European History

Graduate Programs

The graduate program in European history at Maryland is known for intensive faculty involvement from the moment students enter the program through the time they finish dissertations and apply for jobs. Entering students take History 608C, the General Seminar in Modern European History, which prepares students to analyze differing approaches, methodologies, and techniques in the field. Students are also encouraged to take History 729, a course on historiography, sources, and key issues in modern Europe. Both courses contribute preparatory training for comprehensive examinations. Research papers are launched with close faculty oversight and discussion in 800-level seminars, and students work intensively with advisors in the early stages of their program in order to determine direction for dissertation research. Successive cohorts of students often learn from one another in graduate work-in-progress sessions, the European Workshop, and the Nathan and Jeanette Miller Center for Historical Studies, where they mix with faculty and graduate students in all fields.

Seminars are small, intensive, and rigorous. A few examples of recent seminar topics are "Readings in Modern European Economic and Labor History"; "Jews and German Culture: The Dilemmas of Ethnic and National Identity"; "Nations and Nationalism in East Central Europe"; "Islam in Europe: From the Ottoman Empire to the European Union"; "Readings in (European) Women’s History"; and "Russia and the West."

Graduate students in the master of arts program, including the History and Library Science dual-degree program, select a major field, based on one of three chronological options (e.g. Ancient Mediterranean, Mediaeval and Early Modern, and Modern), by region (e.g., Britain and Russia & Former USSR) or by theme. Coursework, research seminars, and the master's thesis or comprehensive examinations are grounded in this major field.

Students in the doctoral program are required to select a special field of study within one of the chronological, regional, or thematic general fields. Doctoral students are also required to select a minor field of study.

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