A. Program Description. The Boston College History Department attracts talented graduate students from around the nation and around the world. We offer MA and PhD degrees with training in a number of regional and thematic specialties.

The department has long had particular strength in British & Irish history, medieval history, US history, and early modern/modern European history. Emerging areas of faculty expertise and graduate student interest include South Asian history, East Asian history, Latin American history, and African history. In addition, the department trains in a range of comparative and transnational areas, with particular interest in the history of religion, empires and legacies, and the Atlantic world.

The History Department matriculates a small class of new graduate students each September; our program's size ensures individualized attention and considerable flexibility in designing one's plan of study. All PhD students are guaranteed funding through their fifth year in the program assuming successful completion of requirements. Graduate students gain experience teaching in the university's two-semester core history sequence. Graduate students also have an opportunity to teach History core courses in the summer session. Faculty and graduate students come together regularly for conversations about the craft of teaching history.

The History Department also offers a Certificate in Digital Humanities. A joint effort of the History and English Departments and the Boston College Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Group, the program offers M.A. and Ph.D. students the opportunity to diversify their skillsets and produce projects such as digital archives, data visualizations, online exhibits, and scholarly websites. This project-based approach puts a premium on collaboration and interdisciplinary inquiry. In the process, Certificate holders will enhance their employment prospects in both traditional academia as well as in publishing, government, museums, libraries, archives, and other alt-ac fields.

Historians at Boston College benefit from our location in one of the world's great centers of academic life. A range of neighboring universities, libraries, and cultural institutions enrich all of our work. In particular, ongoing collaboration with graduate programs at Boston University, Brandeis University, and Tufts University allows our graduate students to tap into a remarkable network of world-class scholars. Several students and faculty also take part in the Center for European Studies, the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, and the South Asia Initiative at Harvard, as well as the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality at MIT. Ongoing seminars and lecture series at the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Boston Public Library, and the Museum of Fine Arts bring together lively communities of scholars interested in a range of subfields and other disciplines. In all, Boston offers an unparalleled site for pursuing advanced study in history.

B. Special Programs. Boston College doctoral students have access to many resources that will be useful for research. O'Neill Library, the main library on campus, has extensive hours for studying purposes. The John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections, also at Boston College, houses the University's rare books, special collections and archives. It is home to more than 150,000 volumes, some 15,000,000 manuscripts and important collections of architectural records, maps, art works, newspapers, photographs, films, prints, artifacts and ephemera.

Furthermore, the Boston College Libraries are a cooperating member of the Boston Library Consortium, a network of 19 academic and research libraries around New England. Because of this membership, Boston College faculty and students qualify for borrowing privileges at the member libraries.

C. Financial Aid. The PhD program guarantees five full years of funding to incoming PhD students, meaning that doctoral students receive tuition remission as well as a stipend. This funding is contingent upon satisfactory academic performance and progress towards the degree. Beginning in their second year of study, doctoral students serve as Teaching Assistants in the History department.

D. Degree Requirements. Students entering directly into the PhD program are required to complete 39 credits, 36 of which are to be taken prior to an oral comprehensive exam. All students in the PhD program are required to pursue two semesters of full-time study during the first year and must, in the course of their studies, complete at least two research seminars and two intensive readings colloquia (one in the major and one in a minor area). The language requirement is specific to PhD candidates’ major field of study. Medievalists must pass three language exams, one of which must be in Latin. US historians must pass one language exam. In all other fields (Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle East), PhD candidates must pass two language exams. Students will pass one language exam during the first year in the program, and the second (and third, if applicable) exam before taking the oral comprehensive examination.