Graduate Studies in History

To Prospective Graduate Students

Graduate study in history at Carnegie Mellon centers on two programs leading to the Ph.D. degree: 1.) History and Policy and 2.) Social and Cultural History. Although students specialize in one of these two areas, they take many courses together and participate in a shared intellectual community. As you will see, ours is a distinctive department offering a distinctive approach to study in history. Our program is by design a small one, and students receive a great deal of individual attention from faculty. The program strongly emphasizes research, and students often participate in collaborative research projects with faculty. We believe that graduate education in a discipline like History extends well beyond coursework and rests upon mutual education.

Policy historians use their historical training to address a wide range of contemporary policy debates in domestic and international affairs, whether at the local, state, regional, or national levels. Any policy issue in the public or private sector which can sensibly be studied historically is a possible topic for a policy historian (for example, environmental policy, industrial policy, criminal justice policy, educational policy, military personnel policy, or drug policy). Students in History and Policy take many of the same historical content courses as do those in Social and Cultural History, but their particular policy interests often draw them into work internships and courses in other departments (e.g., Social and Decision Sciences) and professional schools (e.g., Heinz School of Public Policy and Management).

Social and cultural historians study the lives of ordinary men and women more than of political and intellectual elites. They concentrate on the variety of settings in which social life takes place--the family, the neighborhood, and the work place as well as the larger community. Social and cultural history has grown over the last thirty years to include a rich variety of approaches to historical analysis, including the study of politics, emotions, popular mentalities and culture. Students in social and cultural history are broadly trained in comparative and interdisciplinary techniques while also specializing in a particular geographic area and time period.

The department has avoided replication of standard history programs offered by other universities and has deliberately kept the number of students low in order to permit maximum attention and guidance from the faculty. On average, six new students are admitted to the doctoral programs each year, usually divided evenly between the History and Policy and Social and Cultural History programs. Most students receive full tuition and a substantial, four-year stipend.

You may contact the Director of Graduate Studies at grad-director@andrew.cmu.edu to request additional information not yet available online.