History Department Graduate Student Learning Goals

The Ph.D. program in History strives to:

1. Provide students with a foundation in the professional field of History to enable them to develop historical questions and conduct historical research drawing on primary sources that makes original contribution to scholarship.
   
   
2. Enable students to acquire research competency in two foreign languages (three for the medievalists).
   
   
3. Enable students to present papers at conferences and publish articles in peer-reviewed journals written in lucid, persuasive, and intelligible prose.
   
   
4. Enable students to gain knowledge and competency to teach history at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
   
   
5. Enable students to develop skills to apply for grants and fellowships.
   
   
6. Prepare students for the academic job market.
7. Teach students the skills to revise and reevaluate the doctoral dissertation for publication.

The M.A. program in History strives to:

1. Provide students with a foundation in the professional study of history.
   
   
2. Enable students to gain advanced-level knowledge in history and historiographical debates and questions.
   
   
3. Introduce students to the essential methodological tools and skills to study history and carry out historical research.
   
   
4. Provide students with analytical and critical thinking and writing skills to prepare them for professional and academic carriers.
   
   
5. Prepare students to apply for Ph.D. programs.
   
   
6. Enable students to gain research competency in one foreign language.
   
   
7. Teach students the analytical, critical, and writing skills and knowledge to teach history effectively at the secondary education level.