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Graduate Student Resources

  • Research Resources

    Research resources listed include geographical areas for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and the United States

    Africa

    The Center for African and African American Studies brings together those with an interest in the study of Africa and the African Diaspora. Faculty and students from literature, anthropology, history, government, and ethnomusicology organize seminars, conferences and guest speakers to explore various themes of the field. Additionally, the African and African Diaspora Studies Department recently started offering classes and degrees in the fall of 2010.

    Asia

    The Department of Asian Studies provides a focus for work at the univesity in both East Asian and South Asian studies.

    East Asia

    The Center for East Asian Studies brings together specialists in the history, religion, popular culture, political economy, government and public policy, and literature and film of China, Japan, and Korea. The university's libraries hold approximately 80,000 volumes in Chinese, 60,000 in Japanese, and 4,000 in Korean.

    South Asia

    The South Asia Institute, a nationally recognized center for South Asian studies, specializes in the societies and cultures of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan. Its library is notable for holdings on Indian religions, pre-modern and colonial history, post-colonial political and social developments, and classical and modern literatures of South Asia.

    Europe

    Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern

    The University of Texas possesses strong and varied resources for the study of European history. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center has especially extensive collections in the history of European science and literature, and in medieval and early modern religion.

    The university's departments of Spanish and Portuguese, French and Italian, Germanic Studies, and Slavic and Eurasian Studies are among the most highly rated language departments in the country and include experts in each nation's literary history. The Fine Arts Library provides excellent resources in the history of European art while the Architecture Library is similarly strong in European architecture. The Classics Department and its library support the study of classical antiquity and its contribution to western civilization, including history, literature, art, archaeology, science, philosophy and religion. The Center for European Studies brings together students and faculty working on a wide array of European topics.

    Latin America

    The university's faculty and research resources for the study of Latin American history are among the best in the world. The Benson Latin American Collection houses one of the largest and best collections of Latin American historical materials in the United States. Its extensive collections of manuscripts, rare books, microfilms, newspapers, periodicals, and other printed documents make it possible for students to delve deeply into the history of any of the major Latin American countries for either the colonial or modern periods.

    The resources of the Benson Collection are supplemented by those of the Bexar Archives and other holdings of the CAH as well as by the off-campus Texas State Library and Archives. All of these archives hold extensive materials on the Spanish and Mexican periods of Texas history. The relations of Latin American nations with the United States can be studied at the LBJ Library and in the papers of missionaries found at the Episcopal and Catholic church archives in Austin.

    The university is home to many distinguished Latin American specialists in fields outside history, most of whom are affiliated with the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. Besides offering courses, the Institute sponsors many guest lectures by prominent authorities, attracts visiting scholars for teaching and research, and is able to provide some financial support for thesis and dissertation research.

    Middle East

    The Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Department of Middle Eastern Studies bring together faculty and students with an interest in the languages, societies and cultures of the Arab world, Israel, Turkey, and Iran. The Middle Eastern Library Program focuses primarily on the contemporary Middle East and is especially strong in modern Persian literature, Shi'ism and Islamic philosophy and jurisprudence.

    United States

    The university and the Austin area possess outstanding resources for research in United States history. The university's Perry-Castaneda Library is the centerpiece of the nation's ninth largest research library system. The university and the Austin area are also home to several specialized libraries and archives. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center houses one of the premier research collections in the world and has major holdings on the history of American and European literature, science, theater and photography. Among its recent acquisitions are the Watergate papers of reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

    The Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library houses not only the White House central files for the period of Johnson's presidency, but also additional papers covering Johnson's early career, plus records of numerous oral interviews and the files of several of his aides and associates. The LBJ School of Public Affairs offers many courses of interest to history students and also maintains an excellent library.

    The Briscoe Center for American History is an archive, rare book library, and museum that focuses on Texas, Southwestern, and Southern history, and also holds nationally significant archival collections of materials related to the U.S. news media and the U.S. Congress. Its Natchez Trace Collection includes an enormous body of plantation records and other eighteenth- and nineteenth-century materials on the history of the lower Mississippi Valley. The news media collections held by the center include the original reference "morgues" of the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, and the New York Journal American, as well as the papers of Walter Cronkite and other leading broadcast journalists. The center also houses the Archives of American Mathematics, the extensive historical collections of the Exxon Mobil Corporation, many runs of newspapers, and a large trove of materials related to the history of music, the performing arts, and the entertainment industry.

    Among the university departments and specialized centers whose work is of value and interest to students of United States history are the Department of American Studies, the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS), the Center for African and African American Studies, and the Center for Asian American Studies. There is also a Department of Religious Studies established in 2007.

    The university's School of Law is consistently ranked among the top American law schools for classroom teaching. Its Tarlton Law Library is the fifth-largest academic law library in the country and includes many materials of value for historical research.

    Near campus, students have access to the national archives of the Episcopal Church, the Catholic Archives of Texas, the Texas State Library and Archives, and the archives of various state agencies.

  • Graduate Student Handbook

    View/Download the History PhD Graduate Student Handbook here.

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  • History Graduate Student Council

    The History Graduate Council works closely with the Graduate Adviser and the Graduate Program Administrator to ensure that graduate students have a voice in their educational and professional experiences at the University of Texas. The Council holds occasional meetings that serve as a forum for improving the graduate student experience.

    The Council consists of two co-leaders, who ideally have overlapping two-year appointments, and elected representatives from each cohort. Elections are held at the beginning of the fall semester. Appointments last through the academic calendar.

    Members of the History Graduate Council, 2024-2025:

    • Hannah McClain (Student and HGSC Co-President)
    • John Catton (Student and HGSC Co-President

    Advisory

    • Seth Garfield, Faculty and Graduate Adviser
    • Clare Thoman, Graduate Program Administrator
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