Welcome to the Graduate Program in History at Florida State University
The Department of History at Florida State University offers students a rich intellectual environment, a dedicated and gifted faculty, unique local research resources, and numerous opportunities for professional development outside the classroom. A Carnegie Research 1 Institution, we provide training leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in a wide variety of historical fields.
Our History Graduate Student Association sponsors a graduate student conference each spring, has monthly meetings during the academic year, and organizes various social activities. The supportive atmosphere they foster comes through from providing mentors to incoming students to setting up works in progress presentations.
We have an extensive teacher training program, including the courses Teaching College History and Supervised Teaching. Other training takes place in Preparing Future Faculty sessions. In addition there is a university-wide Program for Instructional Excellence which sponsors workshops and provides for a certificate of completion (as well as offering prizes). Students typically move from grading at first to teaching their own classes after comprehensive exams.
The cap for most of our graduate classes is twelve students, so students get individualized attention. Students enter the program with an advisor and potential committee members in place, ready to take courses that count. Our faculty teach a range of geographic and chronological foci. The department also has concentrations in several topical areas: War and Society; Gender and Sexuality; Science, Technology, the Environment, and Medicine; Public History; Legal History; Native Peoples, Race, and Ethnicity.
The presence of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution as well as the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience means a variety of resources on site for students interested in those fields. Faculty leadership in the Women’s Studies Program, Holocaust Institute for Educators, and Middle East Center offer additional options.