The History Department at Indiana University is proud to be one of the top rated graduate programs in the country. Our graduate students receive fine training, preparing them for careers in academia and also in government and the private sector. We have been very successful in the past in placing our students both in the U.S. and abroad.
Our reputation is based on the top-rated research of our faculty, internationally recognized for its high quality. In small seminars and colloquia and in one-on-one supervision in a variety of settings, our faculty train you to become excellent researchers and first-rate teachers. This is a broad as well as strong department, allowing for the study of most regions and periods of history. We also have strong offerings, independent of regions or chronology, devoted to themes such as the History of Gender & Sexuality, History and Memory, Historical Teaching and Practice, Cultural History, and Family History.
The department offers the following degrees: M.A. (including several specialized terminal MA tracks as well as an MA that leads to the Ph.D.), Ph.D., M.A.T. (Master of Arts and Education) and a joint M.A. with the School of Library and Information Sciences.
Our department is the home of two journals of international reputation: the American Historical Review, the journal of the major professional organization in the U.S. devoted to the study of history, the American Historical Association, and the Journal of American History, the journal of the Organization of American Historians, the major professional organization devoted to the history of the U.S. The third journal, the Indiana Magazine of History is widely recognized as one of the best journals devoted to local and regional history. All three journals hire their staff from among our graduate students. Such employment provides fee remissions and assistantships as well as excellent training in historical writing and acquaintance with the latest trends in historical scholarship. These experiences are unique to our history department.
Indiana University is also the home of the Center for the Study of History and Memory, a pioneering center which has helped shape the practice of oral history. The Center also has a number of assistantships and provides unique training in the field.
Indiana University is one of the leaders in area studies, among them African Studies, East Asian Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Polish Studies, Russian and East European Studies, Central Eurasian Studies, and West European Studies. These programs offer an unprecedented opportunity to broaden your training by their interest in the languages, cultures, politics, and economics of these areas. Many provide assistantships and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships for students studying foreign languages.
The department offers various opportunities for funding such as Associate Instructorships and Course Assistantships. The University and History Department have a number of fellowships and grant-in-aid funds to help with dissertation research and writing. Our graduate students prove themselves competitive in winning some of the major national fellowships such as Andrew W. Mellon/ACLS, Fulbright, Chateaubriand, fellowships of the Ford Foundation, German Academic Exchange, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the Social Science Research Council, the Spencer Foundation and many other prestigious awards allowing them to complete their dissertation.
Entrance into the department is quite competitive. Students admitted to the M.A. with the intent of pursuing the Ph.D. and the Ph.D. programs generally receive multi-year fellowship packages. For information on admission to our graduate program see “How to Apply”.
