A. Program Description. For nearly a century, the Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History has been offering students a unique opportunity to pursue graduate degrees. Its moderate size, prize-winning faculty, and distinctive history helps the Department create an innovative learning environment that fosters close interaction among students and professors. The Program prides itself on its commitment to preparing broadly trained scholars and teachers who are leaders in their fields of specialty, while also readying interested students for careers as editors, historical archaeologists, and public history professionals in historical societies, libraries and museums. Our accomplished faculty specializes in Early America, the United States, the Atlantic World, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, East and South Asia, and the Indian Ocean. The History Department offers Doctoral and Master's degree programs.

B. Special Programs. In addition to traditional preparation in teaching and research, the Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History offers both MA and doctoral students practical experience in career fields related to history in the form of apprenticeships and internships in conjunction with the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Colonial Williamsburg, the Earl Gregg Swem Library, the National Institute of American History and Democracy, the Lemon Project in African American history, and the William and Emery Reves Center for International Studies.

Apprenticeships for first-year students and internships for advanced doctoral students are available in archives and manuscript collections, editing scholarly books and William and Mary Quarterly articles, and digital humanities. The History Department also requires doctoral students to serve as teaching assistants and participate in a teaching internship that provides supervised experience in teaching college classes. Advanced graduate students also serve as writing preceptors in the department's innovative History Writing Resources Center.

C. Financial Aid. All PhD students are awarded a six-year funding package that includes full tuition, fees, and annual stipends. Some financial aid is available to MA students on a competitive basis.

D. Degree Requirements. The department offers a one-year terminal Master's Degree Program involving two semesters of coursework and preparation of a research portfolio. Doctoral candidates complete the requirements for a Master’s Degree and take an additional two semesters of coursework. In the fall semester of their third year, doctoral students take a written and oral comprehensive qualifying examination in four fields. Both Master's and Doctoral candidates must pass a language exam that tests reading knowledge of a language other than English.