International History Field at the University of Kansas

Many graduate studies in history are still confined by national and regional boundaries. The program in International History at the University of Kansas provides an important and timely alternative. Rather than focusing exclusively on one geographic region, this field prepares students to transcend traditional borders by exploring history in explicitly transnational, global, and comparative terms. This field prepares students to research subjects that include migration, trade, technological revolutions, epidemic disease, environmental change, inter-state conflict, and diplomacy.

In addition to our diverse faculty in the Department of History, the University of Kansas possesses a variety of other academic programs that augment training in international history. Of particular note are KU's Russian and East European, Latin American, East Asian, and African Studies programs, all of which include and cooperate closely with History faculty. Moreover, in 2009, the University of Kansas deepened its commitment to international history by founding the Center for Global and International Studies (CGIS). The CGIS serves as a catalyst for building an inter-disciplinary intellectual community that promotes research in topics of transnational scope.

Resources abound on the Great Plains for the study of international history. They range from the Truman and Eisenhower presidential libraries and the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth to a well-established Somali population in Kansas City and a vibrant Laotian community in Garden City, Kansas. The KU library system also offers access to a multitude of digital resources relevant to students in this field.

Prospective students can apply either to the M.A. or Ph.D. degree program. Normally, all coursework for either degree must be completed at the University of Kansas, though it is possible at the MA level (through petition) to transfer up to six hours of graduate credit earned elsewhere.

Faculty in the International History field at the University of Kansas

M.A. Thematic Field in International History

The Master's program in History requires the satisfactory completion of thirty hours of graduate courses and the passing of a comprehensive oral exam.

At least nine (9) hours of work in courses numbered 801 or higher and six (6) hours of research seminars are required. As part of the established requirements, M.A. students focusing on international history must also take History 806, "The Study of International History," at least one additional graduate colloquium in international history, and a research seminar emphasizing international history.

All master's candidates are required to produce two pieces of original historical scholarship of article-length (approximately 30 pages) in the field of International History. The final oral examination for the master's degree will include questions concerning the paper as well as coverage of the student's major and secondary fields. Normally, completion of a M.A. is a prerequisite for admission to doctoral study at the University of Kansas.

Soon after admission to the graduate program, the student should select a faculty member as his/her advisor who will direct the student's work and advise the student as to the selection of option A or B:

Track A. Offer three fields of history. The fields shall be the equivalent of secondary fields drawn from three different major fields. When a student's program warrants a substitution, he/she may offer, with the consent of departmental advisors, an "allied field" outside the Department of History that would provide vital support for his/her MA program. For example, International Relations may be chosen to complement fields in Modern European and military history.

Track B. Offer a major field and one secondary field. At least two history faculty members will serve on the student's MA committee for the major field. At least eighteen hours of course work shall be taken in the major field and six (6) hours in the secondary field.

PH.D. Thematic Major Field in International History

General Department Requirements

The thematic major field in international history offers doctoral students the opportunity to pursue their research and teaching interests in international history. A minimum of eleven courses (33 credit hours) is required for the Ph.D. Students may choose to follow either Track A or Track B as outlined below. Details about department requirements are described in the Graduate Program Manual, although some of these are subsumed by the International History Field Committee requirements, including the research paper requirements.

Students in the international history field may choose between the following two options for their course work:

Track A

  1. Students will offer a major and two secondary fields.
  2. The major field includes six courses (18 credit hours).
  3. The secondary fields include two courses (six credit hours)—for a total of 12 credit hours; one of the secondary fields may be taken in a discipline outside the History Department, but a student may offer all three fields in History.

Track B

  1. Students will select two major fields, for which they will take a total of eight courses (24 credit hours), and one secondary field, for which they will take two courses (6 credit hours).
  2. The secondary field may be taken in a discipline outside the History Department, but a student may offer all three fields in History.
  3. Under the major fields students may chose a 4/4 or a 5/3 configuration for their eight courses.

For both Track A and Track B, the major and the secondary fields will be those designated in the Graduate Catalog and the History Department Graduate Handbook. These will include those traditionally designated as major and secondary fields and any thematic fields that may be established on the basis of an appropriate core of faculty and specified, regular course offerings.

Each major thematic field will require as a core course, History 806: Studies in _____.

International History Field Requirements

Foreign Language Requirement: At least one foreign language should be chosen with regard to the candidate's area of emphasis for the doctoral dissertation, and proficiency is desirable at the earliest possible moment in a student's program of study, especially where one or more languages are fundamental to research. Certification of reading knowledge of at least one language must be obtained before the student takes the final comprehensive oral examination.

9 credit hours minimum, to include:

  1. History 806, "Studies in: International History" (3 hours)
  2. One of the following (inherently comparative and/or non-western in nature):
    • History 705, "Globalization in History"
    • History 801, "Colloquium in: History of Africa from a Global Perspective"
    • History 801, "Colloquium in: History of China from a Global Perspective"
    • History 801, "Colloquium in: History of _____ from a Global Perspective"
    • History 808, " Colloquium in Comparative History: The Global City"
    • History 808, " Colloquium in Comparative History: _____"
    • History 834, "Colloquium in the History of the British Empire"
    • History 897, "Comparative Colloquium in Women's History"
    • History 901, "Research Seminar in Global History"
    • History 936, "Seminar in the Middle East"
    • History 955, "Seminar in East Asian History"
    • History XXX, "Colloquium in the International History of East Asia"
    • History XXX, "Colloquium on America and International Relations"
  3. One of the following:
    • History 822, "Colloquium in the Urban History of Latin America"
    • History 825, "Seminar in Latin American Foreign Relations"
    • History 827, “Colloquium in the Social History of Latin America”
    • History 826, "Seminar in Twentieth Century South America"
    • History 844, "Colloquium on East Central Europe, 1772-1914"
    • History 845, "Colloquium on East Central Europe, 1914-present"
    • History 847, "Colloquium in Russian History"
    • History 848, "Colloquium in 20th-century Russia"
    • History 853, "Research Seminar: The Atlantic World in the Early Modern Period"
    • History 857, “Colloquium in Modern European History II”
    • History 858, “Colloquium in Modern European History III”
    • History 859, “Colloquium in Modern European History IV”
    • History 930, "Seminar in British History"
    • History 934, "Seminar in Modern European History"
    • History 949, "Seminar in Modern Russian History"
    • History 950, “Seminar in Latin American History”
    • History 951, "Seminar in Latin American Revolutions"
    • History 952, “Seminar in Ideology, Violence, and Social Change in Latin America”
    • History 974, "Seminar in American History"
    • History 975, "Seminar in American Diplomatic History"
    • History XXX, "Seminar in International History"
    • History XXX, "Colloquium in the International History of Modern Europe"

A secondary field (minimum 6 credit hours) in history or in a cognate discipline such as American Studies, Anthropology, Geography, Political Science, Sociology, or Film and Media Studies. In these departments at KU there are various faculty members working on transnational and comparative issues relevant to international history. (See, for example, American Studies faculty members such as Ruben Flores, Ben Chappell, Tanya Golash-Boza, and Randal Jelks.)

Related Courses

Any of a variety of courses may be taken to add breadth and depth to the major thematic field in international history. Graduate students who want to take these courses should enroll (by permission of the instructor) in History 800,
“Readings In ______”.

Examples include:

  • History 509, "Multinational Corporations: The Role of Money and Power"
  • History 340/740, "The History of the Second World War"
  • History 350/750, "The Korean War, 1950-53"
  • History 548, "British History, 1832-present"
  • History 551,"Spain and Its Empire, 1450-1700"
  • History 561, "Liberation in Southern Africa"
  • History 565, "Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union"
  • History 569, "The Middle East in the 19th and 20th Centuries"
  • History 571, "The Spanish Borderlands in North America"
  • History 592 "Huns, Turks and Mongols: The Nomad Factor in History"
  • History 598, "Sexuality and Gender in African History"
  • History 600 "West African History"
  • History 604 "Contemporary Greater China"
  • History 629, " The History of the US and the World, 1776-1898"
  • History 630, "The History of the US and the World, 1898-present"
  • History 640 "Entrepreneurship in East Asia"

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