best defined by their geographical and chronological limits, such as the North American West; others are best labeled as thematic areas in which historians study subjects that regularly cross arbitrary national borders, such as women or indigenous peoples, or in which historians concentrate on particular methods or themes, such as military history. The field may even be defined as a combination of more than one area listed below, such as women and gender in early modern England, or environmental issues in North America after 1877. Students will develop the reading list for this field in consultation with their advisers and Supervisory Committee.

Field Tables

Primary Areas	Focus Areas
Europe before 1715 and Europe after 1715	19th-Century Studies (interdisciplinary) Cultural and intellectual Digital Early Modern England Early Modern Europe German Studies	Military/Diplomatic/International Recent Europe Science, medicine & technology Social and economic Women and gender Political and legal
North America	19th-Century Studies (interdisciplinary) African American Cultural and intellectual Digital Environmental Indigenous Peoples Military/Diplomatic/International	North America before 1877 North America after 1877 North American West Science, medicine & technology Social and economic Women and gender Political and legal
Latin America Africa	Cultural and intellectual Digital Environmental Indigenous Peoples	Military/Diplomatic/International Political and legal Social and economic Women and gender

These examples illustrate the breadth and flexibility of the three comprehensive fields:

Field I: Primary Area	Field II: Comparative World	Field III: Focus

Comprehensive Examinations

Purpose: The purpose of comprehensive examinations is to assess the preparedness of Ph.D. students for research and teaching in their chosen fields. Successful completion of the exams along with a satisfactory defense of the dissertation prospectus is required before doctoral students will be admitted to full candidacy.

Format:

• Comprehensive examinations are normally three distinct take-home written exams, with students given 72 hours to complete their responses for each examination. Individual exams should normally consist of no more than three questions. Students usually must complete all three examination within a two week period. Any exceptions to these guidelines must be worked out in advance with the agreement of the Graduate Chair, the adviser and the Supervisory Committee. Students must pass all three written examinations before advancing to the oral examination.
• Students take a two-hour oral examination with the Supervisory Committee within two weeks of passing their written exams.

Reading Lists: For the examinations in Fields I and II, students work from reading lists established and agreed upon by the faculty in those areas of study. Individual students and their faculty examiners develop the bibliographies for the focus field (Field III) reading lists. It should be understood that the reading lists serve as general guides for examination preparation; they are not a formal contract between students and their examiners.

Timing: Students will normally take comprehensive examinations during their third year of doctoral study. There will be three exam periods per year: on or about September 15, on or about January 15, and on or about April 15. Within two weeks of passing the written examinations, the student sits the oral examination with the Supervisory Committee. Students who pass their exams are required to defend their dissertation prospectuses within six months of passing their oral exam.

Results: Students will receive notification of the written exam results by the faculty who supervise each field within one week of the exam date. Each evaluation is given as high pass, pass or fail. Should the student fail any part of the comprehensive examination, he or she may attempt another examination, or a part thereof, during the following academic term only on the recommendations of the Supervisory Committee and the Graduate Chair. The Supervisory Committee will complete the Comprehensive Examination form at the end of the oral examination, indicating the student's performance on each written examination and on the oral examination.

Dissertation Prospectus

Writing a dissertation proposal is one of the most important academic exercises in a Ph.D. student's career. The proposal is intended to ensure that both the student and her/his committee members know how the dissertation will represent original research in the field. The proposal should also explain how the relevant archives and source materials are to be used throughout the course of writing and how they provide the basic structure of the future dissertation. Thus, no more than six months after having successfully completed comprehensive examinations the student will be expected to write and defend a formal dissertation proposal with all available dissertation committee members. After successfully defending the dissertation proposal the student will proceed in her or his candidacy.

The dissertation proposal is integral to the writing of the full dissertation for several reasons. First, in writing a proposal, which should be approximately 20-30 pages, the student will be expected to present broad and specific historiographical explanations of the research project, describing how the dissertation will contribute to and differ from existent scholarship, including recent dissertations. Second, because the student will be expected to have identified the key primary sources to be analyzed, faculty members will have a clearer idea about the feasibility of the proposed research and will be better able to advise students on archives, document sets, and other research-related questions. Third, throughout the writing of the proposal, the student will have the benefit of ongoing discussions with her/his adviser and other committee members as she/he seeks to specify and narrow the proposed research topic(s). The student will be expected to share drafts with committee members over the course of writing the proposal and submit a final draft of the proposed research to each committee member.

The dissertation prospectus must:

• Identify the key problem or sets of problems to be analyzed.
• Situate the proposed research in the broader historical debates and in the relevant scholarly literature.
• Outline the key archives and document sets needed for the project.

Admission to Candidacy and on-going registration

When the student has passed the comprehensive examination, the dissertation prospectus, and satisfied language and research tool requirements of the approved program, the Supervisory Committee will recommend to the Office of Graduate Studies his/her admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree, noting in that recommendation the dates of completing the comprehensive examination and language and research tool requirements. The Application for Admission to Candidacy for the Doctoral Degree must be filed at least seven months prior to the final oral examination, in which the student defends his or her dissertation (see below). A student is formally recognized as a candidate as of the date of completing the comprehensive examination and language or research tool requirements.

Following admission to candidacy the student must register in the Office of Graduate Studies during each semester of the academic year until he/she receives the Ph.D. degree. Students not in residence may register for a minimum of one semester hour credit in dissertation on forms available from the Office of Graduate Studies, and all Ph.D. candidates writing their dissertation need to file a form granting them full-time status. Failure to register during each semester of the academic year will result in termination of the candidacy.

Students who have not been admitted to Ph.D. candidacy and who have not registered for courses within the last two calendar years will be considered terminated from the program. If they wish to finish their degree, they must submit a written petition to the graduate committee requesting re-admission to the graduate program.

Final Oral Examination

The final examination is oral. It is given by the Supervisory Committee after the candidate's studies have been completed and the dissertation accepted. The committee also determines its character and length. The examination may be devoted to the special field of the dissertation or to the candidate's general knowledge, or it may be designed to test judgment and critical powers.

The final oral examination for the Ph.D. will not be scheduled unless the chair of the Supervisory Committee and at least two other members of the committee are available for the examination. Exceptions may be made only by permission of the Dean of Graduate Studies. In any event, the supervisor of the dissertation must have seen and approved the completed dissertation before the examination will be scheduled.

student is to be approved for the degree if only one examiner dissents. However, in each case, the dissenting member of the committee will be expected to file a letter of explanation in the Office of Graduate Studies.

If a student fails to pass the final oral examination for an advanced degree, the Supervisory Committee must file a report on the failure in the Office of Graduate Studies and indicate what the student must do before taking another examination. Another examination may not be held during the same semester or the same summer session in which the student failed.