The Course of Study
Diagnostic Evaluation
Comprehensive Exam
Continuous Enrollment
and Leave of Absence
Dissertation
Writing a
Dissertation
Dissertation
Prospectus Format
Dissertation
Prospectus Cover Sheet
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Students
accepted into the transatlantic Ph.D. program are expected to take a total of 39
semester credit hours:
27 hours of core (required) courses, 3 hours of approved electives, and a
minimum of 9 hours of dissertation work. All students are required to
take two introductory courses on transatlantic history, one course in Theories
and Methods (if they have not already done so as part of their MA degree at UTA),
four colloquia, and two research seminars. HIST 5339: Historical Theory & Methodology Colloquia: HIST
6301: Exploration and Cartography Research Seminar: HIST 6321: Transatlantic History, 1492-1800HIST 6322: Transatlantic History, 1800-Present
Beginning doctoral students
should take 9 hours in their first semester. Afterwards they should take at
least 6 hours each semester. However, doctoral students need to be enrolled in 9
hours if they are Teaching Assistants and 6 hours if they receive a UTA
fellowship. Each semester a student
must consult the Graduate Advisor before he/she can be cleared to register. The following course of study is
highly recommended.
If the student has not already
fulfilled the foreign language requirement before entering the doctoral program,
he/she is expected to use the first two years in the program to satisfy the
foreign language requirement. The student is expected to choose a language that
will be required to work on the PhD topic of his/her choice. Each student is
expected to have a solid reading knowledge in at least one transatlantic
language (languages of the European and African peoples other than English). The
language proficiency can be demonstrated in three different ways: (1)
If the student has not already taken four semesters (from
an accredited university) in a single foreign language with at least a B before
being admitted to the PhD program (within10 years prior to admission), the
student needs to complete four semesters in one foreign language with at least a
grade of B prior to taking the Comprehensive Exam. (2)
Demonstrating proficiency in a foreign language by taking
the CLEP test and scoring 71-80 in German, 68-80 in French, and 67-80 in
Spanish. (3)
Taking the Reading Comprehension Exercise by an
appropriate faculty member in which the student during one semester must read
one monograph (about 200-300 pages) in a language other than English and submit
a five-seven page summary in English, which must include up to three pages of
direct translation. The language requirement must be
satisfied before the student can take the Comprehensive Exam. For the student at
the dissertation stage, the candidate’s doctoral committee may require that
the student demonstrates competency in a second foreign language in the same
fashion as the first foreign language if that second language is judged
essential for the student’s dissertation research. |
At the end of the first academic year but no later than the completion of the first 18 hours of coursework, the members of the Graduate Studies Committee will determine after careful consideration whether the student has demonstrated the potential to complete the program and, consequently, whether the student will be allowed to continue in the program. Results of the diagnostic evaluation may be: (1) approval to continue in the doctoral program; (2) approval to continue with specified remedial work; (3) failure, but with permission for assessment through a second diagnostic evaluation after no more than one year; (4) failure and dismissal from the program.
Comprehensive
Exam Committee
If the
student is allowed to stay in the program, he/she should, after consultation
with the Ph.D. Advisor, consider establishing a five-member Comprehensive Exam
Committee. The student must first ask a graduate faculty member whose research
closely relates to the student's anticipated dissertation topic to chair the
committee. The chair of the committee will then assist the student in assembling
the rest of the committee. Four of the five committee members must be from UTA's
History Department. The PhD advisor reserves the right to attend the oral
portion of the Comprehensive Exam. One member can be from outside the department
or even from another university. All five members of the committee will read and
assess the comprehensive examination and the dissertation prospectus.
Comprehensive
Exam
After the
student has completed all or most of the 30 hours of coursework and satisfied
the language requirement, he/she, upon consultation with the Ph.D. Advisor and
the Comprehensive Exam Committee, should begin preparing for the Ph.D.
Comprehensive Exam. It is strongly recommended that students wait until they
have completed all 30 hours of course work. To prepare for the Comprehensive
Examination, students may enroll in Independent Study courses, HIST 6190, 6390,
6690, or 6990 during their fourth semester.
Only
after the student has the approval of the Ph.D. Advisor, he/she may arrange the
date of the exam in consultation with all committee members. Only then may the Request
for the Comprehensive Examination form be filed with the
The
Comprehensive Examination is meant to test the student's knowledge in at least
three broad areas of study and is designed to determine whether the student is
prepared to teach in those areas. There
are six areas for the
Comprehensive Examination:
(1)
Colonialism and Imperialism
This
area focuses on the history of power relations among the peoples and nations
within the transatlantic world.
(2)
Migration
This
area focuses on the experience of migrants from Europe and Africa and the
multi-cultural societies that developed in North and
(3)
African Diaspora
This
area is dedicated to the study of the forced migration of African peoples and
the experience of their descendants throughout the transatlantic world.
(4)
History of Cartography and Historical Geography
This
area deals with the visual representation of European expansion and European
exploration of North and
(5)
Political and Economic Revolutions
This
area focuses on the political revolutions and transformations from the end of
the sixteenth century to the present day, industrialization, and the social
unrest and protest movements that shaped political culture and the transatlantic
world.
(6)
Intercultural Transfers
This area focuses on the intercultural transfer of ideas and concepts among societies within the transatlantic world.
The written portion of the exam will be taken over a period of three consecutive days, seven hours each day, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The students will be examined over one area each day. Beginning with the first morning, the student should report to the graduate program assistant in the History Department office, who will issue the student the relevant question(s) for that day’s examination. Students may use a personal computer available in the department to take their examination. They may not use texts or notes during the exam. Chairs should ensure that time-limits for individual parts of the examination are observed.
After the written exams are completed and the committee has read all three parts, students will take the oral exam (within a week of the written exam). Students must take both the written and oral exams or they will automatically fail the comprehensive exam. After the oral exam is over, the committee members will discuss the exam as a whole (written and oral). Then the committee will decided on one of the four options listed below.
A) Passed, approval and recommendation to begin dissertation research under the supervision of the committee chair.
B) Passed, approval to remain in the program upon meeting certain specified additional requirements.
C) Failed, with permission to retake the examination after a certain period as specified by the examining committee.
D) Failed: Recommendation not to continue in the program.
Students are required to pass this examination before they proceed to the dissertation (ABD) phase of the program.
Continuous Enrollment and Leave of Absence
Graduate Students must enroll in at least one credit hour of work related to their degrees each long semester (fall and spring) in order to be classified as enrolled students. Enrollment in summer sessions is not required. Meeting the minimum enrollment requirement does not exempt students from enrollment requirements for holding graduate assistantships, fellowships, or from requirements of other programs, offices or agencies such as the Veterans Administration, Immigration and Naturalization Service, federal financial aid and certain other loan programs. It is the student's responsibility to determine the enrollment requirements of such entities.
A student in good academic standing who has not been suspended for academic or disciplinary reasons is eligible to apply for a leave of absence if there are exceptional circumstances that prevent him or her from being continuously enrolled. Examples of circumstances for which a leave of absence is appropriate include, health related issues, childbirth, childcare, elder care or other significant family concerns, and other major personal circumstances that interfere with a student’s ability to continue graduate study. Leaves are granted for up to two long semesters. Students returning from leave as scheduled will be automatically readmitted and will not be required to submit an application or pay any application fees. A student requesting leave should complete the Leave of Absence Request form (available online through the Virtual Graduate School Advisor link) and obtain the approval of the Ph.D. Advisor. Final review and approval of these requests will be made by the Dean of Graduate Studies. Please use this link to access the Leave of Absence Request form: http://grad.uta.edu/currentStudents/VirtualGraduateSchoolAdvisor.asp
By the end of the first semester
after the successful completion of the Comprehensive Examination, the student
should submit a dissertation prospectus
to his/her committee and the Ph.D. Advisor who assures that it fulfills the
expectations of a doctoral project in transatlantic history. The dissertation
committee ordinarily consists of three of the five professors involved in the
Comprehensive Examination of the student. All
three members of the dissertation committee must be members of the UT Arlington
History Department. The student together with his/her primary supervisor may, if
deemed necessary, invite outside readers to become additional members of the
dissertation committee.
Students should work closely with the chair of their committee while researching
and writing their dissertation.
During the dissertation phase of
the program, students enroll in HIST 6399, 6699 and 6999 and, in exceptional
cases with prior approval of the Ph.D. Advisor, in HIST 6190. History
6190 may be taken by students following their Comprehensive Exams for a maximum
of four semesters, if their dissertation chair concludes that in a given
semester they are not engaged full-time
in work on their dissertation. In the final semester of
dissertation work, students must enroll in HIST 6999 to be in compliance with
the requirement of the
Once the student, the chair of
the committee, and the primary readers agree that the dissertation is ready to
be defended, the student must submit the request
for dissertation defense form and schedule the dissertation defense. Before he/she applies for graduation, the student must receive approval from the
Ph.D. Advisor. The student should furnish each committee member with a copy of
the dissertation, including notes and bibliography, at least three weeks prior
to the defense date. The oral defense of the dissertation generally lasts 1-2
hours. Questioning of the candidate will be supervised by the chair of the
student's dissertation committee. Committee members may request that the
dissertation be further revised and may withhold final approval of the
dissertation until the revisions have been made. If the dissertation has been
approved by the committee, the student has to submit the dissertation
and the dissertation defense report
to the
Guidance
for students intending to write a doctoral dissertation
B)
Your dissertation demonstrates your knowledge of the literature/sources. Writing
your dissertation requires you to demonstrate a mastery of the published
scholarship pertaining to your subject. At the doctoral level, students must
know the literature and be able to place their own ideas/findings in the context
of that literature. Your committee will help you by identifying important
sources and scholars. This literature normally includes important books and
essays by recognized scholars. Such literature is the result of a process called
jurying or reviewing, - that is, each book or essay has been reviewed by
knowledgeable scholars before its publication - much as your committee
will evaluate your written work as you write your dissertation. Moreover, some
of the literature that you consult may not only be in history but in related
fields such as anthropology, geography, and sociology. Please remember that
consulting websites presents real challenges, because anyone can post a
website regardless of their knowledge or credentials. A person pursuing a
doctoral degree must also know how to judge the validity of sources rather than
giving equal weight to everything they locate. In addition to being able to
evaluate the literature, students must be able to cite it carefully using
accepted forms of documentation (for example, The
C)
Your dissertation is based on critical thinking skills.
Your writing must be coherent, well organized, and based on a rational research
design. Sweeping generalizations and polemical statements are not acceptable: A
dissertation is not the place to air unsubstantiated opinions and beliefs, but
rather is your opportunity to present new ideas and interpretations that are
based on solid evidence. The evidence should be in the form of primary sources
and/or secondary sources, and you must demonstrate an ability to evaluate these
sources critically and fairly. Historians deal with many subjects -- race
relations, political philosophies, environmental conditions - that can (and
often are) regarded passionately; however, those same subjects may not have been
regarded with the same beliefs and passions in the past. Please avoid presentism:
Even the seemingly simple word “pollution” may mean something in one era and
something quite different in another. A historian needs to know and understand
the context of past actions, and also understand the value of
dispassionate inquiry.
D)
Researching your dissertation requires you to possess or learn effective
foreign/modern language skills. You should consult the Transatlantic History
Program’s written guidance on the subject of foreign/modern language. Like
most doctoral programs, the Transatlantic History Program is based on the
concept of comparative analysis. It stresses inter-hemispheric connections - not
the dominance of one culture or one point of view. Students who know their
subject from the perspective of only one language (for example, English) will
have a limited understanding of that subject and not meet program expectations.
Students writing a dissertation will broaden their philosophical horizons by
engaging the thoughts/ideas of people in other countries/cultures - which is to
say they develop an expanding network of contacts and sources. Students
frequently attempt to argue the case that they do not need skills in other
languages, but they are deluding themselves and compromising their scholarship
from the outset. Although some documents and key books/articles may have been
translated [into English], many others have not. At the most philosophical
level, you need to know how scholars in other cultures/countries have addressed
the subject(s) that you are studying. Similarly, valuable primary sources may be
in another language. Students may feel that they can overcome this requirement
by simply hiring a translator, but they miss an important point: A scholar
always benefits from reading the originals as she/he may discover things
overlooked (or misinterpreted) by others in translation.
E)
Your dissertation must follow the guidance of your committee. Your
dissertation is based on the proposal/prospectus that you present to your
committee and their approval of that prospectus. The prospectus not only
identifies the dissertation topic but also describes the methodology you will
use and the major sources you will consult in writing the dissertation. You
should carefully follow the guidance of the committee at all stages. The
committee may request that you provide all written drafts to your committee
chair first as he/she is supervising your work. You should follow the chair’s
guidance to ensure successful completion of your dissertation in a timely
manner. Your chair’s and committee’s time is as valuable as yours, so be
sure that all recommendations are followed and revisions made before you
submit work. When providing drafts for review, be certain they are the latest.
Electronic files may be corrupted or mislabeled; be sure you are sending the
correct document. And do not trust technology unconditionally. Make electronic and
paper backup copies of all your work.
F)
Your dissertation must be completed in a reasonable, but realistic, timeframe. The
History Department and UTA require students to complete their work in a timely
manner. However, students occasionally have aspirations to complete the
dissertation more quickly for other reasons - for example, to please an ailing
failing family member, to realize the benefits or advancement that a Ph.D.
degree will provide them at work, to find a job more quickly, etc. These are external
factors that your committee has no control over, nor any ability to affect. They
may help motivate you, but have no affect on the committee’s decision.
The flip side of the time equation – failure to complete work in a timely
manner – is also to be avoided. Do not wait until deadlines near to prepare
work. Time management skills are essential for scholars. Failure to meet
deadlines will not only jeopardize completion of your dissertation, it suggests
that you will not be a dependable or productive scholar in the long run for all
scholarship depends on an ability to meet deadlines of peers and publishers.
Your progress will depend on your ability to meet all required deadlines,
complete all required work, etc., as demanded by your committee. The committee
is above all interested in maintaining a high quality program, and it is,
therefore, also in your interest that your work reflects that high quality.
Dissertation Prospectus Format
The prospectus (proposal) is
typically an 8-12 page document that includes a cover sheet for the signatures
of all five committee members, plus the following parts:
1. Statement of
Problem, Research Question, or Thesis: Research
begins with the discovery of a problem needing solution, an unanswered question,
a claim needing proof, a topic, or a set of texts to be studied in a way that
will advance knowledge and understanding. Specify the problem, question, claim,
topic or texts to be investigated.
2. Summary Review
of Scholarship Relevant to the Dissertation: Briefly summarize what is already known about the
problem, question, claim, topic, or texts to be investigated. If the problem has
been previously investigated, specify what is distinctive about the proposed
study.
3. Significance
of the Research: Indicate why the research should
be considered important or worthwhile. Specify how it will contribute to
knowledge.
4. Methodology:
Indicate the manner in which the problem, question,
claim, topic, or texts to be investigated will be researched, and show why this
is an appropriate method.
5. Tentative
Organization: In a brief outline including
possible chapter titles, indicate what each chapter will cover.
6. Preliminary
Bibliography: Provide a preliminary
bibliography listing primary documents to be used and secondary scholarship that
is relevant to your proposed topic. Indicate whether sufficient resources for
the research project are readily available.