Asian History Comprehensive Exam

The Graduate Regulations of the History Department govern how all students take the comprehensive examinations and defend the dissertation prospectus.  Student should consult those regulations, as well as the exam rules outlined on the form which they must submit in advance of the examination.  As an addition to those general departmental rules, this document outlines the specific regulations of the Asian history field.

Areas of Study

 Students admitted in Asian history will be required to complete a total of four fields, all of which will require formal examination.

The four fields will be defined as follows:

1. A primary field in a recognized field of Asian history (e.g. modern China, modern Japan, modern South Asia, Qing China, Tokugawa Japan, etc.)
2. A second field to be decided in consultation with the student’s adviser.  Ordinarily this would be a second field of Asian history, chronologically or geographically distinct from the student’s primary field.
3. A thematic field (such as gender and women’s history, economic history, cultural history, etc.), which includes a substantial number of readings on Asia (the normal expectation would be that no less than half of the readings in the field would be focused on Asia)
4. A fourth “outside” field.  This would be either in a field of history that is ordinarily outside of Asia or else in another discipline (e.g. anthropology, religion, literature, sociology)

Comprehensive Exams

Following general Departmental guidelines, students will have eight hours to write each comprehensive examination, with a limit of 10-15 pages, typed and double-spaced.  A student may take all four examinations in one semester or over two consecutive semesters.  The schedule must be approved by the adviser early in the semester in which the first examination is taken.  As part of constructing this schedule, a student must secure the approval of each participating faculty member for the time for his/her examination.  A faculty member may ask a student to synchronize an examination with those of other students. 

Each student will prepare for each of the four examinations with a specific member of the faculty.  Preparation will vary, but as a rule the student will work on areas and themes from which the student can expect the examination questions to come.  In preparation for each examination, a student must work out with an appropriate member of the faculty a reading list of 25 books, or their equivalent in articles, for each field.