Residence
Students must be in residence for minimum of two years of full-time study. While in residence, students are expected to attend the department seminar.
Coursework and Research Papers
Course Requirements
Sixteen four-credit courses or the equivalent, plus a two-credit course, Colloquium on Teaching Practices, normally taken in the fall of the G3 year, including:
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Two seminars: Historiography in History of Science (HISTSCI 303A) and Research Methods in the History of Science (HISTSCI 303B)
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Six additional graduate seminars (HISTSCI 2000-level or seminars “primarily for graduate students” in other departments), of which:
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Four must be offered by DHS.
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At least one must focus substantially on pre-1800 topics and one must focus substantially on post-1800 topics. (See the DHS Graduate Student Program Website for more details.)
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One must be taken outside DHS.
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Eight electives, of which up to five may be graduate-level reading courses in the history of science or other divisions, departments, or committees
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The Colloquium on Teaching Practices (two credits) taken in the first year of employment as a Teaching Fellow (normally the G3 year)
Note: The four graduate seminars in DHS may include courses taught in other departments by faculty in the Department of the History of Science, courses cross-listed as HISTSCI, and graduate courses in Science, Technology, and Society offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (A maximum of three courses may be taken at MIT). All other courses count as outside the department. Graduate reading courses or independent studies do not fulfill the graduate seminar requirement.
Note: The department does not accept transfer credits. However, students who matriculate into the doctoral program after receiving an AM degree in History of Science or who take graduate courses as Special Students in the department are eligible to transfer up to eight four-unit courses.
Research Papers
In the first two years of graduate study, students must write two research papers, at least one for a departmental course. Papers must be between 7500 and 10,500 words (exclusive of notes and bibliography); each must earn a grade of at least A-. At least one must display serious engagement with archival or other primary sources (which may include printed and/or digital materials and objects); the other may be based on fieldwork observation (e.g., ethnographic, participant-observer) or involve media production (e.g., interactive web, audio, video/photographic, museum exhibition).
One of these essays may be an independent work not connected to a course, but it is expected that the essay will have been substantially written and researched during the course of enrollment in the PhD Program. In this case, the DGS will designate a faculty member to grade the essay.
The first paper should be submitted by 1 June of the G1 year to the Graduate Program Coordinator, CC’ing the course instructor. Ordinarily this essay is written in the context of the required Research Methods course.
The second paper should be submitted by 1 April of the G2 year to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Ordinarily this is written in the context of a departmental or external graduate seminar.
By the end of first semester of the G2 year, one of these papers should be shared and discussed with one of the student’s advisor (normally the Chair of the student’s General Exam Committee).
Grades and Assessment
Eight four-credit courses must be passed at a grade level of B or above in the first year of study.
The grade of Incomplete (INC) is given in extraordinary circumstances. The decision to give an Incomplete is at the discretion of each faculty member. Students with more than one INC on their record at the end of a semester will receive a letter of warning from the department and are at risk of being placed into “unsatisfactory status.”
GSAS policy requires that academic work must be completed, and the grade converted to a letter grade before the end of the next registration period (for example coursework for an incomplete received in the fall of 2022 must be completed before the first day of registration for the fall of 2023). A petition for an extension of time for incomplete work signed by the course instructor and director of graduate studies must be submitted to the GSAS Dean of Student Affairs Office for any course work completed after the end of the next registration period.
All courses must be graded before a student is permitted to teach. Students with outstanding course requirements (excluding the Teaching Colloquium normally taken in G3 year) are not permitted to sit for the general examination.
Language Requirement
All students must demonstrate proficiency in at least one language other than English upon submission of the dissertation prospectus in November of the G3 year (see below). The language(s) in question should reflect students’ research interests and ordinarily will be agreed on in consultation with the DGS and intended dissertation director at the beginning of the first year of graduate study; the list may be revised as necessary to reflect students’ changing intellectual trajectories. Some students may enter with all the language preparation they will need for graduate study in their chosen fields. Others may have an elementary or intermediate knowledge of a language or languages and may improve on that knowledge by taking additional coursework, including first-, second-, or third-year language courses and/or the reading courses offered by some departments, whether during the regular academic year or in summer.
Students may demonstrate proficiency in one of the following ways: 1) completing two semesters of foreign-language coursework, and receiving a grade of A- or higher in the courses; 2) completing a summer Reading Knowledge or other summer language course approved in advance by the DGS and receiving a grade of A- or higher; 3) completing upper-level coursework in a language other than English; 4) making substantial use of non-English texts in one or more seminar papers or in the preparation of general examination fields and prospectuses, or 5) passing a language exam offered by the department. Proficiency is assumed in the case of native speakers and bilingual students, as long as they are skilled in both reading and speaking.
To document proficiency, students must email the graduate program coordinator, cc’ing the advisor and the faculty member who certifies the student’s language skills; students should list the language(s) and the means by which proficiency has been demonstrated. Students taking language reading courses at Harvard Summer School or in an external institution should have a transcript sent to the graduate program coordinator.
As students’ fields of study develop, they may find that they need to acquire new languages or further develop their skills in ones they already know. This should be discussed by students and their advisors on a regular basis as part of the advising process.
Year 2: The General Examination
PhD students in the History of Science normally take the General Examination at the end of the spring semester of the G2 year. The aim of the General Examination is to deepen and expand students’ historical knowledge for the purposes of both research and teaching. It is an oral examination in three fields, each one directed by a different faculty examiner. Students are not expected to demonstrate an encyclopedic command of detail but, rather, to give evidence of understanding the main historical developments in each field, mastery of the chief historiographic traditions associated with a particular content area, and an ability to discuss particular sciences or topics within relevant historical contexts.
The three examiners constitute the student’s General Examination Committee, one of whom serves as Chair. Each field is chosen in consultation with the DGS, the Chair of the Committee, and individual Committee members. Two fields should be directed by faculty in the Department of the History of Science (or in certain cases by faculty approved by the department to direct a field related to the history of science, technology, or medicine). One field should be directed by a faculty member outside the Department, and students should consult carefully with the DGS and their intended Chair about the scope of that field and who might be asked to direct it. Occasionally, a single field may be split into two subfields, each of which is directed by a distinct faculty member.
Once the student has agreed with each Committee member about the title of their field, and the Chair of the Committee has approved all of them, students should submit the General Examination Application and a completed PhD Degree Requirements Worksheet to the Graduate Program Coordinator. This should happen by early November of the G2 year. These applications are reviewed and then voted on by Department faculty at the following Faculty Meeting.
During the G2 year, students normally enroll in a directed reading course (HSCI 3001) with each of the directors of their three fields during either the Fall or Spring semester. Preparation for the exam may take place in the fall or spring, or it may extend over both semesters. In any case, preparation should involve at least seven meetings between student and faculty member. At the beginning of preparation for each field, the student and director of each field will agree on a set of texts that constitutes the Reading List for that field. This list may be revised over the course of preparation in consultation with the Director of each field.
Early in the spring semester it is the student’s responsibility to coordinate with their General Examination Committee to determine the date and time of the exam. The Examination should be scheduled for two hours: 90 minutes for the exam itself and 30 minutes for the Committee to review the exam and discuss the result with the student. Once the date and time have been determined, the student should inform the Graduate Coordinator who will secure a room and add it to the schedule.
General Examination Applications will normally only be considered once students have completed all required coursework from the G1 year (and have no outstanding Incomplete grades). Moreover, at the time of the exam itself, students should have completed (or should be actively enrolled in) all required coursework for the degree. A rising G3 student who has not passed the General Examination will be allowed one semester in which to complete any outstanding course and writing requirements as well as to sit for and pass the examination. The department may ask students who have not completed this process and passed the Examination by the end of the first semester of the G3 year to withdraw from the Program.
For more information about General Examination Fields and the exam itself, consult the HoS General Examination Procedures document available on the HoS Graduate Program website.