A. Program Description. The Department of History has more than 35 full-time faculty members with an active record of publications and outstanding teaching. Serving one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation, we have made great strides in embracing this diversity, both in the composition of our faculty and in teaching and course offerings. Faculty geographical specializations include Middle East, Ancient Greece and Rome, Latin America, western Europe, Africa, Asia, Russia and the U.S., while thematic specializations include environmental history, Mexican American history, African American history, Family and Gender, Science and Medicine history, Public History, Borderlands, Immigration, and Transnational history.

We offer graduate training for a variety of careers, including university teaching and research, teaching at the secondary level, editing, and archive and museum positions. In the recent past, our PhD program has placed students at Indiana University; the universities of Missouri, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Arkansas; Texas A & M; Cal State Sacramento; San Diego State, the University of North Florida, and numerous state universities and colleges in Texas. Over the last decade, we have one of the best records in the nation of training and placing African American students, and we have recently expanded our Mexican American history program. Our graduate programs now total more than 50 students.

Members of our department play active roles in the Center for Mexican American Studies and the African American Studies Program at the University of Houston. The department also has sponsored workshops in African American and Mexican American history that bring leading scholars in these fields to the campus. These programs reinforce our strong graduate offerings in ethnic studies while also attracting the interest of audiences outside of the campus. The department currently houses four chaired professorships and one distinguished professor. Funds from these chairs support a variety of activities, including support for graduate students. The history faculty maintains a high professional profile. Since 2000, current members of our department have published about 20 books and numerous articles. Its members edit three different series of books at university presses.

B. Special Programs. The public history program prepares MA students for a variety of jobs utilizing historian's skills in non-academic settings. The Center for Public History has a strong emphasis on environmental/energy/and urban issues. Its Tenneco Speakers Series sponsors numerous programs in the department and on the campus as a whole. It publishes The Houston History Magazine, a journal focused on the history of the region, and houses the Oral History of the Houston Economy, archival collections on environmental and energy history, and the Texas Slavery Project. The closely related Humanities and Professions Program maintains strong ties to the business and law schools on campus, as well as to the related professional communities in the city. The department is also a partner in the AHA History Gateways to Completion funded by the Gardner Institute and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. The department also has established ongoing programs at the Texas Medical Center.

C. Financial Aid. Most financial aid for graduate students comes in the form of teaching assistantships, which the department can offer to approximately 25 students each year. In addition, the department offers a small number of research assistantships to highly qualified students. Teaching and most research assistantships include health benefits and tuition fellowships (two years at the MA level and three years at the PhD level). Assistantships are available for a maximum of six years (over the MA/PhD period). The department also offers dissertation research fellowships for students who must travel to undertake their research. The University and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences also offer other forms of support for which History students are eligible to apply.

D. Degree Requirements. PhD students must take 36 hours (generally, 12 courses) beyond the MA degree, including 18 hours in the major area, 9 in a minor area, and 9 dissertation hours. The department recently instituted an expedited M.A./PhD track for students wishing to move directly through to the PhD This program requires 66 total hours. Qualifying examinations are in written form. Students in U.S. history cover both pre- and post-1877 eras and the field area of their intended dissertation research; European and Latin American students prepare their major field/time period and two others.