Letter from the Chair
Dear Prospective Graduate
Student:
Welcome to the Department
of History’s graduate studies web pages! Our program is characterized by
each student's opportunity to work in a close, one-on-one relationship with his
or her graduate adviser. Our graduate students are an important part
of our department's intellectual community, and I invite you to explore their
research interests.
I also invite you to
examine those aspects of the website devoted to our faculty and their
interests. Though we are a department of diverse geographic and temporal
specializations, the faculty share certain thematic interests, including
Empire, Nation, Citizenship; Historiography; Labor and Social Movements;
Mediterranean World; Political Violence; Intellectual History; Crime, Law, and
Deviance; Social Theory and Cultural Criticism; Religion and Society; and
Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Prospective graduate students should consider the
scholarship of individual faculty as well as these broader intellectual themes
when making their decision to apply to our department. Prospective
students may wish to contact individual faculty to discuss mutual research
interests and graduate school plans.
The department workshop is
another essential element of our intellectual community. The department
workshop meets periodically throughout the academic year, allowing graduate
students, faculty, and guest speakers to present works-in-progress. The
department’s workshop coordinator consults faculty and graduate students when
selecting outside speakers, whose work usually appeals to a broad range of
research interests. The department strongly encourages graduate student
participation in these workshops, which through the years has stimulated a
sense of community along with intellectual growth and creativity.
If you have not done so
already, be sure to visit the web page for the Maxwell School of Syracuse
University. The History Department is part of the Maxwell School, which
is an internationally recognized institution for the study and advancement of
citizenship and public affairs. The Maxwell School provides an important
context in which historians at Syracuse broaden their discussions to involve
other social science disciplines. It also constitutes a forum in which
historians can link their interests to larger public and international policy
concerns. Our workshops frequently draw faculty and graduate students
from other Maxwell departments.
For questions about our
graduate program, please contact our Graduate Director, George Kallander, at glkallan@maxwell.syr.edu.
I thank you for your
interest and wish you the best of luck in furthering your studies.
Sincerely,
Susan Branson, Professor
Department Chair