History (HIST)

Graduate Degree Program
College: Arts and Humanities

Abstract

The Department of History offers programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. In conjunction with the College of Information Studies, the Department of History also offers a dual-degree Master of Arts in History and Library Science.  In conjunction with the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation the Department of History also offers a dual-degree Master of Arts in History and Historic Preservation.

Major fields of concentration for the MA and PhD programs are: Ancient Mediterranean, Medieval, Early Modern Europe, Modern Europe, Global Interaction and Exchange, International, Jewish, Latin America, Middle East, Russia & Eurasia, Technology, Science, & Environment, the United States, and Women & Gender. MA-only fields are: Africa and Military. The graduate program, which includes over fifty regular faculty members and approximately 150 degree-seeking students, excels in the following subfields: African-American, US, and Middle East. Other areas of established strength are Western and Central Europe, Russia and Eurasia, Ancient Mediterranean, Latin American, and Women & Gender. More recently, the following fields have emerged as centers of growing faculty strength and are attracting increasing numbers of students and faculty: Atlantic history, the African diaspora, and Global Interaction and Exchange.

The students in our four-degree programs come from across the nation, from small liberal arts colleges and major research institutions, as well as from Europe, Canada, East Asia, Eurasia, and Latin America. History students have won a number of major external fellowships, including the ACLS/Mellon Early Career Fellowship, the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Research Fellowship, the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies Dissertation Fellowship, the Foundation for the Research and Study of the East German Dictatorship Fellowship, the Fulbright-IIE Student Grant, the International Research & Exchanges Board Fellowship, the Mary Savage Snouffer Dissertation Fellowship, the Library Company of Philadelphia Fellowship, the Maryland Historical Society Lord Baltimore Research Fellowship, the Massachusetts Historical Society Research Fellowship, the Center for Jewish History Fellowship, and the Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources.

Recent graduates have started postdoctoral fellowships or tenure-track jobs at institutions that include Case Western University, George Washington University, Bucknell University, Claremont-McKenna College,Christopher Newport University, Morgan State University, Johns Hopkins University, Monash University, Appalachian State University, Montclair State University, Ohio University, Rhode Island College, SUNY Purchase, the United States Naval Academy, the University of South Florida, Framingham State University, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Western Washington University. The members of our extended alumni community, numbering more than 300 master of arts and doctoral recipients, work as professional historians throughout the State of Maryland, in a number of United States Government agencies, and at institutions of higher education and historical research across the United States and the globe.

Financial Assistance

The Department of History administers several forms of financial assistance for graduate students, including fellowships, teaching assistantships, graduate assistantships, research assistantships, and research grants. All fellowships, assistantships, and grants are awarded on the basis of merit, as determined by the Graduate Committee, upon the recommendation of faculty and the Director of Graduate Studies.

A multiyear guarantee of continuous funding is frequently offered to newly matriculating PhD students. Guaranteed funding is not standard for students entering the MA and HiLS programs.

Funding packages typically include two years of fellowship and three years of Teaching Assistantship. The packages include tuition assistance and a health benefits option, subject to satisfactory progress towards the fulfillment of program requirements.  All teaching assistants receive tuition assistance and a health benefits option.

For FY24 (2023-24 academic year), the pay scale for 9.5-month teaching, graduate, and research assistantships range between $27,486 and $28,014. Fellowships follow a similar pay scale. Assistantships and fellowships include tuition assistance and a health benefits option. Variations in stipend amounts are due to a number of factors, including the type of appointment, international student status, previous appointments, and advancement to candidacy.

Additional funding is available through the Arts and Humanities Research and Travel Grant competition, Department semester dissertation fellowships, Department summer research award, matching funds for travel to academic conferences, and various campus-wide funding competitions. All doctoral students are expected to seek outside funding for pre-dissertation and dissertation research, as appropriate.

History graduate students may seek grants and fellowships, assistantships, hourly employment, and other forms of self-support offered by non-departmental sources.

Contact

Website: http://www.history.umd.edu

Courses: HIST

General Requirements

• Statement of Purpose: Other than the required questions for the Statement of Purpose asked by the University of Maryland, the History Department asks applicants to include content that emphasizes academic and research interests:
  1. what is the applicant interested in studying and why,
  2. what the applicant might be interested in working on for the M.A. thesis or Ph.D. dissertation and
  3. how the applicant’s prior education has provided good training for graduate work in the particular field of interest.
• Transcript(s)
• TOEFL/IELTS/PTE (international graduate students)

Program-Specific Requirements

• Letters of Recommendation (3)
• CV/Resume
• Writing Sample: Research paper of about 20 pages, uploaded to the Upload Requirements section of the application.
• Description of Research/Work Experience

As a demonstration of our commitment to excellence in historical scholarship and education, admission to our degree programs is highly competitive. It is important that each applicant clearly articulate his/her academic preparation and qualifications for graduate study at Maryland. All prospective applicants are encouraged to make contact with the faculty in the area(s) of interest. Faculty play an important role in the admissions decision. Prospective applicants are also encouraged to make contact with current graduate students to learn more about their experiences. The History Graduate Student Association can facilitate communications with current students.

Although there are exceptions, the minimum overall grade point average is 3.25 for admission to a master’s degree program and 3.50 for admission to the doctoral program. The admissions committee would typically expect a higher grade point average in past coursework in history and related disciplines. 

There is no language requirement for the MA degree, but the command of one or more languages is required for admission into the PhD program in some fields within History. For more information on language requirements, see the History Department website.

The University requires that all admitted students demonstrate proficiency in written and spoken English.

Application Deadlines

RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Program Website: http://www.history.umd.edu
Application Process: https://gradschool.umd.edu/admissions

The Department of History offers several forms of specialized training, including certificate programs in Museum Scholarship & Material Culture, co-sponsored by the Department of American Studies, and Historic Preservation, co-sponsored by the School of Architecture.

The Nathan and Jeanette Miller Center for Historical Studies, housed within the Department, promotes both research and graduate training by sponsoring seminars and colloquia, major scholarly conferences, and visiting professors who teach graduate courses. Typically, the Center’s activities each year concentrate on a historical theme of surpassing interests that cuts across the usual chronological and cultural boundaries.

The Center for Global Migration Studies, also housed within the Department, speaks to the mission of the University of Maryland (UMD) by generating a more diverse, inclusive and international culture at the heart of the University, and by facilitating local and international partnerships to make university faculty and students better global citizens. The center's interdisciplinary and collaborative scholarship and teaching have contributed to making the university a globally recognized leader in transnational research on migration. The center also builds upon the strong connections the university maintains in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region by collaborating with institutions such as the National Museum of American History and the German Historical Society.

The University of Maryland is home to a number of important archives, special collections, and historical editing projects, including the archives of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the Freedmen and Southern Society Project and the Samuel Gompers Papers, the Library of American Broadcasting, the Gordon W. Prange Collection, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation Library. The Combined Caesarea Expeditions, an archeological project that joins excavation of the terrestrial remains of Caesarea Maritima with underwater investigation of the site’s ancient harbor, are coordinated at Maryland.

The University sponsors a number of significant scholarly publications of interest to historians, including the Hispanic American Historical Review, the flagship English-language journal in Latin American history; and Feminist Studies, a pioneer in women’s history and gender studies.

The College Park campus is located within the Washington-Baltimore corridor, one of the nation’s most dynamic regions for historical research. Francis Scott Key Hall, home to the Department of History, sits less than ten minutes from Archives II, the U.S. government’s largest repository, and less than thirty minutes from downtown Washington, D.C., a city of unparalleled cultural resources and unique opportunities for historical research, including the Library of Congress, the Folger, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Annapolis and Baltimore, home to significant archival holdings related to the history and cultures of the State of Maryland, the greater Chesapeake Bay region, and the Atlantic world, can be reached in less than forty-five minutes.