History Department Fields of Study

The Department of History currently has a number of members specializing in the history of different regions of Africa. Ph.D. students in African history will find a number of additional faculty in the Carter G. Woodson Institute, as well as other units at UVa.

Faculty: Emily Burrill (gender; law; human rights; 20th century West Africa); John Edwin Mason (history of photography; South Africa); Erik Linstrum (British Empire; violence; sciene and technology; decolonization); Jennifer Sessions (French colonialism in North Africa; comparative empire; cultural history); Amir Syed (intellectual history; Islam and politics in West Africa) 

Early America

Ph.D. students focusing on colonial, revolutionary, early republic, antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction history join an intellectual community anchored by ongoing research seminars.  They undertake coursework as well as independent reading to support two common fields of study:  Early American History, 1584-1815 and United States History, 1815-1877.  They also prepare for a third field that they define in consultation with their advisors.  Such a field typically examines subjects outside of American history, involves work in another discipline, or develops a comparative or thematic focus.   (Examples of such fields have included Early Modern England, Environmental History, the Global Economy, Atlantic World, Modern European War and Society, Enlightenment Intellectual History, Women’s and Gender History, and Material Culture Studies.)  Faculty and students at all levels of study—from first-years to doctoral candidates completing their dissertations—meet regularly during term to present and discuss original research.  Those specializing in colonial, revolutionary, and early republic history meet as the Early American Seminar at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.  Those whose focus is on antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction history meet as the Civil War Studies Seminar in Nau Hall.  Every year, we convene several special joint sessions of these seminars to discuss works-in-progress presented by visiting scholars, UVa faculty, and advanced graduate students.  There is no mandatory foreign language requirement for students in the Early America program.  Advisors and students will agree upon a plan for language study suited to the student’s research needs.  Students in Early America have served as research assistants for projects such as the Papers of George Washington, the Papers of James Madison, Documents Compass, Backstory, and MapScholar.

Faculty: Kirt von Daacke (Race & Identity in 18th & 19th c. U.S.); Christa Dierksheide (Age of Revolutions; Antebellum America; Thomas Jefferson; Slavery and Race); S. Max Edelson (Colonial British America; History of Cartography; Slavery and Plantation Societies; Digital Humanities); Justene Hill Edwards (African-American; American Slavery; U.S. Economic History; American Legal History); Caroline Janney (U.S. Civil War; Nineteenth-Century U.S.; Women and Gender; Memory); Cynthia Nicoletti (US Legal History); Andrew O’Shaughnessy (Eighteenth Century Atlantic World; British Empire); Elizabeth Varon (American South; Civil War Era; Women’s and Gender History; Intellectual and Cultural History).

Twentieth-Century United States

Ph.D students concentrating in 20th-century American history can find a rich selection of both potential advisors and graduate seminars. Well represented in the department are the fields of American Cultural History, American Political Development, African American History, Southern History, Environmental History, Labor History, Legal History, the History of Political Economy, the History of Science and Technology, and the History of Foreign Relations. Recent graduate course offerings have included: “20th-Century American Constitutional History,” “The Origins of the Cold War,” “African American Historiography,” “The South Since 1900,” and “American Political Development In Action,” among others. In addition to colloquia with their peers, students take guided reading courses with individual professors to home in on more narrow research interests.  Courses taken in the first two years help frame 1) the master’s essay 2) comprehensive exam fields and 3) the dissertation prospectus.  Proficiency in language may be required, at the discretion of the candidate’s dissertation advisor. Current dissertation projects spanning the history of cryptography to the cultural history of Second-Wave Feminism illustrate the many kinds of specializations available to incoming students.  Candidates in 20th-century America also come together at the Miller Center for Public Affairs, the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African and African-American Studies, the Law’s School Program on Legal and Constitutional History, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, and assorted student-organized reading groups, such as the Twentieth Century United States History Workshop, which brings together Ph.D. candidates and faculty in the field of twentieth-century U.S. history, along with other engaged scholars to present work in progress and comment on that work.

Faculty: Kevin Gaines (African-American History; Civil Rights); Risa Goluboff (Civil Rights; Constitutional History; Constitutional Law); Grace Hale (Cultural History; History of the US South; Documentary Studies, Sound Studies); Claudrena Harold (African-American History; African American Studies; U.S. Labor History); Andrew Kahrl (African American; 20th Century US; Environmental); S. Deborah Kang (Immigration; Law; US-Mexico Border); Christian McMillen (History of American Indians; Legal History; History of Global Disease; Western History); Sarah Milov (Political Economy, History of Science); David Singerman (Global US History; International Capitalism; Environmental History); Erica Sterling (African-American History; history of education; carceral studies); Penny von Eschen (International History; Race; Cold War); G. Edward White (American Legal History)

U.S. South

For more than half a century, UVA has been a global leader in the study of the US South. Ph.D. students in this area benefit from access to outstanding scholars across departments and a wealth of resources, including archival collections, in this vibrant field. Southern historians today are researching a staggering variety of interrelated themes, including the changing nature and meaning of “southern distinctiveness"; the political economy of the region--from the plantation system to modern labor regimes; the shifting race, gender and class relations among southerners; sectionalism and the causes of the Civil War; the rise and demise of the Confederacy; Reconstruction and the “New South”; racial oppression and violence; the creation of segregation; the cultural and economic interdependence of black and white southerners; the Civil Rights Movement and its aftermath; regional, national and global visions of southern culture, from popular music to cooking to the South's portrayal by Hollywood; the history of the South's built and "natural" environments, and the global (and globalizing) South. 

Clearly, this field has an interdisciplinary bent, and our faculty members emphasize the use of novels, films, music, photographs, and artifacts of material culture as historical documents.  We also collaborate with colleagues in other departments, including English, art history, music, religious studies, architectural history, media studies, and the law school.  Students have the opportunity to participate in one of the departments’ longest running workshops, the Southern Seminar, which meets regularly to workshop faculty members’ and graduate students’ research, hear visiting speakers, and discuss recent publications in the field.  Southern history students are also encouraged to participate in the Early American Seminar, Civil War Studies Group, and the American Studies Workshop, as these seminars intersect with their interests.  Students are encouraged to take US history seminars with the Southern history graduate faculty, and also to sample the wide array of undergraduate courses on Southern history (these can be taken for graduate school credit, with permission) and graduate courses in other departments.

History Department faculty working in this area include Max Edelson; Grace Hale; Claudrena Harold; Justene Hill Edwards; Risa Goluboff; Andrew Karhl; Sarah Milov; Cynthia Nicoletti; and Elizabeth Varon.

UVA faculty across grounds working on the US South include Anna Brickhouse (English & American Studies); Jennifer Greeson (English & American Studies); Stephen Railton (English); Lisa Woolfork (English); Bonnie Gordon (Music); Karl Miller(Music); Richard Will (Music); Louis Nelson (Architecture); Jack Hamilton (Media Studies & American Studies); Aniko Bodroghkozy (Media Studies); Doug Blackmon (Miller Center); Sabrina Pendergrass (Sociology and the Woodson); Matt Hedstrom (American Studies & Religious Studies); Charles Marsh (Religious Studies).

Ph.D. students focusing on the early modern world, ca. 1400-1800, study with faculty members whose work incorporates a broad range of geographic specializations and methodological approaches to the early modern world.  Students pursue fields of study designed in close consultation with their advisors.  Coursework in the first two years prepares students for intensive dissertation research while cultivating broad teaching interests.  Examinations in three fields—whose scope and content will be determined by students in consultation with their advisors—take place before the end of the second year of study.  Foreign language requirements are determined in consultation with advisors, and reflect each student’s particular area of focus.  Most successful graduate students in early modern history enter the program with strong language preparation.  Students whose primary research language is not English must pass mastery-level examinations in at least one (and sometimes two) foreign languages prior to taking their general exams.       

Faculty: S. Max Edelson (Colonial British America; History of Cartography; Slavery and Plantation Societies; Digital Humanities); Paul Halliday (Legal History; Britain and the Empire, 1500-1850), Erin Lambert (Early Modern Europe; Reformation; Visual and Aural Cultures); Brian Owensby (Latin America; Modern Brazil; Colonial Mexico; Legal History; early-modern Spanish empire in the New World); Comparative Age of Revolutions); Joshua White (Early Modern Ottoman Empire and Mediterranean; Social, Legal, and Diplomatic history).

Ph.D. students in East Asian History at the University of Virginia join a thriving community of scholars and students working in conjunction with the University’s interdisciplinary East Asia Center and allied disciplines. Students in East Asian History prepare for comprehensive examinations in two East Asian fields (China and Japan) with one of these constituting the primary focus of study. Sub-field concentrations within these two fields, temporal or thematic, are to be defined in consultation with the student’s advisor. Students are also required to prepare a third field in either History or a related discipline that complements the primary focus of study.

Entering students are expected to have a command of either Chinese or Japanese, depending on the focus of study. Demonstration of adequate language skill, either through mastery examination or research in the target language, is expected by the end of the second year of study. Study of additional languages may also be required depending upon a student’s dissertation topic.

Faculty: Liu Xiaoyuan (China’s ethnic-frontier affairs in international politics; Chinese-American relations in the 20th century; East Asian international history); Neeti Nair (Modern South Asia;War and Society; Cold War; Legal History); Joseph Seeley (Modern Korea; Japanese Empire; East Asian Environmental History; Borderlands and Historical Geography); Robert Stolz (Modern Japan; Social Theory); Ellen Zhang (Song China; elite culture; social and family history).

Ancient Europe

Further Details and Information about Admission to the Ph.D. Program in Ancient History

Ph.D. students in the interdisciplinary field of Ancient History are expected to take courses in the History Department but also courses in other departments (such as Classics, Art, and Religious Studies) while preparing to be examined in two major fields of study, Greek and Roman History, and to pass four language exams.  The third Ph.D. examination field is chosen in consultation with the advisor, but can involve, e.g., the historical study of a post-classical epoch or work in another discipline such as historiography or archaeology.  Ph.D. students in Ancient History are expected to pass mastery-level exams in French and German and the MA-level exams in Greek and Latin set for their own students by the Classics Department; at least one of these four exams must have been passed by the time the student sits the Ph.D. qualifying exam in the History Department, although it is naturally best to pass as many of them as soon as possible. Extensive language training is therefore necessary for successful application to the program.  Ph.D. students in Ancient History typically take courses through the fall semester of the third year and their qualifying exams in January of the spring semester of the same academic year.  Ancient historians are also encouraged to participate in the Classics Department's Tuesday Lunch series, where they are welcome to present their work, and to attend the lectures in the Classics Department and those sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America.

Faculty: in History: Ted Lendon (Greek and Roman history; politics; government; foreign affairs; war); Elizabeth Meyer (Greek and Roman History; ancient law and legal culture; Greek and Roman epigraphy; ancient slavery; cultures of writing); in Classics: John Dillery (Greek historiography); in Art: John Dobbins (Pompeii, Roman urbanism, Roman art); Tyler Jo Smith (Greek art, vase-painting); in Religious Studies: Karl Shuve (late-antique Christianity).

Medieval Europe

Ph.D. students in the interdisciplinary field of Medieval History are expected to take courses in the History Department as well as in other departments (such as Art History, Classics, Religious Studies) while preparing to be examined in two major fields of study in Medieval History. The third Ph.D. examination field is chosen in close consultation with the advisor and is intended both to broaden and deepen a student’s control of the period and understanding of particular issues or subjects. It may be thematic or involve the study of a related discipline, for example archaeology, art history or patristic and post-patristic theology.

Ph.D. students in Medieval History are expected to pass a minimum of three language exams: mastery-level exams in German and Medieval Latin, and in at least one additional language. This may be ancient, medieval or modern, depending upon the individual focus of research. At least one of these three exams must have been passed by the time the student sits the Ph.D. qualifying exam in the History Department, but we recommend working towards all of them steadily and passing them as soon as possible.  Any successful applicant is, therefore, expected to have undertaken extensive language preparation prior to entry to the program.

Ph.D. students in Medieval History typically take courses through the fall semester of the third year, their qualifying exams following in January of the spring semester of the same academic year.

Faculty: Paul Kershaw (post-Roman kingdoms; the Carolingian and sub-Carolingian world; politics and political ideas; Irish and Anglo-Saxon intellectual history); Kristina Richardson (medieval Islamic world); Melissa Vise (medieval Italy; language; law); Joshua White (medieval and early modern Mediterranean and Middle East; law; diplomacy). Related faculty: in Art: Eric Ramirez-Weaver (medieval science and astronomy; manuscript studies; art history); in Classics: Gregory Hays (medieval Latin literature; manuscript studies; Latin palaeography); in English: Peter Baker (Old English; Anglo-Latin; Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry); in Religious Studies: Karl Shuve (late antique Christianity; exegesis).

Modern Europe

Prospective graduate students in modern Europe should choose a focal interest in a particular country (or region), as well as a thematic or comparative focus that will allow the student to demonstrate a capacity to think and work beyond Europe’s boundaries. Before applying to UVA, you should contact a prospective advisor to inquire about the possibility of graduate study with that person. Be aware that professors take leaves of absence from time to time. It is not a good idea to come here only to discover that your anticipated advisor is not available.

You should raise the issue of language fluency with your prospective advisor(s), since your language capacity and training need to be closely coordinated with your prospective research field. Students must pass a mastery-level language exam in their primary research language before taking comprehensive exams, and they are expected to pass a second, proficiency-level language exam before the conclusion of their third year of study. Students planning to work on modern continental Europe ought to have a knowledge of one relevant language at the time of their application that will enable them to pass a mastery-level exam in that language during their first semester. Students typically undertake additional language training during the summers and are eligible to apply to the department for financial support to do so.

Students in modern European history prepare three comprehensive exam fields. These are to be negotiated with the examining professors and crafted with the student’s program in mind. For example, one recent examinee prepared a Near Eastfield as well as Russia up to 1917 and Europe 1815 to the present. The traditional comprehensive field in European history has a clear spatio-temporal focus, covering, over a defined period, the general history of a particular country or region or of Europe as a whole. However, we strongly encourage students to consider giving their third field a thematic focus (e.g., history of ideas/theory of history, economic history), and/or a comparative and transnational focus. If demonstrably relevant to the proposed dissertation topic, focused study in another discipline would not be excluded.

Faculty: Manuela Achilles (Modern Germany; History of Fascism; History of Democracy); William Hitchcock (Modern Europe; War and Society; Cold War); Kyrill Kunakhovich (Modern Europe; Central & Eastern Europe; Nationalism; Cold War Communism); Erik Linstrum (Modern Britain, British Empire, and the World; Science and Technology; European Cultural and Intellectual); Allan Megill (Modern Europe; Modern European History of Ideas; Historical Theory/Philosophy of History); Jeffrey Rossman (Russia/USSR; Modern Europe; Communism; Genocide); Mark Thomas (British Economic; US Business and Economic; International Economic; Australia); in French: Janet Horne (Modern France; Museums and Cultural History); in German: Chad Wellmon (German Romanticism and Enlightenment; European Intellectual History); in Sociology: Jeffrey Olick (Postwar Germany; Collective Memory; History and Sociology).

Students who choose to develop a research focus in international history may draw from strong faculty resources in the History Department. International history is a capacious field of study that has developed a rich historiography in recent years. Historians working in this area tend to examine subjects that cross borders and are unmoored from a purely national historical context. For example, international history includes the history of imperialism and colonization, economic and financial arrangements among states, diplomacy and statecraft, comparative ideologies, human rights, the cultural dimensions of international relations, war and its impact upon society, migration and refugees, genocide, epidemics and public health, cross-border movements of ideas, goods, and people, and the place of non-governmental organizations in the modern world.

In preparation for the Ph.D. qualifying examinations, international history students will be expected to develop competence in at least three historiographical areas. These areas should be identified in the first few months of the first year in the program, and will be designed in consultation with the faculty advisor. These areas might include readings in national/regional literatures, such as modern U.S., Latin American, Middle Eastern, East Asian and European history; and be supplemented by readings in such international fields as The Cold War; War and Society in the 20th Century; Human Rights in the Modern Age; Comparative Empires; The United States in the World; Globalization in History; and so on. The possibilities for combining national and international fields are almost limitless. What is therefore crucial is to define the areas of inquiry early in the program with the Ph.D. advisor.

Students who study international history will usually find it advantageous to possess foreign language skills for conducting research. Depending on the chosen field of research, additional language training may be required.

The resources at the University for the study of international history are rich, and include not only a first-class library system but active research centers such as the Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, the Miller Center (which offers pre-doctoral fellowships for the study of modern politics and foreign affairs), the Center for Global Health, the Center for Russian and East European Studies, the Center for South Asian Studies, the East Asia Center, the Middle East Studies Program, among others.

Students may also be interested in joining the Diplomatic History Group, a forum for graduate students studying foreign policy and international history to circulate dissertation chapters, conference papers, or seminar essays to their colleagues and receive feedback during informal monthly meetings.

Faculty: Fahad Bishara (economic and legal history of the Indian Ocean and Islamic worlds); Laurent Dubois (history and culture of Atlantic world); William Hitchcock (Modern Europe; War and Society; Cold War);  Erik Linstrum (Modern Britain, British Empire, and the World; Science and Technology; European Cultural and Intellectual); Neeti Nair (Modern South Asia; War and Society; Cold War; Legal History), Brian Owensby (Latin America; Modern Brazil; Colonial Mexico; Legal History; early-modern Spanish empire in the New World); Christian McMillen (Native American; U.S. West); Jeffrey Rossman (Russia/USSR; Modern Europe; Genocide); Marc Selverstone (Miller Center); David Singerman(Global US History; International Capitalism; Environmental History); Penny von Eschen (20th Century; Race; Cold War)

Ph.D. students concentrating in Jewish history find a rich cluster of specialist faculty within the History Department and across related departments and programs, including the interdisciplinary Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Center for German Studies, and the Religious Studies Department. There are particularly strong opportunities for students interested in the modern Jewish history, with geographical focus on Modern Europe (especially Germany, Poland, and Russia), Israel, the United States, and twentieth-century transnational Jewish history. The Jewish history program leads the field in its concentration on linking traditional areas of scholarship, such as Zionism, antisemitism, and the Holocaust to emerging fields in the larger arena of historiography, including the history of human rights, forced migration, and genocide, legal history, the history of international institutions, and memory studies. Faculty have also worked closely with Jewish Studies specialists in musicology, art history, and literature to promote new directions in cultural history, including sound studies, visual aesthetics, and the history of emotions.

Entering graduate students work closely with an advisor to prepare a program of study that fits the specific disciplinary imperatives of Jewish history while also ensuring strong training in related or overlapping fields. These typically include modern European history, modern Russian/ Soviet history, modern Middle Eastern history, U.S. history, or international history. There are many exciting possibilities for combining the field of Jewish history with other geographic or methodological fields, including intellectual history, legal history, and religious history. Entering students should ideally possess a strong command of the Hebrew language and one or more other relevant languages (typically including German, Yiddish, French, Russian or Polish). Students will be expected to demonstrate language proficiency through exams. Where necessary, language coursework may be required.
 
The study of Jewish history at the University is considerably enhanced by the vibrant community of Jewish Studies doctoral students, particularly in the longstanding programs in Judaism and comparative religious studies in the Department of Religion and the German Department. Other University resources include the Miller Center (which offers pre-doctoral fellowships for the study of political history and foreign affairs), the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture (which provides in-house doctoral fellowships), and the Law and History workshop run in conjunction with the faculty of the University of Virginia Law School.

Faculty: Caroline Kahlenberg (Israel/Palestine; social and cultural history); in Religious Studies: Asher Biemann (German and Austrian Jewry; Zionism; Religious Thought; aesthetics and visual studies).

Ph.D. students examining in the field Latin American history have the opportunity to specialize in a range of dynamic subfields, including social history, legal history, gender and sexuality, and environmental history.

Faculty: Thomas Miller Klubock (Modern Chile; social history; environment; gender and sexuality); Brian Owensby (Modern Brazil; Colonial Mexico; Legal History; early-modern Spanish empire in the New World)

Owing to longstanding links between the Corcoran Department of History and the Law School, UVA is one of the nation’s premier centers for legal history. We have a large group, with depth in U.S. law and unusual range covering law’s history around the world. Members of our community study everything from crime in colonial Virginia and slaves’ use of the law to the Civil War and civil rights. We write about the law of piracy in the Mediterranean and legal relations across the Indian Ocean. Some of us explore colonial and post-colonial legal regimes from India to Mexico; others study modern human rights. We also contribute our scholarship to resolving current legal controversies. Our JD/MA program in legal history allows graduate and law students to share their distinct perspectives in their courses and outside of them. Two other activities bring us together. Our Legal History Workshop draws scholars from beyond UVA to discuss their scholarly work with us. More informally, we gather in a Legal History Writing Group to share writing in progress.

Faculty: Fahad Bishara (economic and legal history of the Indian Ocean and Islamic worlds); Emily Burrill (gender; law; human rights; 20th century West Africa); Indrani Chatterjee (South Asia/Indian Ocean; gender; slavery); Christa Dierksheide (Age of Revolutions; Antebellum America; Thomas Jefferson; Slavery and Race); Risa Goluboff (Civil Rights; Constitutional History; Constitutional Law); S. Deborah Kang (Immigration; Law; US-Mexico Border); Paul Halliday (Legal History; Britain and the Empire, 1500-1850); Justene Hill Edwards (African-American; American Slavery; U.S. Economic History; American Legal History); Christian McMillen (History of American Indians; Legal History; History of Global Disease; Western History); Elizabeth Meyer (Greek and Roman History; ancient law and legal culture; Greek and Roman epigraphy; ancient slavery; cultures of writing); Sarah Milov (20th Century U.S., Political Economy, Science and Social Science in American Culture); Neeti Nair (Modern South Asia; War and Society; Cold War; Legal History); Cynthia Nicoletti (US Legal History); Brian Owensby (Latin America; Modern Brazil; Colonial Mexico; Legal History; early-modern Spanish empire in the New World); Comparative Age of Revolutions); Melissa Vise (medieval Italy; language; law); Joshua White (early modern Ottoman history, law and diplomacy in the Mediterranean, piracy).

Ph.D students in Middle Eastern History at the University of Virginia join a growing interdisciplinary community of specialists.  Students prepare for comprehensive examination by gaining expertise in the long durée of Middle Eastern and Islamic history as well as a specialization in a particular region and period.  Students are encouraged to benefit from the wealth of opportunities for study in other departments as well (for example, Religious Studies, Middle East Languages and Cultures, Politics, Anthropology).  

Entering students are expected to have a command of a major Middle Eastern language (usually Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew or Persian) and to acquire mastery of a second language.  The second language may be a primary-source language of the Middle East or a language suited for scholarly research on the area, such as French or German.   

Faculty: Fahad Bishara (economic and legal history of the Indian Ocean and Islamic worlds); Chris Gratien (Ottoman Empire; Environmental History); Caroline Kahlenberg (Israel/Palestine; social and cultural history); Kristina Richardson (medieval Islamic world); Jennifer Sessions (French colonialism in North Africa); Amir Syed (intellectual history; Islam and politics in West Africa); Joshua White (early modern Ottoman history, law and diplomacy in the Mediterranean, piracy).

Ph.D. students in this program may work with professors in the Department of History as well as with professors with joint appointments in History and the School of Engineering, which has a program in Science, Technology, and Society. Together with their advisor, students craft a program of coursework  around three distinct fields that meet the needs of their particular research projects. For example, a student interested in the history of American science might take courses on American history and the history of science in the Department of History as well as courses in the history of technology in the program in Science, Technology, and Society in the School of Engineering. The three fields might be Nineteenth-century U.S. History, Twentieth-century U.S. History, and the History of Science. There is no mandatory foreign language requirement for students in the program in the History of Science, Technology, and the Environment.  Advisors and students will agree upon a plan for language study suited to the student’s research needs. With permission, mastery of a specialized technical or scientific vocabulary has been substituted in place of a more traditional foreign language. 

Faculty: Chris Gratien (Ottoman Empire; Environmental History); Christian McMillen (Native American; U.S. West); Sarah Milov (20th Century U.S., Political Economy, Science and Social Science in American Culture); David Singerman (Global US History; International Capitalism; Environmental History); Joseph Seeley.

One of the first programs to train historians of South Asia in the United States, the Corcoran Department of History has produced some of the leading historians in the country today.

Students of South Asia are expected to enter the doctoral program with a well-defined idea of their proposed field of study. This will be located in both space (region/locality) and time (chronology). We also encourage work that is comparative, trans-regional, as well as transnational. By the first semester of their third year, all students are expected to have completed coursework and taken qualifying exams in early modern and modern South Asian history, apart from one other field. This third field could be thematic, such as the study of nationalisms or legal history, or geographical, such as South Asia’s ties with East Asia or the Middle East. We encourage students to be creative and unconventional in the way they design their coursework, encouraging coursework with other faculty in the department (such as Xiaoyuan Liu) as well as in allied departments (such as Mrinalini Chakravorty in English, Mehr Farooqi in South Asian Studies, and John Echeverri-Gent in Politics).

Students in the program are expected to use fluently one foreign language for their dissertation. We expect students to have completed at least two years of foreign language study before they arrive in Charlottesville, so that they may start advanced foreign language coursework while here; Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, Arabic, and Tibetan are some of the relevant languages that are taught at the university.

Apart from having access to Alderman library, one of the finest libraries for South Asia in the country, students will also belong to the South Asia Center, an inter-disciplinary home to all those engaged in the teaching and research of South Asia at UVa, and the Asia Institute. Visiting lecturers and diplomats, international conferences, in-house faculty seminars, and workshops organized by students and faculty also provide for intellectual interaction.

Faculty: Fahad Bishara (economic and legal history of the Indian Ocean and Islamic worlds); Indrani Chatterjee (South Asia/Indian Ocean; gender; slavery); Neeti Nair (Modern South Asia; War and Society; Cold War; Legal History).