Summary of Stage One Proposal
Carnegie Initiative Committee
Duke University Department of History

April 2004

Graduate Reforms:

We are proposing to implement the following reforms to the graduate program, beginning in the fall of 2004.  All focus on course work and the M.A. requirements in the first two years of the program.

Requirements in the first two years: 301, 302, teaching course, 7 readings colloquia (2 can be independent studies), 2 research seminars (1 can be an independent study).
	These requirements are intended to encourage breadth and depth in the graduate students’ experience in the first two years.  Those two years, though, need to be understood as part of a larger program that directs students toward specific areas of interest: beginning in the third year, the students will turn to more individualized work on their dissertation proposals, in consultation with their advisors and other committee members.  Even in the first two years, however, students will still focus on their own research interests.  They are encouraged to use independent study credits for more specialized historiographical and conceptual readings courses in their particular fields.  Research seminars, while broadly framed around general topics, will provide an organized way to pursue and to refine their own research.  Students are also encouraged to take readings courses outside the department or at UNC.  Research seminars may also be from outside the department, as long as the primary result is a research paper, based in primary research.

Requirements for M.A., which would be completed at the end of the second year 2 research seminars; 1-2 hour meeting with a committee of three (the main and secondary advisors) to discuss progress in the program as well as plans for the dissertation and prelims.

Optional, accelerated path for students entering with an M.A., to allow them to move directly to prelims and the prospectus in their second year, should they choose to do so: 301, 302, teaching course, 1 research seminar, 2 readings colloquia; (independent studies would be determined in consultations with advisor and DGS)

Evaluation: We will also continue the new practice of a departmental meeting to discuss and evaluate students’ progress each year.

New Course Trajectory in the First Two Years

First Year: first semester
301					
2 readings colloquia (recommended that both be organized courses rather than independent studies)

	First Year: second semester
302
2 readings colloquia (1 can be an independent study)

	

Second Year: first semester	
1 readings colloquium
Teaching course			
1 research seminar (one of the two required this year can be an independent study)
		
	Second Year: second semester
2 readings colloquia (1 can be an independent study)
1 research seminar (one of the two required this year can be an independent study)

Core courses: 301 and 302

301:  
• Primary goal:  basic theoretical and historiographical readings in the discipline
• Secondary goal: create community among graduate students around intellectual ideas
•Flexibility: To enable individual instructors will build the course around their areas of expertise, the course would be structured around a list of set questions, such as:  What is gender?  What is “the nation”?  What is history?  What is capitalism?  What is modernity?  What is power?  What is identity?  Instructors would chose a 3 or 4 questions from among that list, and develop the reading list around them.  The list itself would be flexible:  it is assumed the specific question would change over time with the collective interests of the faculty and the larger intellectual agenda of the discipline; it is also assumed that each instructor would approach the questions differently, drawing on their areas of expertise.  But the course is not comprehensive: the emphasis should be on covering some of the key theoretical readings or historiographical debates in depth and giving students a chance to work through them together.
•Consistency:  Instructors should stick to the primary goals of the course and not try to cover other concerns that do not fall within that rubric.  These guidelines should provide a basic structure that those teaching the course would agree to follow; those who would like to do other things with the course would be encouraged to do them under another rubric, either the readings colloquia or the research seminars (described below)
•Instructors would be asked to teach 301 for two years.(not necessarily consecutive)

302:
•Primary goal: The course will introduce students to the process of finding and using sources, through hands-on research assignments.  Specifically, students would learn to work with and interpret different kinds of sources and acquainting them with different methodological approaches.  The emphasis is on working with the sources, rather than on producing a a polished, article-length piece of written work.  The research base and skills developed in 302 would prepare students for the two, required research seminars in second year. 
•Consistency: 302 will be an expression of the department, rather than of the individual instructors.  The department will develop a series of research assignments that draw on the expertise of the entire faculty.  Instructors will then draw on those in the course.  The course should also make use of the faculty’s research skills, and call in others to lead specific classes in their areas of expertise.
•Flexibility: Students will pursue their own individual research interests in 302.
•Instructors would be asked to teach 302 for two years (not necessarily consecutive).

Readings “colloquia”
•Goal: Courses are focused on secondary reading and discussion of those ideas, not research: the outcome would be an historiographical, conceptual, or methodological paper, not a primary research paper
•Two kinds, both with the goal of giving students historical breadth and preparing them for their preliminary exams; they may also obtain specific knowledge of particular fields, but that would be covered, primary, in independent studies
•Broad “topics” courses that cross field boundaries and do not focus on one place or time period; they could be thematic or methodological, framed in general terms, such as “Topics in Commerce and Capitalism,”  “Topics in Empire,” “Topics in Gender,” “Topics in Colonization and Colonialism”; thematic topics courses would allow faculty to rotate in and out of the courses, leaving the general topic in place, but changing the specific focus and readings to their interests
		•Field specific “topics” courses would prepare for traditional areas in which they are likely to teach, such as “Topics in U.S. History” or “Topics in Latin American History”; field specific topics courses would also allow faculty to rotate in and out of the courses, leaving the general topic in place, but changing the readings and specific areas of emphasis
•These would be regular offerings, which would require some advance planning to ensure rotation and regularity, although the list of topics would change with the interests of faculty and evolve over time 

Research “seminars”
•The emphasis of the research seminars is framing and writing a polished, original piece of scholarly work, based in primary research
•Research seminars would be organized around broad, themes that would allow students from a range of different specialities to take the courses; courses would be based in either a research method or topical area that crossed geographic and chronological fields, such as “Topics in Legal History,” “Topics in the British Archives,” “Topics in Intellectual History,” “Topics in North American History”
•These would be regular offerings, which would require some advance planning to ensure rotation and regularity, although the list of topics would change with the interests of faculty and evolve over time 
•One could be an independent study; but the other has to be a regular course

M.A.						
•Requirement of two research papers, fulfilled through Research Seminars, above.  These papers are expected to be in the same general field, which would usually be defined in geographic and, often, chronological terms, but also could include thematic fields which combine conventional geographic or chronological fields, for example colonial North American history, U.S. History, modern German History, modern British History, medieval European history, Latin American History, or modern French History.  There are two options within those fields.  1)  The papers can develop different topics or methods in those fields, for example social relations in the U.S. South and legal history in the U.S.; women in nineteenth-century France and the French empire; environmental history of modern Brazil and labor history in modern Brazil.  2) The two papers can develop a sustained analysis in one topical area.  In this option, the student write two papers that demonstrate significant development, from the first to the second, in the research, analysis, and presentation.  Students would then present the papers to their committee, composed of three faculty members, for a formal discussion and evaluation.

Independent Studies 
•Limited to 3 in the first two years: one can be a research seminar; two can be readings colloquia; (depending on the graduate school requirements, students may may need independent study credits in the third and fourth years; the important issue, though, is that independent study credits cannot replace course work in the first two years)

Teaching Course
•3 credit course on teaching in the semester when students begin TAing
•Two Goals: to provide support for T.A.s in their first year in the classroom and to begin develop teaching techniques and approaches they could draw on to create a teaching portfolio, with syllabi and other materials for use on the job market and when they begin teaching their own courses

Laura Edwards
Edward Balleisen
Cynthia Herrup
Claudia Koonz
Susan Thorne
Marie Hicks
Thomas Rogers