Doctoral ProgramField: Atlantic History
New York University’s Department of History offers a Ph.D. concentration in the study of the Atlantic world. A growing field, Atlantic world history encompasses research on trends spanning Africa, the Americas, and Europe; comparative analysis of Atlantic historical processes; and histories of any of the subregions of the Atlantic world involved in the creation of early modern and modern systems. The field builds on the study of empire and colonization—a particular strength of the NYU history faculty—and incorporates a range of interdisciplinary approaches, including cultural history and ethnohistory.
Within the history department, there is much discussion and exchange between students and faculty in the Atlantic field and those in the traditional national fields as well as others working in transnational fields such as African Diaspora. Because this field is necessarily interdisciplinary, PhD students in Atlantic history are encouraged to take one or more courses outside the department in a variety of departments from anthropology to literature.
The principal faculty in the Atlantic history field are Lauren Benton, Nicole Eustace, and Karen Kupperman. Related faculty in the department include Karl Appuhn, Thomas Bender, Zvi Ben-Dor, Frederick Cooper, Ada Ferrer, Katherine Fleming, Greg Grandin, Michael Gomez, Martha Hodes, John Joseph Lee, David Levering-Lewis, Molly Nolan, and Sinclair Thomson.
Students and faculty engaged in Atlantic history at NYU meet regularly in the Atlantic World Workshop, established in 1997, a forum for the exchange of ideas among scholars of the humanities and social sciences with interests in the history of the Atlantic world. Workshop participants have addressed such themes as Atlantic diasporas, slavery, cross-regional political and religious movements, literature and language, gender, and Atlantic trade, with an emphasis on the period between 1500 and 1900. The Workshop is open to discussion of all relevant topics and theoretical perspectives within the field and especially encourages debate about new approaches and ideas. The Workshop sponsors regular sessions during the academic year to discuss works in progress by both junior and senior researchers. Papers are circulated in advance, and all sessions are open to both members of the Atlantic world history field of the NYU History Department and the wider scholarly community.
The Department of History and the Atlantic History field sponsor the annual Anson G. Phelps Lecture, named for one of NYU's founders.
Curriculum. The core curriculum in Atlantic history includes Literature of the Field (an introduction into the methods and historiography of the field), a Research Seminar, and at least one elective. Students follow the normal sequence of course work, qualifying examinations, dissertation prospectus defense, and dissertation writing and defense, as laid out on the graduate program website. Students must also pass a foreign language proficiency exam.
The Consortium of New York Area Graduate Schools. After their first year, NYU graduate students can take courses at Columbia, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the New School, Rutgers University, SUNY Stonybrook, Princeton University. NYU is a member of the McNeil Center Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania, and students are eligible for special consortium fellowships as well as general McNeil Center fellowships.
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