PhD Program Handbook

This manual is intended to help doctoral students in the Department of History proceed through the PhD program. It describes what a typical full-time student will do from year to year. The guidelines assume that the student has entered with a BA degree or an MA in a different discipline; those entering with an MA in History (or having already taken some graduate coursework in History) should read the section about how to transfer in credits, etc., which may be found at the end of the section on the first two years.

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Dr. Robin Mitchell
Director of Graduate Studies

Most entering PhD students receive a support package of five years that includes a tuition waiver, health insurance, and a stipend, which the Department augments via a Milton Plesur scholarship. Effective Fall 2021, the university will also cover mandatory university fees for funded PhD students (information on fees is available on the Graduate School’s website). To meet their service obligations for this support, students will normally serve as TAs during their second, third, and fifth years. Students should expect to take a research year, in which they do not serve as a TA or take courses, but instead dedicate the entirety of their time to dissertation research. The timing of the research year is up to the student and his/her adviser, but cannot be taken before the student has passed the qualifying exams and prospectus defense and has attained ABD (all-but-dissertation) status.

If you have support from the university as a funded PhD student, and are not a New York resident, you are expected to apply for New York residency when eligible to do so. The department staff can assist with this. If you don’t apply for New York residency in a timely way, you will be obliged to pay the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition—a substantial amount of money.

First-time TAs are expected to enroll in the non-credit course HIS 701 (Proseminar on History Teaching) in the fall. HIS 701 is a six-week forum for conversations on techniques and resources for effective history teaching. Class meetings involve discussion of short readings and problems encountered in the classroom. The major written assignment is a first draft of a teaching portfolio. The course is open to all graduate students. New TAs who do not complete the course may lose their eligibility for appointment as TAs in future semesters.

TA stipends are paid biweekly. If you have a full academic year TA position, the payments are divided into 21 pay periods over ten months, so you will continue to receive pay over the winter break. View details about pay periods and check dates.

Paychecks and stubs are delivered to the Department of History and are available for pickup in 543 Park Hall during regular business hours. Teaching Assistants are strongly encouraged to sign up for direct deposit. Please contact the department staff for a direct deposit application or visit the UB Administrative Services Gateway.

The Department of History encourages graduate students to present their research at relevant conferences to get feedback and build scholarly networks. Every spring the History Graduate Association hosts the Plesur Conference, an excellent venue to begin sharing your ideas. More advanced students may travel to conferences in the region or beyond. When your paper proposal is accepted, you can submit a request to the department for funds to help you participate. The department funds conference travel at a sliding scale, depending on the significance of the conference and a student’s participation in it (if it is the most important conference in your field, that would be a high priority for departmental funding). You should also look into other funding sources: the UB Graduate Student Association is one possibility; also, many conference organizers offer funding to graduate students who are giving a paper at a conference.

If you entered the program without university funding, you should discuss the details of departmental support with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) and ask for any promises of support, such as research-year funding, to be made in writing.

International students face additional rules and restrictions in regard to travel and working on and off campus. If you are an international student, you should attend the orientation sessions offered by the Office of International Students and Scholars Services (ISSS) and consult the DGS and staff at ISSS with any questions you may have.

Please note that this guide should not replace individual advisement. You should be in touch with your adviser and/or the DGS when you are in doubt about the program and its requirements. The Department’s policies for the PhD program are available in the “Info for Faculty” section of the departmental website. Policies of the Graduate School are available.

The First Two Years

The first two years in the doctoral program are devoted to formal coursework and lay the foundation for your field preparation and dissertation research. If you are a teaching assistant, you will register for three 3-credit seminars per semester, as well as, in your first semester, the non-credit teaching proseminar, HIS 701. The Graduate School considers funded PhD students to be on full load with nine credits per semester (the SUNY requirement for other graduate students is 12 credits).

Funded students get a tuition waiver, which only covers nine credits of coursework. You would have to pay tuition for any course you take beyond that. As an alternative, you might sit in on the course as an auditor, with the permission of the instructor.

The Third Year

Choosing your exam committee: The qualifying examination committee consists of three faculty members. The advisor in consultation with the student will identify rationales for the selection of each committee member (e.g., relevant content expertise, methodological expertise, etc.) Prospective committee members will be invited to serve by the advisor, who will give prospective members the student’s statement of interest. Prospective committee members should respond to committee invitations within one week. As soon as the exam committee is selected you should inform the Graduate Coordinator.

Dissertation Years

Once you have successfully defended your prospectus, you are considered ABD (all-but-dissertation). As an ABD student, you will register for thesis guidance, History 700 (for 1 to 9 credits) every semester while working on your dissertation. Continue to take 9 credits per semester until you reach 72 credits. Thereafter, you should register for one credit of HIS 700 per semester until you complete your degree.

Surviving and Thriving as a Teaching Assistant

Most funded History PhD students are appointed as teaching assistants at some point in their career. As a TA, you are responsible for assisting a professor teaching an undergraduate history course, usually by leading discussions of course readings in recitation sections. The department will assign you to a specific course. You will be invited to express your teaching preferences, which the department will try to accommodate, although it will not always be able to do so.

A list of duties generally expected of TAs is below; the instructor with whom you work will assign specific duties. You and the other TAs assigned to the course generally will meet with the instructor at the beginning of the semester to discuss these duties, as well as at times during the semester (this should be determined in advance, whenever possible). If you have any questions about your duties, you should first speak with the course instructor. If you are unable to get a clear answer to your questions, you are welcome to talk with the DGS about the matter.

The number of hours of work associated with a TA-ship will vary over the semester, but it may not exceed 20 hours per week. If you think your TA duties are taking too much time away from your own coursework, you should speak with your advisor and the course instructor, both of whom may be able to suggest ways to increase efficiency in grading, etc.

The Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation offers workshops and personal guidance on pedagogy for all instructors at UB, including TAs. Their training in various education technologies—including course management software such as UBLearns, classroom response techniques, and online learning—may be valuable for you as a TA and as a future instructor of your own classes.

Launching Your Career

The PhD program affords you time to reflect on your career goals, and UB offers many resources to help you identify and plan for your career of choice. Students are encouraged to attend the departmental proseminar, HIS 702 “Careers for Historians,” which covers the conventional academic job search as well as strategies for pursuing positions in public history, policy, business, etc. This non-credit proseminar is open to all graduate students but is not required. It meets in the Spring semester. The proseminar is run by the department’s Professional Development Officer, an advanced PhD student, and typically features a range of guest speakers.

Those interested in careers in public history are encouraged to arrange internships with cultural organizations that have public history programs.

Beyond the Department, the Graduate School and the Career Design Center provide career advice and assistance to students. Both offer workshops regularly, and the Career Design Center can provide individual counseling by appointment. Beyond the Professoriate's Career Training Platform helps graduate students, postdocs and PhDs successfully transition into academic or nonacademic careers.

Appendix

Timeline for a typical PhD student’s program (if you already have a History MA, the work of the first two years could be accomplished in one, with advisor approval).

Every semester

Attend workshops to explore career possibilities and learn about resources that can help you develop skills that will make you an attractive job candidate.

Broaden your intellectual horizons and networks by attending events sponsored by the Humanities Institute, Gender Institute, Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, and the many other scholarly units on campus, in addition to Department of History events.