Graduate Program
Victor Stater, Chair
Christine
Kooi, Director of Graduate Studies
Telephone.
225/578-4471
FAX. 225/578-4909
Email.
ckooi1@lsu.edu
Department Web Page: www.artsci.lsu.edu/hist
Graduate School Web
Page: http://gradlsu.gs.lsu.edu
DEGREE PROGRAMS
LSU
offers the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in American, British, European, and Latin
American history. Students may also elect a minor field in Asian history. The
thesis-option M.A. requires 30 semester hours of credit, including six hours of
thesis credit, and a research thesis. The non-thesis M.A. (considered a
terminal degree) requires 36 hours of course work and passing the M.A. comprehensive
examination.
The department, in conjunction with the
School of Library and Information Science, offers a dual degree program in
which a student can earn a Master’s of Art degree in History and a Master’s of Library
Science and Information degree simultaneously with the completion of 64
hours. A separate application to the
School of Library and Information Science is necessary.
The Ph.D. program requires two minor
fields, a general examination, and a dissertation. Ph.D. candidates in American and British
history must prove reading competency in at least one foreign language; each
candidate in other concentrations must demonstrate proficiency in two.
RESEARCH RESOURCES
To support the research of the
department’s graduate students, the University boasts an excellent library and
other resources. The LSU libraries
contain nearly 3 million volumes, more than 4 million microform records, and a
manuscript collection of more than 12 million items. The holdings are especially rich in published
and unpublished materials relating to the lower Mississippi Valley, the South,
and the American Civil War and Reconstruction.
The LSU library serves as a U.S. Regional
Depository, belonging to the prestigious Association of Research Libraries, and
subscribes to a wide array of on-line resources. LOUIS, a statewide academic on-line library,
provides access to many more databases and most of the academic libraries
within Louisiana. The library’s web page
can be accessed at www.lib.lsu.edu.
ADMISSION
Students applying for entrance to the
Graduate School must submit an application for Graduate Admission. This must be submitted on-line (http://gradlsu.gs.lsu.edu). The application must be accompanied by a
nonrefundable application fee. Students
must submit their score on the GRE. In
addition, official transcripts of all previous undergraduate and graduate work,
a statement of purpose, three letters of recommendation and a writing sample of
approximately 10-12 pages should also be submitted online as supporting
materials. For admission or advancement
to the Ph.D. program, an M.A. in History is required. Decisions are made only
after receipt of all credentials. The entire application, including all
supporting materials, should be submitted via the LSU Graduate School’s online
application website (http://gradlsu.gs.lsu.edu).
To be considered for fellowships and
assistantships for the fall semester, applications must be submitted by JANUARY
15, although applications submitted after that date but before the Graduate
School’s deadline of May 15 will be considered.
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
All applicants for admission to the M.A.
and Ph.D. programs will be considered for teaching assistantships currently valued
at $11,150. Students with assistantships
also are exempt from tuition payments, although they must still pay required
university fees. In a few cases, for
extremely well qualified students, the University will provide a $3,000
supplement to the amount of the assistantship. The department also has a
limited number of $5,000 enhancements that may be added to an assistant’s
regular stipend. These are awarded to incoming PhD students on a competitive
basis. The university also provides TAs $350 per semester to cover the cost of
health insurance. In recent years,
however, due to state budget cuts, the likelihood of a student receiving
financial support during his or her first year has grown increasingly small.
GRADUATE FACULTY
Andrew Burstein, Manship
Professor American Revolution, U.S.
Early national
Gibril Cole Africa
William J. Cooper, Jr. Boyd Professor American South
David H. Culbert U.S.
diplomatic, mass media
Maribel Dietz Medieval,
Late Antiquity
Gaines M. Foster T. Harry Williams Prof. New South, U.S. religion and culture
John B. Henderson, Bell Professor East Asia, China
Stanley Hilton, Jane Lucas
deGrummond Professor Modern Latin America; U.S.
military
Paul E. Hoffman, Murrill Professor Colonial
Latin America, Spain
Nancy Isenberg U.S. Early National, Gender, and Women's History
Christine J. Kooi
Renaissance, Reformation, Early
Modern Netherlands
Carolyn Herbst Lewis US women’s history, sexuality
and feminist theory
David F. Lindenfeld
Modern
Germany, European intellectual
Alecia P. Long Louisiana, US women’s,
sexuality
Suzanne L. Marchand Modern
Europe, European cultural
Benjamin F. Martin Price Professor Modern
France, 19th century France
Paul F. Paskoff US economic history
M. Reza Pirbai South Asia
Steven K. Ross Ancient,
Greece & Rome
Charles W. Royster, Boyd Professor Civil War, early America
Charles J. Shindo
20th
Century U.S., American cultural, Asian American
Victor L. Stater
Tudor-Stuart
England, early modern Europe
Meredith Veldman
Modern Britain, 20th
century Europe
Margherita Zanasi Modern
China
FACULTY PUBLICATIONS
A
representative sample of faculty publications.
Andrew Burstein, Madison and Jefferson; The
Passions of Andrew Jackson; Jefferson’s Secrets; America's
Jubilee: How in 1826 a Generation Remembered Fifty Years of Independence
William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis; Liberty and Slavery: Southern Politics
to 1860; The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828-1856; The Conservative
Regime: South Carolina, 1877-1890
David H. Culbert, World War II Film, and History; News for
Everyman: Radio and Foreign Affairs in the Thirties
Maribel Dietz, Wandering Monks,
Virgins, and Pilgrims: Ascetic Travel in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 300-800
Gaines M. Foster, Ghosts of the Confederacy: Defeat, the Lost Cause, and
the Emergence of the New South, 1865-1913; Moral Reconstruction:
Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865-1920
John B. Henderson, The Construction of Orthodoxy and Heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and Early
Christian Patterns; Scripture, Canon, and
Commentary: A Comparison of Confusion and Western Exegesis; The Development and
Decline of Chinese Cosmology
Stanley Hilton, Brazil
and the Great Powers, 1930-1939 ; Hitler's Secret War in South America; Brazil
and the Soviet Challenge, 1917-1947.
Paul E. Hoffman, Florida’s Frontiers; A New Andalucia and a Way to the
Orient: The American Southeast During the Sixteenth Century; The Spanish Crown
and the Defense of the Caribbean, 1535-1585
Nancy Isenberg, Madison and Jefferson; Fallen
Founder: the Life of Aaron Burr; Sex and
Citizenship in Antebellum America
Christine J. Kooi, Liberty and Religion: Church and State in Leiden’s
Reformation, 1572-1620
Carolyn Herbst Lewis, Prescription for Heterosexuality: Sexual Citizenship in
the Cold War Era
David F. Lindenfeld, The Practical Imagination: The German Sciences of State
in Nineteenth Century; The
Transformation of Positivism: Alexius Meinung and European Thought, 1880-1920
Alecia Long, The Great Southern Babylon: Sex, Race, and Respectability in New Orleans,
1865-1920
Suzanne L. Marchand, German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion,
Race and Scholarship; Down From
Olympus: Archeology and Philhellenism
in Germany, 1750-1970
Benjamin F. Martin, France and the Apres Guerre, 1918-1924; Crime
and Criminal Justice Under the Third Republic; The Hypocrisy of Justice in
Belle Epoque; Count Albert de Mun, Paladin of the Third Republic
M. Reza Pirbhai, Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context
Steven K. Ross, Roman Edessa, 114-242 C.E.
Charles Royster, The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company: A
Story of George Washington’s Times; The Destructive War: William Tecumseh
Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans; Light Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy
of the American Revolution; A Revolutionary People at War; The Continental Army
and American Character, 1775-1883
Charles J. Shindo, 1927 and the Rise of Modern America;
Dust Bowl Migrants in the
American Imagination
Victor Stater, Duke Hamilton is Dead!: A Story of Aristocratic
Life and Death in Stuart Britain; Noble Government: The Stuart Lord Lieutenancy
and the Transformation of English Politics
Margherita Zanasi, Saving the
Nation: Economic Modernity in Republican China
REQUIREMENTS FOR MA AND PhD DEGREES IN HISTORY
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE:
The basic requirements for the
master's degree are specified in the LSU Graduate Catalog. It is the
responsibility of each graduate student to become familiar with and fulfill
them. The program requires a minimum of 30 semester hours credit (students
frequently take more) with a thesis and 36 hours without a thesis. Half the
hours must be at or above the 7000 level. A non-thesis M.A. is regarded as a
terminal degree.
All students must elect, no
later than the end of their first semester in the program, a major professor
with whom he or she must complete substantial study, including the thesis if
the student is writing one. A minor field outside the department may be
elected, normally consisting of six semester hours credit. Reading
proficiency in a foreign language is not a general requirement, but may be
required by a major professor for students working under his or her direction.
A final examination
committee is chosen when the student nears the end of his or her program.
The student selects those 24 hours of study, including work with the major
professor, upon which to be examined. The examining committee includes the
major professor, the minor professor if a minor field was elected, and one or
two others in the department whose specialties coincide with other history work
offered for examination. If a student writes a thesis, it is included as well.
The examination on this material is oral. After the completion of the
examination, the committee will make a formal recommendation in writing about
the suitability of the student for Ph.D.-level work.
The sequence of courses
depends on the area of concentration and on whether or not one writes a thesis.
Although the recommended plan below mentions a "second year," one may
finish more quickly by enrolling in summer school or by carrying a heavier
load. Course work will primarily be in research and reading seminars.
Research seminars: All M.A. students must take a research seminar
sequence (HIST 7908 and HIST 7957 for U.S. history; HIST 7908 and HIST 7909 for
European and British history). If a
seminar needed to fulfill the requirements for the course of study is not
offered in a given semester, the student may fulfill the requirement through
independent study in consultation with the major professor.
Reading seminars: All M.A. students must take a minimum of four reading
seminars. Students in Modern European or British history will normally take
five reading seminars (HIST 7916-7930).
Students in American history will take HIST 7904, HIST 7951, HIST 7952,
HIST 7955 and HIST 7958 or 7959 (twice for 6 hours).
CONCENTRATION IN U.S. HISTORY
1st Year (18 hours)
Fall: 7908:
Introduction to Historical Research (3 hrs.)
7951:
Reading Seminar in American History from1607 to 1800 (3 hrs.)
7958
or 7959: Special topics in American History (3 hrs.)
Spring:
7957:Research Seminar
in American History (3 hrs.)
7952: Reading
Seminar in American History from 1800-1890 (3 hrs)
7958
or 7959: Special Topics in American History (3 hrs.)
2nd Year (12-18 hours)
With thesis:
Fall: 7955:
Reading Seminar in American History, 1890-present (3hrs)
7904: American
Historiography & Criticism (3 hrs)
3 hours of Thesis Research (8000)
Spring: thesis research (8000)
Without thesis:
Fall: 7904:
American Historiography & Criticism (3 hrs.)
7955: Reading Seminar
in American History, 1890-present (3 hrs.)
History elective (3
hrs.)
Spring: 9 hours history electives (6 may be in a minor field)
note: HIST 8000 may be taken for up to 9 hours a
semester, however, only 6 hours will count toward fulfilling the requirements for the M.A.
CONCENTRATION IN LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY
A program will be devised to
meet the student's preferences, to include 4 reading seminars, 1 or 2 research
seminars, thesis research if applicable, and additional history electives
and/or outside minor fields.
CONCENTRATION IN EUROPEAN OR BRITISH HISTORY
The specific course selection
and sequence will vary to fit the concentration chosen.
With thesis
1st year (18 hours)
Fall: 7908:
Intro. to Historical Research (3 hrs.)
7915
to 7930:1 Reading Seminars, depending on offerings (3 hrs)*
1 elective in History
or Minor Field (3 hrs.)
Spring:
7909: Research Seminar
in European Hist. (3 hrs.)
7915
to 7930: 1 Reading Seminar, depending on offerings (3 hrs.)*
1
elective in History or Minor Field (3 hrs.)
2nd year (12-18 hours)
Fall:
7915 to 7930: 2
Reading Seminars, depending on offerings (6 hrs.)*
8000:
Thesis Research (3 hrs.)
Spring: 8000: Thesis Research (3 hrs.)
Electives (6 hrs.)
Without thesis:
First
Year (18 hrs.)
Fall: 7908:
Intro. to Historical Research (3 hrs.)
7915
to 7930: 1 Reading Seminar, depending on offerings (3 hrs.)*
1 Elective in History
Spring:
7915 to 7930: 1 Reading
Seminar, depending on offerings (3 hrs.)*
2
Electives in History or Minor Field
Second Year (18 hrs.)
Fall:
7915 to 7930: 2
Reading Seminars, depending on offerings (6 hrs.)*
1
Elective in History or Minor Field
Spring:
7909: Research Seminar
in European History (3 hrs.)
2
Electives in History or Minor Field
Non-thesis students may at the
end of their second year still elect to write a thesis and extend their
residency and registration accordingly.
* Students concentrating in Europe
to 1650 may substitute a History Elective for one of the Reading Seminars.
DUAL DEGREE PROGRAM IN HISTORY
AND THE SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCES
The basic requirements for the dual degree program
are the same for the regular non-thesis MA program in the Department of History
and the MLIS program in the School of Library and Information Science. The dual degree program, however, has been
designed to allow the student to complete the 36 credit hours for the MA and
the 40 credit hours of the MLIS by completing a total of only 64 hours. A separate application for each program is
necessary, though simultaneous application is not required.
Elective courses in the School
of Library and Information Sciences eligible for credit for the History M.A.
degree:
LIS 7200, LIS 7201, LIS 7202, LIS 7203, and LIS 7700.
Elective courses in the
Department of History eligible for credit for the MLIS degree:
Any two three-hour graduate courses at the 7000-level
in the Department of History.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DOCTOR
OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE:
The basic requirements for the Doctorate are
specified in the LSU Catalog. It is the
responsibility of each applicant and graduate student to be familiar with these
stipulations and fulfill them. It should
be noted that the minimum and maximum time limits are expressed in terms of
years of study rather than semester hours, that the plan of course work depends
on the student’s earlier preparation in history, and that the major requirement
is a dissertation “which embodies creative scholarship” and which “must add to
the sum of existing knowledge and give evidence of considerable literary
skill.” Each student must offer three
fields of study: one major field and two minor fields.
Major Fields:
Those fields offered by the Department are: American
History (inclusive), Latin American History, Europe to the Middle Ages, Medieval
and Early Modern Europe, European History since 1500, and British History.
Minor Fields:
Each student must offer two minor fields which fall
outside the scope of the major field.
Approval of the selection and scope of each field will be made by the
student’s major professor and minor field professors. Minor fields may be selected from the list of
offered major fields, from Asian History, or an approved aspect or period
thereof. Both minor fields cannot fall
within the same major field.
Requirements for fulfilling the minor field will be determined by the student’s
minor field professor. The department
also offers a minor field in World History the requirements for which are as
follows:
1.
History 7970,
Seminar in Comparative History, which would be offered on a regular basis
(normally once every two years).
2.
Three 4000- or
7000-level courses, in any three of the following four areas: East Asia,
South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America. A thematic course that cuts across regions may
be substituted for one of these.
3.
An oral
examination, designed to prepare students for teaching world history. The student will prepare a syllabus for
teaching a World History survey course, either to 1500 or from 1500. This will be submitted to a 3-person
committee, who will conduct an oral examination based on the syllabus.
With twelve hours of required
courses, the World History minor counts as two minor fields.
Students
may select one minor field outside the department of History, and requirements
for an outside field will be determined by the outside department. Each minor field must consist of at least 6
hours of graduate level course work, although some departments will require
more.
Course Work and
Examinations:
Course Work: Students entering the program
with a MA from another university will take the basic seminars in their major
field. In Ancient/Medieval/Early Modern
European History they are Hist 7908, 7909, and
at least 3 seminars numbered between 7915 and 7930. In Modern European and British History they
are Hist 7908, 7909, and at least 4 seminars numbered between 7915 and
7930. In United States history they are:
7904, 7908, 7951,7952, 7955, 7957, and 7959.
Students will also have to take courses in their minor fields and may
want to take other courses in their major fields. Students who have completed a MA in our
department will have already completed these basic seminars.
Program of Study: Within the first year of
study at the PhD level, each student will prepare, in consultation with his or
her committee, a Program of Study form which specifies requirements for course
work and other aspects of the student’s course of study. When these requirements are completed, the
student takes the general examinations.
General Examinations: General examinations
will be offered once each semester.
Minor field exams consist of a four-hour written exam for each minor
field. In certain cases a minor field
may consist only of course work and a written exam will not be given. Once the minor field exams (or course work)
have been completed, the student must take the major field exams the following
semester. The major field exam will consist
of two six-hour written exams and an oral examination with the student’s
committee and a representative from the Graduate School. Once the major field examination has been
successfully completed, the student becomes a PhD Candidate.
Final Examinations: After completing the
dissertation, the candidate defends it in an oral examination. The examining committee consists of the
student’s major professor, other faculty from the Department of History or
other departments in the University, and a representative from the Graduate
School, in accordance with the guidelines outlined in the LSU Graduate School
Catalog.
Foreign Language
Requirement:
It is required that all PhD students in American and British History must demonstrate reading proficiency in one foreign language, and PhD students in all other concentrations must demonstrate reading proficiency in two foreign languages (for medieval history one of those languages should be Latin). Each student must fulfill the foreign language requirement before advancing to the general examinations. Reading proficiency may be demonstrated through a sight translation conducted by a member of the faculty or by successfully completing a reading knowledge course offered by the Department of Foreign Languages or French Studies. The requirements for language skills differ by field, however; students should consult with their major professor for requirements in their areas.