Women’s Studies and History Joint PhD Program
Specific Requirements and Policies
Transferring Credits
Language Requirement
Statistics Option
Recommended Progress
Fourth Term Screening
WS 891
Prelims
Dissertation Prospectus/Proposal
Faculty of the Women’s Studies and History Doctoral
Program
Transferring Credits
You may transfer a maximum of 6 credit hours of graduate credit for courses
taken at other institutions. In the case of a relevant MA, the graduate school
will reduce by 18 credits the number of credits required for the PhD. In some
cases, an MS thesis may be counted toward the 700-level research seminar requirement.
In any case, only one seminar course may be waived (but not WS 891); the other
must be taken on campus. A language requirement fulfilled in an MA program
at another institution may count toward your language requirements at Michigan.
back to top
Language Requirement
Knowledge of one language other than English is required of students in United States history; two languages are required for students in all other fields. The purpose of this requirement, in addition to the relevance it may have to primary research, is to minimize scholarly provincialism and facilitate exposure to historical literature in languages other than English. PhD students in Women’s Studies and History cannot advance to candidacy without meeting the language requirement.
Students may establish their ability to use a foreign language in one of the following ways:
- By completing with a grade of B or above one semester of courses in U-M language departments on the model of French, German or Spanish 112, or in Spanish 275. (Note: Enrollment in 112 is normally predicated on successful completion of 111. In rare cases, a student can petition the instructor to take 112 without having first taken 111. Students who take 111 only must pass the departmental written language exam to demonstrate proficiency.)
- By passing a written examination administered by our faculty, requiring translation (with the aid of a dictionary) of two passages selected as representative examples of scholarly historical writing in that language. For languages other than French, German or Spanish, two courses at second-year level that will provide training equivalent to the models specified, with a grade of B or above and approval of the student’s advisor, will satisfy the language requirement.
- By satisfying a language requirement, similar to our own and administered in similar ways, for a master’s degree.
Students are expected to fulfill one language requirement during the first year of residence. By the end of the second year, they should have fulfilled the second language requirement as well. Tests in French, German, Russian and Spanish are offered each Fall and Winter term. Tests in other languages may be readily substituted and are arranged on an ad hoc basis. The Associate Chair of the History Department has oversight of departmental language examinations, and the History Director of Graduate Studies validates fulfillment of the language requirement.
Students from countries in which English is not the normal language of secondary school and university instruction (and whose family language is not English), may satisfy the language requirements by demonstrating competence in one foreign language, in addition to English and their native language.
back to top
Statistics Option
The Department of History regards statistics as an important research tool that is useful for some graduate students. With the permission of the Graduate Committee, students not in U.S. History may offer statistics in lieu of one foreign language. To meet this requirement, a student must complete, with a grade of B or better, a two-course sequence designed to provide the basic statistics competence needed to undertake quantitative studies in history, and take one course which provides an initiation into the practical application of statistics.
back to top
Women’s Studies and History Recommended Progress
Please Note: This timelines notes typical progress through the program. Your schedule may be slightly different depending on when certain courses are offered.
First Year
Fall
- WS 501—Proseminar in Women’s Studies
- WS 530—Feminist Theory
- HIST 615—Introduction to the Comparative Study of History
- 1 Elective in Hist or WS
- Fulfill one language requirement
Winter
- WS 601 or WS 603—Approaches to Feminist Scholarship
- HIST 600-level studies course (HIST 611 for US history students)
- HIST 700-level seminar
Second Year
Fall
- HIST 807—History and the Instructional Experience
- HIST 993—Graduate Student Instructor Training Program
- 2 Electives in Hist or WS
Winter
- HIST 807—History and the Instructional Experience
- 1 Elective in Hist or WS
- WS 891
- Fulfill second language requirement
Third Year
Fall
- 1 Elective in Hist or WS
- Prelim exam
- Candidacy achieved
Winter
Fourth Year
Fifth Year
back to top
Fourth Term Screening
Screening is an assessment of a student’s progress in the joint program. A favorable screening signifies confidence in the student’s potential and faculty commitment to assisting the student in completion of the PhD.
Students begin by filling out the Screening Questionnaire, in order to ascertain whether requirements have been fulfilled.
Faculty who have taught the student are asked to evaluate the student’s performance and to decide whether to “highly recommend,” “recommend,” or “not recommend” continuation in the program. It is generally expected that at least two professors the student has worked with will “highly recommend,” continuation. At least one professor must agree to chair the student’s prelim committee and dissertation committee.
The History faculty make the final screening decision collectively. At least one faculty member with a joint appointment in History and Women’s Studies must be present.
An unfavorable decision will result in the student being asked to leave the program. Such a decision may be appealed if evidence has been overlooked or incorrectly represented.
Under special circumstances, a decision can be deferred until the beginning of the fifth term.
back to top
WS 891
WS 891 serves as the second seminar paper. (See History Gray Book for more
information about the 700-level seminar paper requirements.) It is meant to
demonstrate the student’s ability to conduct substantial original research,
similar to a History seminar paper, and to engage in feminist gender analysis
by taking an interdisciplinary approach. Ideally, like a second seminar paper,
WS 891 will be related to the student’s dissertation topic.
Written under the advisement of one of the committee members, this paper also constitutes the fourth “field” for the prelims. All members of the committee will have received copies of the paper in advance of the oral exam and are encouraged to participate in its discussion. The oral examination interrogates the ways in which the paper addresses issues of feminist methodology, theory and analysis. The Women's Studies faculty member(s) and the WS 891 advisor have special responsibility for its evaluation, but all committee members are encouraged to provide both written and oral feedback.
back to top
Prelims
The preliminary exam has both written and oral components. The written exam for joint students is the same as the written exam for History students; the oral exam includes four fields, one of which is an examination of WS 891.
What is a prelim field?
A field is both a body of knowledge and a terrain of inquiry. Fields vary greatly in breadth and depth. Avoid defining your fields so narrowly that they are little more than bibliographies for a research paper. Avoid defining them so broadly that you can do little more than scrape the surface.
In preparing a field for your prelims, consider the following:
- What are the parameters of the field?
- What different methodologies or approaches have contributed to the development of the field?
- What are the perennial questions that historians and feminists in this field have tried to answer? How have their answers differed from each other?
- What are the most important topics or themes in the field today?
- What are the debates among historians and feminist scholars that animate the field today?
- What are the major works that anyone who wants to make a contribution in this field ought to read?
- What directions for future research are the most interesting or promising?
- What kind of impact has feminist scholarship made on this field? What scholarship in Women's Studies might be pertinent to this field?
The student composes an interdisciplinary committee consisting of:
- at least one faculty member jointly appointed in Women’s Studies and History
- one faculty member appointed in Women’s Studies, but not History
- one faculty member appointed in History, but not Women’s Studies
The faculty member jointly appointed will serve as chair or co-chair.
The committee
The committee will work with the student for 6–12 months to develop a focused reading list. This list should include History, Women’s Studies, interdisciplinary scholarship and feminist theory. The student and committee members should work together to determine what form the oral exam will take; questions may be prepared ahead of time or not.
Written exam
The written exam is like the written exam for History students, and covers only the student’s major field. The written exam can be “open” or “closed” book, or a combination of the two. The format is chosen at the discretion of the examiner and is made explicit to the student well in advance of the examination, and indicated clearly in writing on the preliminary examination information form. The exam is read and evaluated by the chair and one other committee member. In special cases, a faculty member who is not a committee member may be asked to serve as the second reader. The exam itself is four hours, but extra time is allowed for travel to and from the graduate office, and for printing. If the student does not pass the written exam, the oral is not taken.
Oral exam
The oral exam should be taken within two weeks of a successful written exam, and should be approximately two hours in length; half an hour should be spent on each field and on WS 891.
The oral exam covers four fields, all of which should include feminist theory and methodology:
- a geographical/temporal/topical field of history, the same field as for the written exam
- a comparative field distinctly different from the major field, in history, in Women's Studies or interdisciplinary
- Gender/Women’s History, which may fulfill the comparative or transnational requirement
- WS 891
You should come away from this experience with a feeling of accomplishment and confidence that you understand the fields you have studied and could explain them to others, develop syllabi for courses about them, and pursue interdisciplinary research in both History and Women's Studies.
back to top
Dissertation Prospectus/Proposal
The prospectus is a student’s proposal or plan for dissertation research and writing.
In History, the prospectus is typically a typed document of 10 to 20 double-spaced pages. It defines the subject, central question and methodological approach to the dissertation topic, including the importance of the proposed work to advancing the understanding of the discipline. It should relate the proposed research project to previous literature on the question and include a bibliography. It might also include a chapter plan and/or a tentative timetable.
Please file a copy of your prospectus with the Women’s Studies Graduate Office.
See also: Department of History website
back to top
Faculty of the Women’s Studies and History Doctoral Program
Budgeted Faculty
Dena Goodman
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg
Non-Budgeted Faculty
Kathleen Canning
Carol Karlsen
Hitomi Tonomura
Mary Kelley
Affiliated Faculty
Sueann Caulfield
David Cohen
Geoffrey Eley
Joel Howell
Nancy Hunt
Kali Israel
Regina Morantz-Sanchez
Martin Pernick
Sumathi Ramaswamy
Scott Spector
Helmut Puff
back to top
