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Like all major history
departments in this country, we divide our graduate program into
subfields, most of which reflect the geographic and chronological
boundaries that have traditionally organized historical research in the
West, but others of which cross those boundaries (such as sociomedical
sciences, Jewish history, and International & Global History).
Those boundaries continue to define most faculty positions in American
history departments. Every prospective Columbia student thus applies to
work in a specific subfield. There are sixteen of them (described in The Graduate Student Handbook), each of
which has slightly different requirements.
Prospective students should
realize, however, that our history department, like many others, also
provides opportunities for students to embrace broader lines of inquiry
—both within and across traditional divisions by field. We urge our
students, first, to explore the convergence of different methodological
and theoretical approaches to history— to explore, for example, the
intersections between political and social history, or the connections
between diplomatic, cultural, and intellectual history. And we
encourage our students, second, to consider research that moves beyond
the period and place associated with their subfield. We continue to
emphasize deep training in source analysis and empirical research,
which are the foundations of professional history-writing. But we also
urge students to take on research projects that situate their
particular time or place in historical processes that decisively cross
traditional boundaries.
We welcome applications, therefore,
from students with strong interests in particular fields, who are eager
to immerse themselves in the records of particular cultures and are
prepared to acquire the techniques necessary for such work (languages
and, for certain subjects, such specialized skills as paleography,
statistics, or even musical training). But we also encourage
applications from students who want as well to think about their work
in terms of longer histories and broader theoretical questions.
Faculty members now at Columbia are
doing research and training students in several such broad,
transnational areas, including:
- International history,
emphasizing imperial and
post-imperial histories from the 1500s forward
- Western intellectual history,
medieval to modem
- Diasporic Jewish history
- Women's history and the history
of gender
- Social and political history of
the West, including history
of markets, commercial culture, labor, and associated legal institutions
- The international history of
race, slavery, and emancipation
- The international history of the
Cold War and other systems
of geopolitics
- The history of science and technology
- The global history of medicine,
disease, and public health
However
they define their fields, history students are not confined to the
resources of our department. They are, rather, encouraged to look
beyond our walls to other areas of the university or to other
institutions in the New York metropolitan area. In addition to
Columbia's fine departments in associated disciplines, such as
languages and literature, art history, music, philosophy, sociology, political science, or anthropology,
Columbia has a wide range of energetic interdisciplinary institutes
that provide formal and informal training to graduate students
throughout the university, among them the Harriman
Institute for Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies, the Middle Eastern
Institute, the Institute
for Research on Women and Gender, and the East Asian
Institute (along with the Department of East Asian
Languages and Culture). Columbia's School of Public Health,
which offers a Ph.D. in the history of medicine and public health in
association with our department; the Law School, with which we
offer a joint Ph.D./J.D. program; and the School of International and
Public Affairs are just three of Columbia's many professional
schools that offer courses and other intellectual opportunities to
enhance a student's training in the history department. Columbia
history students are also entitled to take courses at no additional
cost at other New York City universities (including NYU, the New School, and the CUNY
Graduate School) as well as at such neighboring universities as Princeton, Rutgers, and Yale.
Whatever
larger interests a student may have or may develop, each enters the
history program through a particular subfield. The Graduate Student Handbook lists the
sixteen subfields and details the specific requirements for each (the
principal differences concern language requirements, orals preparation,
and seminars). Students and their advisors may, however, agree on
adjustments to those requirements in response to a student's particular
interests. Students should also keep in mind that they can formally
change subfields, with faculty permission, and consequently adjust
their programs to reflect their particular needs.
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