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last updated January 15, 2001 The Master of Arts Program 1. INTRODUCTION A. The M.A. program is offered in Early American and United States History and in a limited number of areas of European history. B. The Ph.D. program is offered only in Early American and United States History. The M.A. program is designed to encompass the spring and fall semester of an academic year, and the following summer. By the end of this period, the student should have completed all course requirements and at least a first draft of a thesis.
A. Any student receiving two grades of C or below in the first semester will be dropped from the program at the end of that semester. B. Candidates for the M.A. must complete 24 semester hours of History courses, not including History 700 (Thesis), and must achieve an overall grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. (Students should note that the grade of B-minus falls below the required average.) C. All M.A. candidates must take a research seminar (History 710, 711, 712, 713, or 714) in the fall semester and take History 703 or a Quantitative Methods course in another department if the methodology is required for the thesis. [We voted on this ages ago. I just noticed that the regs didn't get changed.] D. All students must also take the appropriate section of History 701 and 702 (section 01 for students in American History and section 02 for students in European history) and register for directed research (History 758) in each semester. E. In addition to the 24 semester hours, students may take History 705 (Teaching History.) F. Advanced reading courses (History 721-746, 759) are reserved for special situations and must be approved by both the Graduate Director and the individual instructor. G. Upon approval by the Graduate Director, students may schedule up to six graduate credits in courses in other departments or programs not crosslisted under History. Such courses must fit logically into a student's overall preparation. H. Normally, students are expected to complete the entire 24 semester hours (other than the thesis required for the degree) by the end of the second semester of residence. I. All students must take at least three courses other than thesis and directed research during both fall and spring semesters. J. In the event of a student's failure to complete all assignments in a course, instructors will assign a grade of "I" (the grade of "G" is assigned only in History 700). (See the Graduate Arts & Sciences Program for definitions of grades.)
Fall Research Seminar (History 710, 711, 712, 713, or 714), 3 credit
hours Spring
A. Students will initially be assigned a graduate advisor on the basis of information in their applications. During the summer before they arrive on campus, students will receive information about the program and a pre-advising form, which they must return by August 15 at the latest. B. Students in the M.A./Ph.D. track should plan a tentative program over five semesters. C. All students should also schedule a meeting with their advisors during the week before graduate registration. D. Upon approval of the student's thesis prospectus, the thesis director will become the student's advisor.
A. In addition to an adequate command of English, each Master of Arts student must demonstrate a reading knowledge of one other language in which there is significant historical literature before he or she will be advanced to candidacy for the degree. B. This requirement will be fulfilled by departmental examination in a foreign or classical language: normally Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish (samples of past language exams are available at blackboard.wm.edu (username: histgrad ; password: ciao). C. Students should also discuss requirements with the faculty member administering the examination in a particular language beforehand. D. The examination, which will be given at least once each semester, will consist of translating a passage, depending on the language, of approximately 500 to 1,000 words with the use of a dictionary in two hours. E. It is strongly recommended that students satisfy the language requirements during the first semester.
A. A one-hour oral prospectus defense is required for the M.A. The examination will be held before Spring Break in the spring semester. The examination will be on the student's thesis prospectus. See 7 (A) below. B. The examination committee will consist of the thesis director as chair, another faculty member in the broad area of the thesis, and a third outside the broad area (American, British, or European history) in which the thesis is written. C. A student must have received credit for at least twelve hours of coursework with a grade point average of B or better to be eligible to take the comprehensive examination. D. A student who is not eligible to take the comprehensive examination by the end of the second semester will be dropped from the program. E. The student must submit three copies of his or her prospectus and a draft of at least one chapter of the thesis (normally completed in the student's fall research seminar) to the examination committee no later than two weeks before the scheduled examination date.
A. Each candidate must choose a thesis director and submit a thesis prospectus, developed in consultation with the thesis director, to the Graduate Committee for approval by the first day of class of the second semester of graduate study. Normally the thesis director is a member of the history department. For a description of the Thesis Prospectus, see Appendix XIV. B. The final text of the thesis should not be less than forty pages or more than ninety, excluding footnotes, bibliography, and appendices. Edited documents may exceed one hundred pages and may have an introduction as short as forty pages. Historical archaeology apprentices have the option of submitting a thesis composed of an archaeological report combined with a historical analysis. C. Faculty members will not be available for the supervision of theses during the summer months except by prior arrangement. D. A Caution: Drafts of theses take time to read and revise. Students should secure the approval of their thesis directors before circulating drafts to other members of the thesis committee. The remaining members will receive only the final, completely revised draft. Since normally directors and other committee members are concurrently teaching a full schedule, allow as much as four to six weeks for a director to complete a reading (more if revisions require further reading) and two to three additional weeks for other committee members to read the final draft. When students submit a draft, they should ask the reader for an approximate date the manuscript will be returned. Students also should ascertain well in advance when readers will be on leave. E. See Appendix III: Rules for Submitting Theses and Dissertations SEE ALSO: The Ph.D. program is offered only in Early American and United States History. Students should also consult the general regulations governing the Ph.D. degree in the Graduate Arts and Sciences Program Catalog. 1. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS (See Also, Appendix I: Progress Checklist)
A. Students who have not completed an M.A. degree at another institution will be reviewed twice by the Graduate Studies Committee, once in April of their first year in the program and again in April of their second year. For the first review, the committee will verify that students have the minimum grades required for a master's degree and that they have successfully defended their MA prospectuses by Spring Break. All faculty who have taught first-year students will be asked to evaluate their performance. Students who seem weak in particular areas will receive a letter from the graduate director, which outlines the committee's concerns. Students must have fulfilled all the requirements of William & Mary's master's degree program (the language requirement, all course work, and the thesis requirement) by March 15 of their second year in the doctoral program in preparation for the second review by the Graduate Studies Committee. These requirements will, however, be considered minimal for continuation. In addition, students must have demonstrated that they have the intellectual promise and skills to pursue a Ph.D. Faculty will again be asked to evaluate the students they have taught or advised. Students who do not appear to have the potential to succeed in the program will not be allowed to continue. B. Students who have completed the course requirements for the master's degree in another accredited institution of higher education must complete all the requirements for that master's degree program, as well as William and Mary's language requirement, by March 15 of their first year of William & Mary's doctoral program. These will, however, be considered minimum requirements for continuation. In addition, students must have demonstrated that they have the intellectual promise and skills to pursue a Ph.D. Faculty will evaluate the students they have taught or advised. Students who do not appear to have the potential to succeed in the program will not be allowed to continue. C. Students who are not allowed to continue will lose their funding and be dropped from the Ph.D. program at the end of the semester. Those who have completed the requirements for the M.A. degree will leave with an M.A. degree. Those who have not completed the M.A. requirements will have five years to do so.
D. Initially doctoral students will be assigned an advisor based upon field of interest. E. By April 15 of the second semester of Ph.D. study each student must select a dissertation advisor and register the choice in writing with the Graduate Committee. Normally students will have taken (or will be taking) a course from the advisor by the time they register this choice. F. Students in history must spend two years of graduate study after the first in continuous residence. G. Students receiving a stipend who wish to reside outside the greater Williamsburg area must request permission from the Graduate Director.
A. Doctoral students who receive four-year departmental financial awards are expected to serve as teaching assistants or teaching fellows for six of the eight semesters under the award. Students with funding must be available to teach in three out of the four semesters after they satisfactorily complete their comprehensive qualifying examination. For an exemption, the student must apply to the Director of Graduate Studies for a research assignment. B. Students are assigned to research in the semester in which they take the comprehensive qualifying examination and one other semester after they successfully complete the examination. C. Students may also apply for appointment as a Teaching Fellow in one of the other two semesters after passing the examination. D. Students who wish a research assignment outside of Williamsburg must request permission from the Graduate Director.
A. Preparing for the Comprehensive Qualifying Examination (1) The comprehensive exam requires students to demonstrate their command of the history and historiography in three chronological fields in early American and U.S. history and one field outside of U.S. history. (2) A student may substitute for one of the chronological American fields other than his or her dissertation field a topical field in American history that covers at least two of the three chronological fields. For possible exam fields, see Appendix VI. A student selecting this option must take two proseminars (or other approved graduate courses) in the chronological field for which the topical field is substituted. A proseminar in a topical field spanning chronological fields may count as one of the student's required proseminars in any of the chronological fields covered. (3) Since each student is expected to acquire an expert knowledge in the major field and in the specific area of the dissertation, he or she should plan to prepare that field in more depth. In no field should the comprehensive exam be considered merely an examination of coursework already taken. (4) No later than the third semester of doctoral study, the student should consult faculty about serving on his or her examination committee. The Graduate Director will make every effort to comply with the student's request in making assignments to the committee consistent with the need to distribute assignments equitably among the faculty. (5) The comprehensive examination committee will be composed of four faculty members, one for each field offered, and will include the student's dissertation advisor, who will serve as chair. (6) With the approval of a student's comprehensive qualifying examination committee, a faculty member from another program or department from whom a student has taken specialized training (for example, historical archaeology) may sit as a secondary examiner with the department examiner in one of the examination fields. (7) The student will work with each member of his or her committee to generate a reading list for each examination field. Each professor may choose whether to have a preset list or to require students to create their own lists as part of the comprehensive preparation process. Such lists will normally be 30-40 books or article equivalents, though faculty may sometimes require more depending on the student's preparation. See section 3. (8) Each student is expected to consult with the examination committee members in preparation for the exam. B. The Timing of the Exam (1) Students must take the comprehensive qualifying examination for the doctorate during the spring of their second Ph.D. year. (2) A student who for any reason fails to qualify to take the comprehensive exams in his or her fourth semester of doctoral study must wait until the sixth semester of doctoral study and will be ineligible to pass the exam with distinction. (3) A student who fails to qualify to take the exam in the fourth semester of doctoral work will forfeit stipends at the end of the fourth semester. C. The Exam Itself (1) The exam has two parts--one written and one oral. Students must pass both parts. (2) The written portion of the exam tests the depth of a student's knowledge and ability to present his or her ideas coherently. Some examiners may require a student to write several essays. Others may call for one essay. Likewise, the questions may be specific or sweeping. To name just two possibilities, one question may require a student to discuss debates within a particular field; another may call upon a student to draft a lecture on a given subject. (3) Each member of the examination committee is solely responsible for preparing the questions and evaluating the answers for one of the four fields on the written portion of the examination. An examiner may, but is not required to, request the assistance of other faculty members in preparing questions and evaluating answers, but each examiner alone determines the result for the field. A secondary examiner from outside the department in a field will report his or her opinion to the departmental examiner in that field. (4) Normally, examiners will be expected to provide students with options on the written portions of the comprehensive exam. (5) The examiner should make copies of his or her questions available to the chair of the comprehensive examination committee several days before the beginning of the written exam. (6) Students may pick up all sections of the written examination after 8 a.m. on the first day and must return all sections by 4:30 p.m. on the fifth day. (7) Students may take the four fields of the examination in
any order and at any time during the five-day period. Students are on their
honor to observe the following stipulations: (8) Typically, answers range from 3,000 to 5,000 words per field. (9) By the Wednesday following completion of the written exam, examiners will normally inform the chair of the student's committee whether the student passed or failed and will have discussed with the chair the strengths or weaknesses of the student's performance. The chair of the committee only will communicate these results to the student and to the Graduate Director as soon as possible after receiving them from committee members. (10) The student must pass the written portion of the examination in all four fields before going on to the oral section. (11) A student who fails the written portion of one field will be re-examined in that field only. (12) A student who fails the written portion of two fields will be re-examined in all fields. (13) If the four committee members are unanimous that the student passed the written portion of the examination and may proceed to the oral portion, the committee chair will inform the student and the Graduate Director without a meeting of the committee. If the student fails any field, or if there is disagreement over any issue, the committee chair will convene the committee to set the approximate time for the written reexamination and to seek resolution of any disagreement before informing the student of the results of the examination. (14) The oral portion of the exam is a two-hour examination, wherein the members of the committee ask questions on a wide range of subjects. Faculty may further examine a student's knowledge of subjects covered on the written exam. They may ask the questions that the student chose not to answer on the written portion of the exam, or they may devise entirely new questions. Each student will be judged on the depth and breadth of his or her knowledge and also on his or her ability to present that knowledge clearly and coherently. (15) It is the responsibility of the student to arrange with the committee a mutually convenient date and place for the oral examination before administration of the written portion of the comprehensive qualifying examination. Oral examinations normally will be scheduled no earlier than the second Monday after completion of the written exam and no later than one month after the written exam. (16) A student who fails the oral portion of one field will be re-examined in that field only. The entire comprehensive examination committee will normally be present when the student retakes the one oral field that he or she initially failed. (17) A student who fails the oral portion of two fields will be re-examined orally in all fields. (18) The final evaluation of the comprehensive exam will take into account the student's performance on both the written and oral portions of the exam and will use the following categories for evaluation: distinction, pass, or fail. (19) A student who fails to pass the exam in the fourth semester of doctoral work will forfeit stipends at the end of the fourth semester. (20) Only one re-examination will be permitted for the written portion of the examination and only one for the oral portion. The graduate program committee may waive this rule only under the most unusual and compelling circumstances. It is the responsibility of the student to bring such conditions to the attention of the Graduate Director no later than two weeks after notification of failure on the first re-examination. (21) No comprehensive qualifying examinations or re-examinations will be administered during the summer session. (22) No doctoral student may serve as an instructor in the History Department until he or she has passed the comprehensive qualifying examinations. 4. COURSE REQUIREMENTS A. Candidates for the Ph.D. degree must complete at least 27 hours of graduate coursework in History (not including History 800) beyond the master's level within the first three semesters of residency. B. With approval of the Graduate Director, students may take graduate courses in other departments or programs toward the 27-hour minimum. C. At a minimum, students must schedule at least three courses (not including History 800: Dissertation) each semester. D. Students who fail to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale over the three semesters of study before taking the comprehensive qualifying examination, or who receive two Cs, are automatically dropped from the program. (Students should note the a grade of B-minus falls below the required average.) E. A doctoral student must take two research seminars in two separate fields of American history. A student may have one of the required seminars waived if he or she has satisfied the research seminar requirement for his or her M.A. degree. Research seminars are offered only in the fall semester. F. Doctoral students who are appointed as teaching assistants must take History 705 (Teaching History) if they have not previously done so.
Doctoral students are required to pass a departmental language examination in one foreign language. (See IA and IB.) No credit will be granted for language requirements passed at other institutions, but students who have fulfilled the departmental language requirement as M.A. candidates at William and Mary need not repeat the process at the doctoral level. (For further details, see the description of the language requirement under the Master's Program.)
A. Each candidate for the doctorate must submit a dissertation that is based on original research and which makes a contribution to historical knowledge. A prospectus on the topic must be approved by his or her dissertation advisor and submitted to the Graduate Program Committee by October 15 of the third semester of Ph.D. work. For a description of the Dissertation Prospectus, see Appendix XIV. B. Students are advised to register their dissertation topics with the American Historical Association as soon as the prospectus is approved. C. The dissertation committee will be composed of four faculty members, including the advisor. Normally, two will be American historians in the department, one will be a non-Americanist in the department, and one will be an "outside" reader (either a faculty member from another department at William and Mary or from another institution.) Students will decide upon their committees in consultation with their advisors; all committees must be approved by the Graduate Director and the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies. D. At least one member of the doctoral dissertation committee other than the director must read and approve the draft of the dissertation before it is typed in final form and submitted to the other members of the dissertation committee. E. Before graduation each doctoral student must have registered for at least one hour of History 800 (Dissertation). Faculty members will not be available for the supervision of dissertations during the summer months except by prior arrangement. For additional directions see the section on "Theses" above. F. A Caution: Drafts of dissertations take time to read and revise. Students should secure the approval of their dissertation director before passing the dissertation draft to the second reader and then that person's approval before circulating it to other members of the committee. Since normally directors and other committee members are concurrently teaching a full schedule, students should allow as much as four to six weeks each for a director and second reader to complete a reading (more if revisions require further reading) and two to three additional weeks for other committee members to read the final draft. When students submit a draft, they should ask the reader for an approximate date the manuscript will be returned. Faculty are not available to read dissertations or hold defenses of dissertations over the summer except by prior arrangement. Students should be certain to discover well in advance when readers will be on leave. G. See also, Appendix III: Rules for Submitting Theses and Dissertations
After the dissertation has been accepted by the committee, the
student must defend his or her dissertation in a final oral examination before
the faculty and such other persons as the dissertation committee may invite.
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