History of Women and Gender Comprehensive Exams

The Graduate Regulations of the History Department govern how all students take the comprehensive examinations and defend the dissertation prospectus. Students should consult those regulations, as well as the day-of-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 Women's History field.

1. Purpose

The Women's History faculty view these examinations as tests of your general expertise in specified areas of knowledge. It is our hope that preparation for these examinations will enhance your research, but the main purpose of the examinations is to assess your competence to handle the sorts of large issues and trends that are part of both classroom teaching and professional historical discourse.

2. Peparation for the Written Examinations

You will prepare for each of your three examinations with a specific member of the faculty. Preparation will vary, but as a rule, you will work on areas and themes from which you can expect your examination questions to come. In other words, each professor may pose the questions that she or he chooses, but you can expect that the questions posed will reflect your preparation with that member of the faculty. You'll not get your examination questions in advance, but you'll also not be totally surprised by questions you receive on the day of the examination.

3. Format of the Written Examination

For each of your three examinations, you will receive questions to be answered over the course of an 8-hour period, using whatever books, notes, and other aids you like. (This procedure somewhat replicates what it is like to write a lecture.) You may do your work wherever you like. Please limit your response for each examination to no more than 2500 words (roughly, 10 pages of double-spaced text). Please submit typed, double-spaced hardcopy. Please sign an honor statement.

4. Scheduling the Written Examination

You may take each of your three examinations separately. But you must complete all three written examinations within one semester, and you must take them according to a schedule approved no later than two weeks after the beginning of that semester by both your advisor and the field convener. As part of constructing this schedule, you must secure the acquiescence of each participating faculty member to the time you would like to set for her/his examination. Aside from these stipulations, you may self-schedule the examination. Please note that some faculty might be helping multiple students prepare for examinations and that in such cases, you will be asked to schedule your examination to synchronize with the examinations of other students.

5. Content of the Written Examination

The Ph.D. program in Women's History allows students to specialize in these areas of study:

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN HISTORY to 1850 1850-present

NORTH AFRICAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY to 1798 1798-present

HISTORY OF SOUTH ASIA to 1757 1757-present

EUROPEAN HISTORY

• 500-1100
• 1000-1500
• 1300-1660
• 1500-1815
• 1787-present

LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY

• precolonial-1825
• 1810-present

U.S. HISTORY precolonial to 1800

• 1789-1900
• 1890-present

The written examinations will cover three areas:

1. GEOGRAPHICAL SPECIALTY. In this examination, you demonstrate expertise in the general history of your area of specialization. To do this, you will be examined on two adjacent time periods in any of the specialties listed above.

2. WOMEN'S HISTORY SPECIALIZATION. In this examination, you write on your specialization in Women's History. If you specialize in U.S., Latin American, South Asian, African, or North African and Middle Eastern History, you are responsible for the entire chronological spread of Women's History in your specialization. If you specialize in European history, you are responsible for covering two adjacent time periods.

3. COMPARATIVE OR GLOBAL EXAMINATION. There are no special stipulations about chronological breadth for this examination, so you and your examiner may reach a mutual understanding about chronology. You answer one of the following:

• a question on Women's History in a geographical area outside your main specialization. For example, if you specialize in U.S. women's history, you might sit an examination in Latin American Women's History.

• a question on a comparative aspect of Women's History. For example, if you are a specialist in U.S. Women's history, you might sit an examination on women's work (a topic that might include U.S. history but must also extend beyond it).

• a question on a global aspect of Women's History. For example, you might write on women in the African Diaspora or on gender and racism in a transnational context.

6. Assessing the Comprehensive Examination

Faculty reading the exams will assign graduate grades to each part. In the event a student receives a grade of L on one part of the comprehensives, he or she must retake that part of the exam within three months in order to receive a passing grade. A student receiving a failing grade (F) on one part of the exam will be allowed to retake that part of the exam within six months. A student receiving grades of L or F on two or more parts of the exam will be assigned a grade of fail for the entire exam, and will be allowed to retake it once no sooner than three months and no later than six months after having first sat the exam.

7. Additional Field Rules

1. Unless you have exceptional background in your geographical specialty, you should take foundational courses in your first year, such as the two-semester History 203 (for Europeanists), 205 (for Global Historians), 207 (for Latin Americanists), and 209 (for Americanists). If reading courses, courses in other departments, or courses at Duke would better provide the background you need, that's fine too.

2. You will be expected to take the women's history courses in your specialization. These courses include but are not limited to: History 111 (European Renaissance), 151A (Native American), 169 (African American), 195A (Middle East), 182 (Africa), 198 (China), 220 (modern European women), 221 (U.S. women), 223 (medieval women), or 270 (Latin American women).

3. You should take History 222 (Comparative or Global Women's History) and History 387 (Research Seminar in Women's History).

These three stipulations correspond to the three areas of expertise that must be demonstrated in your comprehensive examinations. If you deviate from this plan, secure the approval of your advisor.