Graduate Catalog 2004-2005

History

Peter Way, Chair
Robert Buffington, Graduate Coordinator
128 Williams Hall
Phone: 419-372-2030

Degrees Offered
Master of Arts; Master of Arts in Teaching; Doctor of Philosophy

Graduate Faculty

Professors:	Edmund Danziger, Ph.D.; James H. Forse, Ph.D.; Gary Hess, Ph.D.; Fujiya Kawashima, Ph.D.; Kenneth Kiple, Ph.D.; Donald Nieman, Ph.D.; Don Rowney, Ph.D.; Judith Sealander, Ph.D.
Associate Professors:	Lillian Ashcraft-Eason, Ph.D.; Robert Buffington, Ph.D.; Douglas Forsyth, Ph.D.; Liette Gidlow, Ph.D.; Scott Martin, Ph.D.; Apollos Nwauwa, Ph.D.; Peter Way, Ph.D.
Assistant Professors:	Beth Griech-Polelle, Ph.D.; Walter Grunden, Ph.D.; Andrew Schocket, Ph.D.; Leigh Ann Wheeler, Ph.D.

The Department of History offers programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Teaching, and Doctor of Philosophy. It is also possible to pursue a dual Master of Arts in History and German, History and Spanish, or History and French. In these programs, individual research and knowledge of research by others in the field are integral to students' education. Special attention is given to research techniques, historiography, and policy history; indeed, the Bowling Green policy history program is the most comprehensive in the nation, the only one that emphasizes study in non-American as well as American fields. The doctoral program focuses on policy history. Students examine the interrelationships among politics, institutions, and society, the ways in which policies have often been transformed when put in place, and the consequences of policy decisions. Students are encouraged to work comparatively, across national boundaries. All students whose focus is on American history must take an Asian or Latin American field, as well. M.A. and M.A.T. students choose from six field groups: African History, Europe, American History to 1877 or American History since 1877, Latin America, Policy History or Public History, or East Asia. M.A. and M.A.T. students may choose policy history as a major or minor field group. Ph.D. students must choose policy history as a major field group.

Prerequisites to Graduate Work

Graduate study in history requires a minimum of 24 hours of undergraduate work in history. A maximum of six hours in related areas may be accepted as part of the 24-hour requirement.

Admission Procedure

Applicants seeking admission to the graduate program in history should follow the instructions outlined in the "Graduate Admission" section of this catalog.

In addition to the general Graduate College requirements, an applicant should submit the following items along with the application for admission form:

at least three letters of recommendation from professors of history or a related field and
evidence of ability to do research and writing, such as a copy of a seminar paper or thesis.

Degree Requirements

Master of Arts

Candidates may pursue the M.A. degree under one of two plans.

Plan I: Thirty-six semester hours of graduate credit are required. Candidates must write a thesis and complete an oral examination on the thesis and the field of history in which it lies. This plan includes a language requirement which may be fulfilled either through a dictionary reading knowledge of an approved foreign language or the satisfactory completion of an approved course in quantitative methodology; SOC 369, Introductory Statistics; or CS 500, Computing for Graduate Students. Plan I is recommended for students who plan to pursue doctoral work in history.

Plan II: Thirty-two semester hours of graduate credit are required. Candidates must complete a comprehensive oral examination in two fields of history. Preparation for the examination normally entails the reading of at least six books in each field selected in consultation with two examiners.

Under both plans, a student's program must include a course in historical methods, one course in historiography, and two graduate seminars.

Master's degree candidates may pursue an emphasis in the field of public history, which provides professional education in archives and museum management, local history, and other endeavors through which historians cooperate with larger publics. This program is integrally tied to other graduate offerings in history. Among the course work required for completion of the degree are ten hours in public history courses, a thesis, and an internship involving on-site work experience.

Master of Arts in Teaching

M.A.T. students are required to take 36 semester hours of course work of which 24 to 28 must be in history and eight to 12 must be in education. There is a final written comprehensive examination in history.

Doctor of Philosophy

General Requirements: The doctoral program in history requires the completion of 90 hours of approved graduate credit beyond the bachelor's degree, including a maximum of 30 hours of credit for research on the dissertation. All candidates for the Ph.D. degree must spend at least two consecutive semesters beyond the master's degree, or equivalent, in residence at the University, during which time a minimum of six hours of work must be completed satisfactorily each semester.

The Ph.D. foreign language requirement may be satisfied in one of the following ways:

(1) passing a dictionary-assisted reading proficiency examination in two foreign languages;

(2) passing a dictionary-assisted reading proficiency examination in one foreign language of an approved course or courses in quantitative methodology, to be chosen by the student in consultation with the graduate coordinator and/or the student’s major advisor;

(3) demonstration of high proficiency in one foreign language.
In the case of students from countries where English is not the language of instruction, satisfaction of the University's English proficiency requirement satisfies the history foreign language requirement, except when research is to be conducted in a language other than English or the student's native tongue.

History Requirements: All candidates for the Ph.D. will be required to complete HIST 652 (Historiography) and HIST 694 (Methodology) unless they have equivalent training in these areas. Students seeking exemption from HIST 652 or HIST 694 must submit proof to the graduate coordinator that the training they have acquired elsewhere is the equivalent of that provided by these courses. Students must prepare for examinations in three fields, one of which will be policy history with a focus in a specialized area (e.g., American foreign policy, 20th Century U.S., U.S. Constitutional history, 20th Century Europe, Modern Russia, Modern East Asia, gender and policy). Students whose focus is U.S. or European history must take a field in Asian or Latin American history. All candidates for the Ph.D. degree will be required to spend at least two consecutive semesters beyond the Master’s degree (or equivalent) in residence at the University.

Examinations: Admission to Ph.D. candidacy is granted following the successful completion of preliminary examinations, which consist of written and oral exercises covering the student's four fields.
Dissertation: Dissertations may be written in areas of American, European, Latin American, and East Asian history, but all dissertations must have a focus on private or public institutional decision-making processes.

Graduate Courses

Please access graduate courses online at http://webapps.bgsu.edu/courses/search.php. Graduate courses offered by the Department of History use the prefix: HIST.

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