A. Program Description. Georgetown's History graduate program has a global reach, and is an established leader in international, global, and comparative history. We are a leader in the growing emphasis on transnational history in the classroom and faculty scholarship, with recognized strengths in the Atlantic World, the Pacific World, international diplomacy and cultural interactions, the global environment, and comparative gender relations. Our students are as international as the fields they study.

Georgetown offers a PhD in History, and an MA in Global, International and Comparative History. We also participate in several joint programs at Georgetown: a joint MA with the School of Foreign Service, a joint PhD program with Arab Studies (M.A. in Arab Studies/PhD in History) and with German and European Studies (M.A. in German and European Studies/PhD in History).

The PhD program is highly selective and rigorous, with long-standing strength in many fields. Our doctoral students have an excellent record in securing prestigious competitive research and dissertation-writing fellowships, as well as tenure-track jobs in premier universities and colleges. The program is open to students with a B.A. or MA in History or comparable background, and we accept approximately 10 percent of those who apply, with an incoming cohort of approximately 15 students. Students entering with an MA in History can be eligible for advanced standing. The key materials to provide with the application are: transcripts; a 500-word statement of purpose; a sample of major work (a research paper demonstrating ability to work with primary sources); three letters of recommendation; and TOEFL scores where appropriate. Beginning with matriculation in Fall 2021, GRE scores are optional. Anyone applying to the doctoral program is strongly encouraged to contact faculty in his or her area of interest.

The Georgetown Masters of Arts in Global, International, and Comparative History (MAGIC) is open to students who have completed a BA or equivalent degree in History, a social science, or literature and culture. In exceptional cases, it will consider strong applicants with majors in other fields. The key materials to provide with the application are transcripts; a 500-word statement that details preparation, general goals, and the outline of a proposed program of study; a short (20-25 page) analytical writing sample; three letters of recommendation; and TOEFL scores where appropriate. Beginning with matriculation in Fall 2021, GRE scores are optional. The program is highly selective and averages a cohort of 15 students a year.

B. Special Programs. The History Department hosts the Georgetown Institute for Global History, which includes standing seminars in various regional and thematic fields. These workshops contribute to a lively intellectual atmosphere, exposing students to cutting-edge historical scholarship and debate. The Department is also committed to its students’ professional development and regularly organizes workshops for its students on teaching, writing grant and fellowship proposals, and navigating the academic job market.

Georgetown offers the unparalleled research resources of Washington, D.C.: the 26 million volumes of the Library of Congress; the National Archives; the remarkable range of specialized libraries, such as the National Library of Medicine, the Folger Shakespeare Library (which contains a superb collection on early-modern Continental European and English history), the Department of Agriculture, and several others. The university's Lauinger Library contains over 1.4 million volumes and a range of special collections, including the nearly 350,000 items of the Government Documents Depository.

C. Financial Aid. The Department offers various forms of financial aid to doctoral students. The Department currently awards several five-year fellowships to incoming students that provide tuition support and a stipend. Students who hold these fellowships will do no service their first year, and are eligible for a second year free from service after they have finished their comprehensive exams, with the specific timing determined in consultation with the student's committee. Service usually entails a teaching assistantship. Additional teaching assistantships are awarded to non-fellowship students in an annual competition. These awards are not automatically renewable, but those who hold an assistantship may re-enter the competition in succeeding years. A number of tuition scholarships are awarded based on an annual competition. These awards are available to students progressing within the seven-year time limit and depend on the availability of funds.

The Department places a high priority on providing teaching experience for doctoral students. All students on departmental fellowships have opportunities to serve as teaching assistants. Advanced doctoral candidates who have finished the research year are eligible to apply for a Royden B. Davis Fellowship, which provides a stipend and allows a student to design and teach an upper-division undergraduate class in one semester and to conduct research in the other semester. Advanced doctoral students have also taught sections of the departments general education history classes and regional history surveys.

All doctoral students who receive five-year Department fellowships are awarded at least one year without service to further their dissertation research. The Department also offers limited research and travel stipends to students on a competitive basis. Georgetown doctoral students have a superior record in research fellowship competitions. In the past ten years, our students have held DAAD, Fulbright-Hays, Fulbright, IREX, Marandon, Mellon-CLIR, NEH, SHAFR, SSRC, ACLS, Javits, ARCE, and AIMS fellowships. Students also have a superior record in attaining support for advanced language study, including the Institute for Turkish Studies and the Center for Arabic Study Abroad. In some fields, such as early-modern Europe, modern Germany, modern Russia, Poland, and the Middle East, every eligible student who has applied for an outside research fellowship has obtained one.

D. Degree Requirements. Doctoral students complete four requirements for the Ph.D.: 36 hours of coursework (minimum 3.3 GPA), appropriate language exams (two, except in the U.S. concentration, which requires one), comprehensive exams, and the dissertation. An introductory colloquium taken in the first semester and a year-long research seminar in the major field, taken in either the first or second year are mandatory. Students consult their advisory committee (led by a mentor and overseen by faculty in each field of study) to select courses in the major field, the research field, and the two minor fields. These fields can be defined geographically or thematically, but major and minor fields must cover separate geographic regions. Students who have done graduate work elsewhere are considered for up to nine credits of advanced standing. Students may also take courses at Washington-area Consortium universities. The first language exam is taken during orientation week, retaken if necessary, and ideally passed during the first year of study; with the exception of those in the US concentration, students must pass two language exams before taking the comprehensive exam. Comprehensive exams consist of a written exam, a written portfolio, and a two-hour oral exam usually taken by the end of the third year. The dissertation committee consists of three or four advisors. After completing a polished draft of the dissertation, the student makes an oral defense.

MAGIC students complete two requirements: 30 hours of course work (minimum 3.3 GPA) and an appropriate language exam. The 30 hours of courses will normally be taken over the course of three semesters but may extend over four (for those needing more language study, or finding work in the area). Students must take at least three courses a semester their first two semesters in the program. Mandatory courses include an introductory colloquium and a two-course sequence resulting in a final paper of original research. Students will choose from the list of graduate-level courses (500 and above) offered by the History department. In addition, students may take up to two courses outside of the History Department. In consultation with the Program Director, students will design their own programs of study, either comparing two regions of the world with respect to a common theme or placing a nation or a world region in an international context and exploring developments from the sixteenth century to the present. All MAGIC students must demonstrate competence in at least one language other than English by passing a department-administered examination before beginning their third full semester in the program. For students with native languages other than English, the native language plus English will normally fulfill the program's language requirement.