phd in legal history

• Other Web Gateways to Legal History
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• Primary Source Databases/Web Archives
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Graduate Programs in Legal History/Law and Society

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• JD-Ph.D. Program in American Legal History , University of Pennsylvania
• JD-Ph.D. Program , Columbia University
• JD-Ph.D. Joint Degrees & J.D. -Ph.D. Fellowships , University of Chicago
• Joint Degrees, Law and History, Yale University
• Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program , University of California-Berkeley, Boalt Law School
• Legal History Program , NYU Law School
• Legal History Program , University of Chicago Law School
• JD-MA Program in History , University of Virginia School of Law
• LLM in Legal History , University College London
• Program in Law and History , Harvard Law School

Joint Degree in Law and History (J.D./Ph.D)

Stanford offers two joint degree programs in Law and History: (1) a JD/PhD program and (2) a JD/MA program. Both programs afford substantial savings in time and money as compared with the separate pursuit of each degree.

The programs are designed to provide students interested in the study of law and history with top-level training in each field, as well as in the complex and fascinating intersections between the two. Students have access to the full range of resources on campus—including not only courses, but also conferences, lectures, and workshops—devoted to law and history. For an overview of many law-and-history-related activities on campus, please visit the website for the Stanford Center for Law and History . 

Joint J.D./Ph.D in Law & History

The basic structure of the JD/PhD program is outlined below. The program has been purposefully designed to ensure flexibility that addresses individual student’s needs and interests.

Timing of Applications Interested students must separately apply and receive admission to the Stanford Law School and the History Department. Students are encouraged to begin their course of study by spending the first year in the Stanford Law School (SLS), followed by taking courses from both SLS and History Department. This facilitates a truly integrated, joint program; it also maximizes potential savings in financial cost and time-to-degree. Student, who are already enrolled in SLS or the History Department, may apply for admission to joint degree status in the other unit. If you are interested in this option, please check with History Department’s Student Services Manager.

Applications for the PhD program in History are typically due in early December. By contrast, applications to the Law School’s JD program are accepted on a rolling basis, usually between September 1 and February 1. To be considered as a joint applicant, applicants should submit their law-school application around the same time as your PhD application (and definitely no later than the December deadline for a PhD in History). Applicants must separately apply and obtain admission to the Stanford Law School and the Stanford History Department .

In completing the online Law School Admission Council [LSAC] application form, the applicant will be directed to a set of questions unique to Stanford Law School—including a page inquiring whether they are applying to “Other Stanford Programs.” Please select “History” from the drop-down menu.

The History Department application does not include a separate box to indicate application to Stanford Law School. Instead, the applicant should note in their required “Statement of Purpose” that they are also applying for admission into the Law School’s JD program (or that they are already enrolled in a JD program at SLS and are seeking to pursue a JD/PhD in History).

Course of Study  Joint degree students are encouraged to begin their course of study by spending their first year at Stanford in the SLS, followed by a full year in the History Department. This sequencing is essential to complete the required History PhD colloquia sequence without any disruption. After their first year in SLS, students may choose courses from either program. 

Students, who wish to commence JD/PhD program in the History Department, should discuss their plans in advance with their advisors in the Law School and in the History Department. Such requests are reviewed by both units and are accepted only if there is a compelling justification.

If the student chooses to begin their coursework in the History Department, it is vital that they complete the paperwork required to matriculate at the Law School at the beginning of their very first year of coursework. Otherwise, they may not be able to cross-credit this first-year of history coursework toward their JD degree (as detailed below).

Whichever academic unit that the student begins their JD/PhD program, they must be enrolled full time in the Law School during the first year of their JD studies, and full time in the History Department during the first year of their PhD program.

Joint degree students are expected to take their History PhD oral examinations no later than the spring of their fourth year at Stanford.

Cross-Crediting of Units The Law School requires students to earn 111 units in order to obtain the JD The History Department requires students to earn 135 units to obtain the PhD. This is a combined total of 246 units. But students may save about a year of coursework (or somewhat more) through cross-crediting some of these units.

The Law School cross-credits toward the JD up to 31 units earned in the History Department. The History Department has the flexibility to cross-credit toward the PhD up to 23 units earned in the Law School. The Department makes case-by-case decisions about which courses earned in the Law School it will credit toward the PhD So, if there are courses in the Law School that you believe are relevant to your PhD studies and doctoral dissertation, you should discuss with your doctoral advisor whether these are appropriate for cross-crediting.

Tuition and Financial Aid PhD Students, who are simultaneously accepted to the SLS and the History Department for a JD/PhD program, spend their first year at Stanford as a full-time graduate student in SLS. The Department of History does not fund the JD/PhD student during this first year. After finishing their first year with SLS, the student matriculates in the Department of History as a 1st year PhD student and start receiving their 5-Year Departmental Fellowship, which provides five years of guaranteed funding as described in the Finance Section of this Handbook (pg.75).

For their year in the SLS, JD/PhD students are eligible for the full range of need-based financial aid arrangements made available by the Law School and the University. The funding is awarded on a competitive basis. For more information, please see https://law.stanford.edu/education/degrees/

Applicants are also encouraged to consider applying to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program. The deadline for applying to this program is much earlier than the deadline for applying to pursue either the JD or the PhD in History—namely, October 11, 2023 at 1:00pm PST. Joint-degree applicants who choose to submit applications for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program must still submit separate applications to the Law school and the History department (as described above). Details can be found at: https://knight- hennessy.stanford.edu/ . 

Tuition for Students in Multiple Programs Graduate students who are eligible to pursue more than one degree at Stanford, where each program charges a different tuition (other than concurrent enrollment in a coterminal bachelor’s and master’s program), must document a tuition payment agreement by means of the  Tuition Agreement for Students with Multiple Programs

 (see  GAP 5.1 Changes and Additions of Degree Programs ).

The Enrollment Agreement for Students with Multiple Programs is not required if the programs all charge identical amounts of tuition (e.g., MA and PhD programs that are both in the School of Humanities and Sciences).

The student filing this enrollment agreement indicates the degree program to be used for tuition assessment in each quarter and academic year. The student must obtain the necessary signatures from the dean or associate dean representing each graduate or professional school program listed.

Each Joint Degree Program (JDP) has a pre-approved tuition agreement detailing which graduate tuition level is paid at which point in a student’s career (see  GAP 4.9 Joint Degree Programs ). JDP tuition agreements approved for each JDP reside with the Office of the Registrar.  All students enrolled in a JDP must submit the  Tuition Agreement for Students with Multiple Programs to document the tuition agreement and ensure that correct charges are applied each quarter.

J.D. / M.A. Program in Law & History

Timing of Applications Students interested in the joint JD/MA degree program in Law & History must separately apply and receive admission to the Stanford Law School and the History Department. To maximize potential savings in financial cost and time-to-degree, students are encouraged to apply to both the Law School and the History Department either (1) at the same time or (2) during their first year as a law student. Students in their second year of Stanford Law School may also apply to the MA program in History, but they are less likely to be able to complete both degrees in a total of three years and at the cost of their law degree.

Applications for the MA program in History are due in early December. Applications to the Law School’s JD program are accepted on a rolling basis, generally between September 1 and February 1. Applicants must separately apply and obtain admission to the Stanford Law School and the Stanford History Department .

The History Department application does not include a separate box to indicate application to Stanford Law School. Instead, the applicant should note in their required “Statement of Purpose” that they are also applying for admission into the Law School’s JD program (or that they are already enrolled in a JD program in SLS and are seeking to pursue a JD/MA in History).

• Course of Study Students pursuing the joint JD/MA must begin their course of study by spending the first year in the Stanford Law School. Starting in their second year, they will begin to take classes offered by the History Department, as well as by the Law School, and should be able to complete both degrees by the end of the third year. 

Cross-Crediting of Units The Law School requires students to earn 111 units in order to obtain the JD The History Department requires students to earn 45 units to obtain the MA This is a combined total of 156 units.

The Law School cross-credits toward the JD up to 31 units earned in the History Department. The History Department has the flexibility to cross-credit toward the MA up to 10 units earned in the Law School. The Department makes case-by-case decisions about which courses earned in the Law School it will credit toward the MA So, if there are courses in the Law School that you believe are relevant to your MA studies, you should discuss with your History-Department advisor whether these are appropriate for cross-crediting.

Tuition and Financial Aid The Law School requires students to earn 111 units in order to obtain the JD The History Department requires students to earn 45 units to obtain the MA This is a combined total of 156 units.

The Enrollment Agreement for Students with Multiple Programs is not required if the programs all charge identical amounts of tuition (e.g., MA and PhD. programs that are both in the School of Humanities and Sciences).

Further Information

Students have access to the full range of resources on campus, ranging from courses and conferences to lectures and workshops. For an overview of many law-and-history-related activities on campus, please visit the  Stanford Center for Law and History  website.

Please contact Arthur Palmon   (Assistant Director of Student Services).

Department Bookshelf

Browse the most recent publications from our faculty members.

In the Shadow of Liberty: The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States

Uncertain Past Time: Empire, Republic, and Politics | Belirsiz Geçmiş Zaman: İmparatorluk, Cumhuriyet Ve Siyaset

Embodied Knowledge: Women and Science before Silicon Valley

Compton in My Soul

The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China

• Utility Menu

Legal History

Howard Chandler Christy, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States

Magna Carta, 1215

Eleanor Roosevelt and United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Lake Success, NY)

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963

Code Civil, 1804

Corpus iuris civilis, Digest, with the Glossa ordinaria

• Program Overview

To learn about upcoming events, please visit the Law & History Events Page .  

• David Armitage : Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History
• Tomiko Brown-Nagin : Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law; Professor of History
• Sidney Chalhoub : Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
• Lizabeth Cohen : Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies
• Annette Gordon-Reed : Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History: Harvard Law School Professor of History
• Caroline Elkins : Professor of History and African and African American Studies
• Alejandro de la Fuente : Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics ; Professor of African and African American Studies and of History
• Tamar Herzog : Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs; Radcliffe Alumnae Professor
• Elizabeth Hinton : Associate Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
• Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham : Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies; Department of History Chair
• Alison Frank Johnson : Professor of History
• Walter Johnson : Winthrop Professor of History; Professor of African and African American Studies
• James Kloppenberg  : Charles Warren Professor of American History
• Jill Lepore : David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History
• Mary Lewis : Robert Walton Goelet Professor of French History
• Intisar Rabb : Professor of Lawl; Professor of History; Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
• Emma Rothschild : Jeremy and Jane Knowles Professor of History
• Daniel Smail : Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of History  
• Daniel Coquillette : Visiting Professor of Law
• Christine Desan : Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law
• Charles Donahue : Paul A. Freund Professor of Law
• Mary Ann Glendon : Learned Hand Professor of Law
• Morton Horwitz : Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History, Emeritus
• Elizabeth Kamali : Assistant Professor of Law
• Randall Kennedy : Michael R. Klein Professor of Law
• Michael Klarman : Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law
• Adriaan Lanni : Touroff-Glueck Professor of Law
• Kenneth Mack : Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law
• Bruce Mann : Carl F. Schipper, Jr. Professor of Law
• Mark Tushnet : William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law  
• Alex Keyssar : Matthew W. Stirling, Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy  
• Eric Nelson : Robert M. Beren Professor of Government

(Courses offered by History Department faculty automatically count for the History concentration)

• HIST 1155: Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789
• HIST 2046: Legal History Workshop: Legal Pluralism

Spring 2021:

• HIST 1005: The Early American Republic: The United States from 1783-1837
• HIST 2080: Medieval Law

Past Course Offerings on Legal History:

• FRSEMR 43C: Human Rights and the Global South
• FRSEMR 61H: Jefferson and Hamilton: Dueling American Visions
• FRSEMR 71C: The Supreme Court and Social Change: Lessons from Landmark Cases and Key Reform Movements
• HIST 13S: Secrets and Lies in European History
• HIST 13Z: Liberty and Slavery: The British Empire and the American Revolution
• HIST 14C: Tell Old Pharoah: Histories of “Contraband Camps” and Self-Emancipation in the Civil War Era
• HIST 84H: The Northern Side of the Civil Rights Movement
• HIST 1005: The Early American Republic: The United States from 1783–1873
• HIST 1007: War, State and Society
• HIST 1006: Native American and Indigenous Studies: An Introduction
• HIST 1032: A History of Brazil, from Independence to the Present
• HIST 1050: Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Atlantic World
• HIST 1206: Empire, Nation, and Immigration in France since 1870
• HIST 1265: German Empires, 1848–1948
• HIST 1405: American Legal History, 1776–1865
• HIST 1520: Colonial Latin America
• HIST 1908: Racial Capitalism and the Black Radical Tradition
• HIST 1911: Pacific History
• HIST 1921: The History of Law in Europe
• HIST 1925: Europe and its Other(s)
• HIST 1943: From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock: Indigenous Political Struggle since 1890
• HIST 2080: Medieval Law: Graduate Seminar
• HIST 2260: Central Europe: Graduate Seminar
• HIST 2442: Readings in the History of the U.S. in the 19th Century: Graduate Proseminar
• HIST 2463: Graduate Readings in 20th-Century African-American History: Graduate Seminar
• HIST 2474: American Legal History: Law and Social Reform, 1929–1973
• HIST 2475: Legal History Workshop
• HIST 2480A: The Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Graduate Seminar
• HIST 2484A: Crime and Punishment in the History of the Americas: Graduate Seminar
• HIST 2484B: Crime and Punishment in the History of the Americas: Graduate Seminar
• HIST 2709: Themes in Modern Sub-Saharan African History: Graduate Proseminar
• US-WORLD 38: Forced to be Free: Americans as Occupiers and Nation-Builders
• US-WORLD 42: The Democracy Project

*Please be sure to check the Courses section of the History Website for more information on which of these courses count towards the History concentration and secondary field. Also, while we endeavor to keep this list current, it may not reflect all courses actually offered.*

Welcome to the Legal History Program!  This page is designed to help you navigate Harvard's many opportunities to study legal history. As you will see, our interests extend across a range of times, places and areas of concern. First, you will find a list of faculty and graduate students with an interest in legal history. They should be a resource for mentorship, advising and instruction. Reach out to them. Second, we have compiled a list of courses that touch on aspects of legal history. Regardless of whether you are interested in the Civil Rights Movement, democracy or feudalism, you should find something of interest. While many of our courses are taught through the history department, you are also encouraged to consider offerings from HLS and other departments. Finally, please take a look at our upcoming events. We hope you will join us.

Legal history matters.  Legal history sits at the cross-roads between disciplines. Its study enriches our understanding of both past societies and our own. We ask how law changes. How have the rules that govern our lives developed? How have they been resisted? How have they been changed? Studying legal history also opens our eyes to alternatives. We see how functioning societies of the past embraced solutions quite foreign from our own. On the one hand, this may make us question—even if we do not reject—the logic of our methods. On the other hand, comparison helps us to understand the importance of features of our society, and the consequence of changing them. Studying law in historical context makes us aware of whom law serves. What groups have leveraged law? What groups has law failed? Who makes law and what sectors of society does it reflect? In short, we see how law and society interact. 

Finally, studying legal history helps us to understand our contemporary world. It empowers us to actively engage with the debates of the day. Our courses explore how marriage has   changed over time. Our faculty study how immigrants and minorities have been treated by, and themselves altered, states. Our students learn what democracy has meant and what it can mean. Together, we consider the role and power of judges, lawyers, legislators, organizers and ordinary citizens. 

Regardless of whether you plan to concentrate in history, are thinking about law school or just want to take a class, we look forward to meeting you. 

• Thinking about a History Concentration?
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• Legal History

The history department at Duke has an unusually strong cohort of scholars with expertise in the history of legal institutions, legal culture, and the relationship between law and society.

Our greatest strength lies in American legal history. Duke historians focus on areas as various as the relationship between legal authority and social hierarchies in the American South, including divisions based on race and gender, regulation of business and the credit system in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and early American property law. Outside of the United States, the department boasts numerous faculty whose research overlaps with this growing and dynamic field. Duke now has historians who grapple with legal development in Renaissance Italy, early modern Germany, the early modern British Empire, the eighteenth-century Caribbean, nineteenth-century France, Muslim West Africa from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries, and twentieth-century Brazil, especially with regard to labor law, as well as the impact of maritime law on modern warfare. Although the interpretive concerns and methodological approaches of these scholars differ significantly, they all tend to focus on the interactions between legal institutions, doctrines, and values on the one hand and economic, social and cultural experience on the other.

Duke offers a joint JD/MA degree to law students interested in simultaneously pursuing graduate work in history. We offer graduate seminars in legal history as part of our general doctoral curriculum, and a number of our PhD students also pursue research in the field. In the past and present, our graduate students have tackled topics as various as the moral and legal meanings of violence amidst the English Civil War, legal culture in early British India, divorce in eighteenth-century Mexico, infanticide in the early American Republic, freedom suits by antebellum American slaves, the development of commercial law in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Indian Ocean basin, the dynamics of legal activism within the American Civil Rights Movement, and agricultural regulation in twentieth-century America. 

Duke's libraries, in conjunction with those of other area universities, have impressive print and archival holdings in the history of law, with a particular strength in the legal history of the American South. Our legal history community is also enriched by a large number of scholars who are based in other Duke departments and schools (especially the departments of cultural anthropology and political science, and the Law School) or at other area universities (NCCU, NCSU, and UNC-Chapel Hill). This broader group of historians meets several times a semester at the Triangle Legal History Seminar (TLHS), an interdisciplinary faculty-graduate student seminar that discusses pre-circulated work-in-progress by area and visiting scholars. Seminar topics range across all historical eras and every region of the world. Edward Balleisen also maintains a web portal, Legal History on the Web , which offers links to a wide array of online resources in legal history.

Ph.D. Admissions

With more than 40 full-time faculty members, the Department of History trains graduate students in a wide range of fields and methodological approaches, covering periods from antiquity to the present.

Graduate students in history benefit from a high faculty-to-student ratio, which enables us to provide more individual attention than many other programs. The size of each entering class varies slightly from year to year, with eight to 10 students being typical. In all, we have approximately 50 students, a talented and diverse group who come from many parts of the United States and the world.

Vanderbilt University offers many opportunities for interdisciplinary engagement. The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities houses on-going seminars in areas ranging from Circum-Atlantic studies to postcolonial theory, science studies, and pre-modern cultural studies. Other centers and programs whose activities would be of interest to history graduate students include the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies ; the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society ; the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies ; the Department of African American and Diaspora Studies ; the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies ; and the programs in Asian Studies Program , American Studies , and Jewish Studies . The Department of History strongly encourages interdisciplinary work.

Please note: The Department of History does not accept external applications for a terminal master’s degree. The M.A. is usually earned en route to the Ph.D. It is also available to Vanderbilt undergraduates who enroll in the 4+1 program in history.

Director of Graduate Studies and Admissions: Ari Bryen Graduate Administrator: Madeline Trantham

If you have any questions regarding the graduate application process that are not answered here, please email us .

Application

The Vanderbilt history department offers the Ph.D. degree. Students normally earn the M.A. following two years of coursework, fulfillment of the research paper requirement, and satisfactory performance on language examinations. The department does not offer a free-standing terminal M.A. degree.

The application deadline for Fall 2025 admission is December 1, 2024. Applicants for whom the $95 application fee presents a financial hardship are encouraged to apply for a fee waiver from the Graduate School.

Foreign applicants or applicants who do not qualify for a fee waiver from the Graduate School should contact [email protected] . These applicants should explain briefly in their email why the fee presents a financial hardship. Requests for a fee waiver will be assessed and forwarded to the College of Arts & Science. If a fee waiver is granted, the applicant will be notified.

Applicants should have an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution, domestic or international.

Application Components

As part of the online application, candidates will provide:

• Statement of Purpose (please be specific about your research goals and provide names of faculty members with whom you would like to work, and why. In addition, please explain how your interests and goals may connect with our Areas of Excellence ).
• A minimum of three letters of recommendation (and no more than five).
• An unofficial, scanned college transcript(s) and graduate transcript(s) if applicable. Admitted applicants will be instructed to submit official and final transcripts as a condition of enrollment at Vanderbilt.
• TOEFL and IELTS scores are accepted for international students whose native language is not English. For more information, read the Graduate School’s Language Proficiency policy.
• Candidates are required to upload a writing sample of no more than 25 pages as part of the online application process. The option to upload the writing sample is made available immediately after entering your test scores into the online application. Please note that until this writing sample has been uploaded, your application will be considered incomplete. Research papers and theses, especially those that explore a historical topic and show facility in using original and/or archival materials, are of most use to the admissions committee in making their decisions. Co-authored writing samples are not accepted.
• GRE scores are not required for admission.

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Areas of Excellence

Graduate students will select an area of excellence from a drop-down menu in the online application; prospective advisers will submit a note to the admissions committee explaining the candidate’s fit. Therefore, applicants are strongly encouraged to reach out to prospective advisors to figure out how their interests could connect with our areas of excellence initiative and to explain in their Statement of Purpose how they envision benefitting from it.

Economics: Labor, Business, Capitalism:

The Vanderbilt History Department offers a rich setting for the study of the history of economy, widely conceived, including labor and business history, the history of capitalism, trade networks, and general questions of economic development as they connect with politics, culture, religion, and social history. Ranging temporally from the classical/medieval era to the modern world, and geographically from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the United States, the Vanderbilt History faculty is interested in the study of commodities, thought, empire, trade, free and unfree labor, finance, cultures, and the global development of capitalism. Our view is capacious, with wide interest in legal, political, and regulatory regimes that influence such processes. Working with faculty across the department, we encourage comparative and transnational forms of historical inquiry. Vanderbilt also offers connections with a robust team of formal economic historians in the Economic Department and a strong undergraduate Economics-History major.

Legal History

Vanderbilt is home to a thriving community of legal historians. We range chronologically from the ancient Mediterranean to the twenty-first century, and our faculty and graduate students have written on topics as diverse as ancient violence, the history of prostitution, racial passing, citizenship, Islamic law, policing, capital punishment, sovereignty and state building, privacy law, American slavery, and the intersections of religion and law.

Our community is centered on the Legal History Colloquium, a trans-institutional seminar that brings together faculty and students from the Law School, the Divinity School, and the College of Arts & Sciences working on legal historical themes. The colloquium strives to be international and comparative in methods and scope. Students in Legal History take a graduate seminar on Methods in Legal History, which introduces them to the wide-range of work done by legal historians. Working in consultation with their adviser, students of legal history write one of their two graduate seminar papers on a legal topic; they also have opportunities to serve as teaching assistant to faculty in diverse areas of legal history.

Race & Diaspora

Vanderbilt’s History Department focuses on complex histories of racial formation, as well as race and migration. The unique history of African peoples dispersed by the Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades is of particular interest. Deploying local, national, transnational, and transdisciplinary approaches, students work closely with accomplished scholars in the History Department—as well as other academic departments, such as African American & Diaspora Studies—to study a wide array of interrelated topics.

These include race as a concept, ideology, and system, as well as the role of race in shaping identity and culture in the Americas and other parts of the world. Likewise, students examine theories of race & diaspora, encompassing historical phenomena such as settler colonialism, racial enslavement, labor migrations, deportation, colonialism, and post-colonialism. In addition, research can extend to the analysis of subsequent mass demographic movements and the creation of “new” racialized peoples, homelands, communities, cultures, and ideologies as historical groups responded to upheaval and sought opportunities. Therefore, scholarship on race and diaspora also attends to manifestations of social, religious, economic, and political oppression and social control, and the attendant struggles of resistance and adaptation. This, in turn, leads us to scrutinize race alongside state formation, racialized citizenship, capitalism, state-building, and surveillance. As with all work on race, centering analyses of gender and sexuality is a priority in order to provide a deeper understanding of racial identities and structures. In addition, examining race and diaspora from the ancient world through the 20th Century and in relationship to Native American, Asian, and Jewish diasporas is also possible.

Research Areas

Ancient/medieval.

Vanderbilt boasts a dynamic group of scholars in Ancient and Medieval history. The faculty represent a range of geographic and chronological periods, including the Roman Empire, Ancient/Medieval Syria, medieval Europe, Judaism, Islam and Asia. The faculty share a mutual interest in reconstructing past through rigorous, source-driven historical reconstruction, with specializations in legal, religious, economic, cultural and military history. They work closely with a distinguished cohort of early modern historians, and in collaboration with the programs in Classical and Mediterranean Studies, the Legal History Seminar, Jewish Studies, Women and Gender Studies, the Pre-Modern Cultural Studies seminar (Robert Penn Warren Center); the departments of English, French & Italian, German, Russian and East European Studies, History of Art, and the Graduate Department of Religion.

We welcome applications from potential graduate students interested both in particular subject areas, but also in the questions and methods shared by all historians of pre-modern societies – how to work with patchy or fragmentary evidence, how to reconstruct the world of culture and symbols, how to push beyond the learned texts that predominate in our records, and how to ask meaningful questions about the past.

There is no prescribed graduate curriculum; students are invited to craft their own program within the framework of the History Department Ph.D. requirements during coursework. Particular scrutiny is given, in evaluating applications, to a candidate’s prior preparation (including knowledge of languages necessary to undertake Ph.D. level research) and a candidate’s writing sample. Applicants are encouraged to contact potential supervisors in advance.

Vanderbilt University's History Department continues to diversify geographically and thematically, with African history being the latest doctoral field to be added to our offerings. Our doctoral program in African history is designed to produce scholars and teachers who possess a simultaneously broad and deep knowledge of the African past. We train academic historians of Africa who are grounded in the historiographies, methodologies, and debates that animate the field, but who also recognize and account for Africa's connections to the rest of the world and to global events.

We welcome applications from prospective graduate students who desire rigorous training in the core historical methodologies as well as in ethnographic approaches to the African past. Graduate students will be trained to mine and make sense of archival, oral, ethnographic, linguistic, and other unconventional sources as well as to utilize clues offered by Africa's vast material culture to reconstruct and interrogate the past. The goal is to develop our students into producers of new knowledge about Africa and effective teachers of African history.

Students can expect to be trained in the social, economic, and political histories of the continent while exploring themes as diverse as gender, technology, trade, religion, colonialism, nationalism, healing practices, slavery, intellectual production, among others. Students will be trained to appreciate the dominant dynamics of Africa's precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial histories while recognizing the parallels and overlaps between these periods. Our courses explore trans-regional patterns but also cover the peculiar historical features of particular regions.

The small number of our Africanist faculty means that we are able to devote considerable time to independent studies, collaborative learning, and mentorship. We perform traditional mentoring tasks, but we are also able to provide consistent support as students identify research fields, apply for research grants, and apply for jobs during the dissertation phase of their training.

Vanderbilt hosts an accomplished faculty in Asian history and is particularly strong in the twentieth century, early modern, and medieval periods. We emphasize global interconnections and broad comparative approaches both within the department and in affiliated programs across campus.

With a small cohort admitted each year, students benefit from close mentorship with Asia faculty, including one-on-one independent study and directed research. Students will be expected to take history department courses in other regions (Europe, US, Latin America, Middle East, Africa) and methodologies (including Visual Culture, Spatial Histories, Empire, and History of Science). Students can also explore related topics with Asia faculty in History of Art, languages and literature (Asian Studies), Religious Studies, Sociology, English, and Political Science.

South Asia: Vanderbilt is emerging as an important location for the study of early modern and modern South Asia, especially in the fields of political history, religious history, and the history of western India ( Samira Sheikh ). Graduate students admitted to study South Asian history may be supported by faculty in related fields, such as Indian Ocean history ( Tasha Rijke-Epstein ), the history of the British empire ( Catherine Molineux ), and the Islamic world ( Leor Halevi ,  David Wasserstein ). Distinguished South Asia specialists elsewhere at Vanderbilt include Tony K. Stewart, Adeana McNicholl and Anand Vivek Taneja in Religious Studies, Tariq Thachil in Political Science, Akshya Saxena in English, and Heeryoon Shin in History of Art. Those interested in premodern links between India and east Asia may benefit from scholars of Buddhism and Chinese architecture (Robert Campany/Tracy Miller).

Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Northeast Asia: With specialists in the cultural and intellectual history of modern/contemporary Japan ( Gerald Figal ,  Yoshikuni Igarashi ) and modern China/Northeast Asia ( Ruth Rogaski ), Vanderbilt is an excellent place to train in topics such as colonialism and empire, war, history and memory, contemporary culture, and history of the body and medicine. Faculty in U.S. History ( Tom Schwartz ,  Paul Kramer ) also maintain strong interests in Sino-U.S. relations. Associated faculty include Guojun Wang in Chinese literature, Lijun Song in Chinese medical sociology, and Brett Benson in contemporary Chinese politics.

Early and Middle-period Imperial China: Vanderbilt hosts a strong faculty in the political organization, military history, and material culture of the Song dynasty ( Peter Lorge ), with the capacity for comparative study in other medieval societies (Europe, Middle East, South Asia). Students can also explore topics as diverse as sacred landscapes, regional networks, and religious identities with affiliated faculty in History of Art (Tracy Miller) and Chinese religions (Rob Campany).

Atlantic World

Vanderbilt ranks among the nation's top twenty research universities and boasts a diverse and dynamic History Department. One of the newest and most exciting areas of faculty research and graduate training at Vanderbilt is Atlantic World History. Graduate students who choose to complete a major or minor field in Atlantic World history at Vanderbilt will be introduced to a wide range of literature addressing the interactions among European, Native American, and African peoples. Working closely with our Atlantic World historians, students develop a dissertation topic and prospectus during their fifth and sixth semesters.

From their first semester, we encourage doctoral students in our field to become actively engaged in the profession through field research, networking, collaborative projects, grant writing and publishing. We also encourage training in digital humanities and our students have worked on projects such as the  Slave Societies Digital Archive , the  Manuel Zapata Olivella Collection  and  Enslaved: Peoples of the Historic Slave Trade .

Our students have presented their research at numerous national and international conferences including the American Historical Association, the Conference on Latin American History, the Brazilian Studies Association, the Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History, the African History Association, and the Association of Caribbean History, among others. Over the last decade our students have won many prestigious research awards, including the Fulbright, Social Science Research Council, American Council for Learned Societies, and Rotary fellowships.  Our students have conducted research in areas as diverse as Angola, Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Germany, Ghana, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

Graduates of our Atlantic World History program have earned tenure-track positions in history departments at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Florida, Michigan State University, the University of West Florida, the University of Birmingham, UK, the University of Arkansas, Queens College, Georgia Gwinnett College and the University of Texas-Arlington.

Early Modern

Vanderbilt has a vibrant group of scholars in Early Modern history. Faculty research and teaching interests include geographic specialists in England/Britain, France, Germany, Italy, eastern Europe, India, and China. Among the areas of inquiry are legal, religious, economic, cultural, and gender/sexuality history. The Early Modern faculty work closely with historians of antiquity and medieval history, and in collaboration with the programs in Classical and Mediterranean Studies, Jewish Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, the departments of English, French and Italian, and German, Russian and East European Studies, History of Art, and the Pro-Modern Cultural Studies Seminar (Robert Penn Warren Center.)

We welcome applications from potential graduate students interested in particular subject areas as well as in the questions and methods shared by all historians of early modern societies, including how to work with incomplete, fragmentary, or (deliberately) misleading evidence, how to reconstruct the world of culture and symbols, how to push beyond the learned texts that predominate in the historical record, and how to ask meaningful questions about the past.

There is no prescribed graduate curriculum; students are invited to craft their own program within the framework of the History Department Ph.D. requirements during coursework, but an applicant’s prior preparation, including knowledge of languages necessary to undertake Ph.D. level research, and the writing sample, are particularly important factors. Applicants are encouraged to contact potential supervisors in advance.

Vanderbilt University trains graduate students in all periods of Islam's history, from its origins in late antiquity to modernity, and in various regional settings.

Our faculty works in multiple fields, including law, business, religion, imperialism, and nationalism. They have written on topics as diverse as early Islamic death rituals; politics and society in al-Andalus; Jewish-Muslim trade in the medieval Mediterranean; the political, religious and economic landscape of early modern Gujarat; Jewish identity in the Ottoman Empire; Islam in the modern Balkans; Nigerian responses to colonialism; and the rise of ISIS.

Latin America

Vanderbilt University has one of the oldest programs in Latin American studies in the United States. Our doctoral program focuses on developing scholars and teachers with both a broad knowledge of Latin American and Caribbean history and intensive training in research and writing in their specialty. Doctoral students normally do four semesters of classes, then take their qualifying exams at the end of their fourth semester or the beginning of their fifth semester. Working closely with our historians of Latin America and the Caribbean, students develop a dissertation topic and prospectus during their fifth semester. From their first semester, we encourage our doctoral students to become actively engaged in the profession through field research, networking, publishing, collaborative projects, and grant applications. Our students have presented their research at numerous national and international conferences including the American Historical Association, Conference on Latin American History, Latin American Studies Association, Brazilian Studies Association, Association of Caribbean Historians, and the Southern Historical Association. Over the last decade our students have won many prestigious internal and external research awards (ACLS, Mellon, Boren, SSRC, and Fulbright). Since 1989, 39 students have entered our doctoral program. Twenty-three have completed their dissertations, and ten students are currently in the program. The average time to completion of dissertation has been six years. Close individual supervision of our students has been key to the timely and successful progress of our students. 

Vanderbilt University has a distinguished tradition in Latin American and Caribbean history beginning with the hiring of Alexander Marchant (and four other Brazil specialists) and the creation of an Institute of Brazilian Studies in 1947. Among other noted historians of Latin America who have taught at Vanderbilt are Simon Collier, Robert Gilmore, J. León Helguera, and Barbara Weinstein. Close individual supervision of our students has been key to the timely and successful progress of our students.

Vanderbilt is home to a thriving community of legal historians. Our faculty expertise ranges from ancient Rome to the contemporary United States, and we place a strong emphasis on comparative and thematic inquiry. Faculty have written on topics as diverse as ancient violence, the history of prostitution, racial passing, Islamic law, American slavery, and law in early modern empires.

Our community is centered on the Legal History Workshop, an invited speaker series that runs throughout the year. The workshop features some of the most exciting new perspectives on legal history and strives to be international and comparative in methods and scope.

In addition to coursework in their geographic and chronological areas of expertise, students are encouraged to take the Methods in Legal History seminar, which runs every other year. This team-taught seminar introduces students to the range of work done by legal historians and runs in conjunction with the workshop.

Modern Europe

Vanderbilt's doctoral program in Modern Europe focuses on developing scholars and teachers with a broad knowledge of European history and its relationship to the world. Graduate students are rigorously trained in both the national historiographies of their regional and linguistic specializations, as well as in related transnational and thematic fields, such as environmental history, nationalism and nation-building, law and empire, the history of music, minority politics, history of religion, mass violence, and the history of science and technology.

With a small, competitive cohort accepted each year, doctoral students in Modern Europe at Vanderbilt benefit from close mentor relationship with their advisors and other senior faculty, both through small seminar-style coursework and close individual supervision during the dissertation process. Mentorship extends beyond the classroom to include support in grant-writing, preparation for the job market, and opportunities for teaching assistantships in related fields. Collectively, the department's European faculty has supervised more than 40 theses in modern Europe and helped to place students in prestigious fellowships and tenure-track jobs in the United States and Europe.

Science, Technology, and Medicine

Vanderbilt is home to a robust and diverse community of historians engaged in the study of Science, Technology, and Medicine (STM). Students in STM are exposed to both the intensive historiographies of STM fields as well as a broad and deep training in the relevant historical locations and periods. Vanderbilt STM students are encouraged to imagine themselves as both scholars and as historians.

Our faculty expertise ranges across time, place, and topic; from material culture in Africa, to medicine in China, to intellectual and cultural history in the West.  Faculty have written on topics as diverse as modern privacy, the young Darwin, Diabetes, Albert Einstein, Qi, clinical trials—even the future of technology.

Our community is centered on two workshops, one designed by graduate students for the STM scholars within the department, and the other designed to engage the broader Vanderbilt community, recognizing the inherently interdisciplinary nature of STM studies.  

United States

Students in our doctoral program are trained broadly in the historiography of the United States in the nineteenth, twentieth, and now twenty-first centuries. They also have ample opportunities to work in transnational and thematic fields, including African American history, diplomatic history, environmental history, intellectual history, legal history, political history, and religious history as well as the history of capitalism, gender and sexuality, popular culture, race and racism, and science, medicine, and technology. The department has a strong profile in the field of U.S. and the world, and offers students training in transnational approaches. Graduate students and faculty meet regularly as a group to discuss research work in progress in the department's informal Americanist Seminar.

With a small, diverse cohort accepted each year, doctoral students in U.S. history at Vanderbilt benefit from expert supervision and guidance. Our faculty is committed to excellent mentoring in both research and teaching. Graduate students enjoy close working relationships with their advisors and other faculty inside and outside the department, whether in the Law School or Peabody College of Education or in the departments of medicine, health and society, sociology, philosophy, or religious studies. Faculty assist students as well with grant-writing, conference presentations, article drafting, and preparation for the job market. The department has helped to place students in prestigious fellowships and tenure-track jobs as well as significant research and policy positions outside the academy.

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Legal Theory, History, & the Social Sciences

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Solving for Why

NYU prides itself on being at the forefront of interdisciplinary legal education and scholarship. The faculty includes leading legal economists, philosophers, historians, and sociologists, and the curriculum features distinctive opportunities for students to pursue interdisciplinary studies.

In particular, NYU’s unique colloquia bring together faculty and students to discuss cutting-edge research in law and related disciplines. The colloquium model originated with the now famous Colloquium on Legal, Political, and Social Philosophy , founded and run for many years by the great philosophers Ronald Dworkin and Thomas Nagel, and continuing under the leadership of Samuel Scheffler , Liam Murphy , and Jeremy Waldron .

Other interdisciplinary colloquia at NYU include the Law, Economics, and Politics Colloquium , run by the distinguished political scientist John Ferejohn and prominent legal economist Lewis Kornhauser , and the Legal History Colloquium , which is the longest running legal history workshop in the country.

For students interested in pursuing graduate studies in the arts and sciences alongside their law degrees, NYU offers coordinated JD/MA or PhD degree programs in economics, history, philosophy, and politics. In addition to these established programs, NYU Law students have pursued individually tailored dual degrees with other NYU departments and with other universities.

For students interested in academic careers, the Furman Academic Scholars Program is essentially a graduate program within a law school, offering intensive training, mentoring, and intellectual community. The Furman Program, along with the broader Academic Careers Program , has had tremendous success in placing NYU Law graduates in top-tier positions in the legal academy. The LLM in Legal Theory is particularly suited to those planning a career in legal academia.

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You will work with a stellar faculty in the Department of History and neighboring departments as you acquire advanced skills in historical research, analysis, and writing, as well as teaching.

Nine research centers affiliated with the history program offer further programs in area studies, including The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. You also have access to the largest university library system in the world, consisting of 80 libraries and 17 million volumes.

Examples of dissertations students have worked on include “Cold War Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Military Spending from 1949 to 1989” and “Imperial Schemes: Empire and the Rise of the British Business-State, 1914–1939.”

Graduates of the program have gone on to teach at Yale University, Princeton University, NYU, and the University of Maryland. Others have gone on to positions outside academia as startup founders, lawyers, policy analysts, and museum curators.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of History and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

African History | Ancient History | Byzantine History | Early Modern European History | East Asian History | Environmental History | International and Global History | Latin American History | Medieval History | Middle Eastern History | Modern European History | Russian and Eastern European History | South Asian History | United States History

Admissions Requirements

Please review admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of History .

Writing Sample

A writing sample is required. While there is not a specific length requirement, most writing samples are around 20 to 25 pages. If you are submitting a sample that is part of a larger work (a chapter from a thesis, for instance) you may include a brief abstract situating the piece in the larger work.

Statement of Purpose

Your statement of purpose should include why you want to study history in graduate school, why you want to study at Harvard, and indicate your research interests and potential advisors. The required writing sample should be of remarkable quality and ask historical questions. Reading ability in two languages other than English is helpful. Most statements of purpose are around 3 to 5 pages.

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Optional

In coordination with Harvard Law School, students may pursue both a PhD in history and a JD at Harvard Law School. To learn more about this course of study consult the Coordinated JD/PhD program overview.

Theses & Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for History

See list of History faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

University of Virginia School of Law

J.D.-M.A. Program in History

In order to encourage the study of legal history and to attract able students into the field, the School of Law and the  Corcoran Department of History  offer a dual-degree program leading to the degrees of J.D. and M.A. in history.

FAQs About the Program

Admission to the progr​am.

The student is obligated to secure separate admission to both the  School of Law  and the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences .  Application to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences may be made prior to entrance or while the applicant is a first-year student or — under certain conditions — a second-year student at the School of Law.  In all cases, the applicant will be held to the same standards as any other applicant, and the fact that he or she is a candidate for the dual-degree program will not be considered in the admissions process. J.D. students applying for the M.A. degree may submit their LSAT scores in lieu of the GRE. Once admitted independently to each school, the student may make application to the Program Committee for admission to the dual degree program. Admission to the dual-degree program will be judged according to criteria developed by the Program Committee and will not be guaranteed by virtue of acceptance at both schools.

The program will take three years to complete and will require the student to take 98 total credits. The J.D. requires 86 credits, and the M.A. requires 30 credits. Normally, a student would have to take 116 credits to complete both degrees. In the dual-degree program, however, the School of Law offers 12 credits for M.A. courses, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offers 6 credits for J.D. courses, so a student in the program needs to take only 98 total credits.

M.A. in History

The M.A. has the following three requirements. (1) Students are required to take 30 credits toward the M.A. (2) Students are required to complete a Master's Thesis, which is a 40-50 page paper of publishable quality. (3) Students are required to pass an oral examination in two historical fields (one of which is usually American Legal History).

12 credit hours will count only toward the M.A. These will not count toward the student's School of Law GPA or be formally graded on the School of Law curve. Students must register for these courses in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

12 credit hours will count primarily for the M.A. and receive credit toward the J.D. These may be selected from courses offered in the History Department or from courses that are offered in the School of Law but cross-listed in the History Department. These 12 credits will not count toward the student's School of Law GPA or be formally graded on the School of Law curve, but they will count toward the total number of J.D. credits that a student needs to fulfill the degree requirements (as described below). Even if the courses are cross-listed, students must register for these courses in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, not in the School of Law. Students should consult with the faculty advisors about the availability of cross-listed courses each year.

The final 6 credits for the M.A. will be earned through the successful completion of School of Law coursework from an approved list of courses that are taught at the School of Law. Students should again consult with the faculty advisors to identify these approved law courses.

The J.D. requires 86 credit hours. A maximum of 12 credits may come from courses taken at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (as approved by the Program Committee and described above). The additional 74 credit hours will be earned through regular School of Law coursework. Students should again be aware that 6 of these credits will be used toward the M.A. degree and must be taken from an approved list of School of Law courses (as described above).

The student will take the required School of Law courses during his or her first year at the School of Law (i.e., Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Property, and Legal Research and Writing) and will fulfill the remaining requirements (professional responsibility, a professional skills course, and the writing requirement) during the remaining semesters at the School of Law. Students must comply with all other requirements for the J.D. degree and may not take more than 17 credits in any given semester.

The student will take the required law school courses during his or her first year at the law school (Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Property, Legal Research and Writing) and will fulfill the remaining requirements (professional responsibility, a professional skills course, and the writing requirement) during the remaining semesters at the law school. Students must comply with all other requirements for the J.D. degree. They must take at least 12 J.D. credits per semester, and they may not take more than 17 credits in any given semester.

Change of Status

At any point in the program, the participant will be permitted to terminate plans for a dual-degree and to continue toward a single degree at either school. He or she will then be required to satisfy the normal requirements for the school he or she has chosen, which may include credit for some of the work done in the other school as determined by the appropriate officials of the school in question.

Tuition and Fees

During all three years of the program, students will pay tuition to the Law School. During the third year of the program, the Law School will provide a funds transfer to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to recognize certain costs relating to the administration of the M.A. degree.

• Financial Aid

Because students in the program will be paying tuition to the School of Law, financial aid will be provided by the School of Law. As for all students, financial aid is not guaranteed and is subject to Law School and University availability and regulations.

Extracurricular Activities

The student will be eligible to participate in the extracurricular activities of both schools to the extent time permits. Because of the possibility of over-commitment, however, counsel of the Program Committee is recommended.

Grading Standards

The student is required to meet the grading standards of both schools independently to remain in good standing. Each school retains the right to drop students from its degree program following its usual academic standards and procedures. Problems that arise in translation of different grading scales resulting from the dual degree program will be dealt with by the Program Committee, in consultation with the Office of the University Registrar (UREG). Grades will be recorded on the student's transcript under the system in effect at the school in which the course is taken.

Faculty Advisors

The deans of each school will appoint a faculty member to advise students in the program.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:  Contact the Director of the Program,  Charles Barzun .

Related:  Constitutional Law and Legal History at UVA Law

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S.J.D. Program

The Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) is Harvard Law School’s most advanced law degree, designed for aspiring legal academics who wish to pursue sustained independent study, research and writing. In recent years we have created a vibrant intellectual community of young scholars from around the world, most of whom will secure teaching positions in their home countries, the U.S., or third countries. We typically have around 60 S.J.D. candidates (most of whom are in residence) representing 25-30 countries, drawn primarily from among Harvard’s top LL.M. graduates. Ultimately, candidates are expected to produce a dissertation that will constitute a substantial and valuable contribution to legal scholarship.

There are five stages to the S.J.D. program:

• Completion of a study plan which includes course work
• Successful completion of an oral examination
• Two presentations at the S.J.D. Colloquium
• Submission and acceptance of a doctoral dissertation
• Successful oral defense of the dissertation

The first two of these requirements—preparation and completion of a study plan, and successful completion of the oral (general) examination—are normally completed during the first year or two of study. The S.J.D. candidate normally completes the remaining requirements—presentations at the S.J.D. colloquium, submission and acceptance of the dissertation, and oral defense of the dissertation—during the three years after completion of the oral examination.

Each S.J.D. candidate pursues the degree under the supervision of an overall faculty supervisor selected by the candidate and approved by the Committee on Graduate Studies. This supervisor must be a full-time member of the Harvard Law School faculty.

Program of Study

Academic life, teaching and fellowship opportunities, current s.j.d. candidates and recent graduates, recent s.j.d. achievements, connect with s.j.d. alumni, modal gallery, gallery block modal gallery.

Program in Race, Law, and History

About the Program

Our work is grounded in scholarship that has established race as at the core of interpreting the history of the Americas. Race here is a set of ideas that rely upon understandings of religion, culture, labor, biology, and politics, and have both rationalized profound inequality and galvanized movements for social justice.  Scholars have charted the connections between legal culture and slavery and its abolition, the emergence of democratic states, imperialism, social welfare policy, and movements for civil and human rights. 

Our work is linked to the broad trends in social and cultural history, exploring how race and law have come together to shape ideas about home, family, marriage, gender, and sexuality.

New Scholarship

The interests of the core faculty reflect many of the defining concerns of the Program in Race, Law, and History. We are historians of race in the United States and Latin America, of law and the transformation of the state, of citizenship and claims-making, and of Atlantic world slavery.

Training Emerging Scholars

With foundational courses in American Legal History and Legislation, specialized seminars in the history of slavery and a course on the boundaries of citizenship, and an intensive faculty-student legal history workshop, the program offers you numerous opportunities to explore and develop your expertise. 

Many of our students take insights from their involvement in the Program in Race, Law, and History into the world of legal practice. From civil rights and public interest positions to immigration law internships to judicial clerkships, our students draw upon their work with the program to better analyze present-day dynamics of race in historical terms. 

Some continue their studies in MA and PhD programs that fully explore the interdisciplinary opportunities at Michigan Law and throughout the university. Still others extend their work with the program into academic careers, writing and teaching in colleges, law schools, and universities.

The Program in Race, Law, and History at Michigan Law will award up to five academic year fellowships to students enrolled in JD , PhD, and other terminal graduate programs at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The program fosters interdisciplinary research at the intersection of three lines of intellectual inquiry: law, history, and race. Through helping law and graduate students engage in this scholarship and collaborate with scholars in the field at Michigan Law and beyond, the program provides a space for historical investigation into the ongoing salience of race in our world.

About the Fellowship in Race, Law, and History

Our work at Michigan Law assumes national and international scope through our collaborations. 

We have co-sponsored a roundtable in Paris and helped to organize a conference in Brazil. Our partners include the American Society for Legal History and the Legal History Consortium (which include Michigan Law as well as the law schools of the University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, and University of Pennsylvania). Here, new scholarship, emerging scholars, and the building of collaborative networks come together and exemplify our model.

American Society for Legal History

The Celia Project 

This collaborative research project will generate new scholarship that illuminates the history of sexual violence, women, and slavery in the United States through a detailed exploration of the case, The State of Missouri v. Celia, A Slave . 

In Missouri in 1855, an enslaved woman named Celia was tried, convicted, and ultimately executed for murdering her owner, Robert Newsom, a murder she confessed to committing in an effort to end what had been five years of sexual abuse. Celia’s trial included remarkable (though unsuccessful) arguments about the rights of enslaved women to self-defense against sexual assault. 

The reaction to these arguments would shape the legal treatment of the rape of slaves in the years leading up to the Civil War, facilitate the systematic sexual exploitation of enslaved women and the refusal to recognize that exploitation as “rape,” and leave a challenging legacy of racism and sexual violence to the present day in the United States.

The Celia Project brings together social, cultural, and legal historians with literary scholars to explore how we might collectively produce and present new analyses of Celia and the multiple implications of the case. Directed by Professor Martha S. Jones and Hannah Rosen, Association Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender ( IRWG .)

The Celia Project  

The Law in Slavery and Freedom Project 

The Law in Slavery and Freedom Project is a curricular and research initiative that has been developed in collaboration with The Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France; the University of Cologne, Germany; the University of Campinas, Brazil; the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada; the Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal; and the Centro Juan Marinello, Havana, Cuba. 

Students from these institutions have participated in seminars taught by faculty from all sites and continue to exchange ideas through online discussions of readings on the topic of law and slavery in the Atlantic world. 

The faculty and graduate student collaborators are doing research on slavery, law, and emancipation in regions from the U.S. South to the Caribbean, France, Peru, West Africa, and Brazil.

Samuel Erman

William J. Novak

Emily A. Prifogle

Affiliated faculty.

Michelle Adams , Law School

Charlotte Karem Albrecht , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Samer Ali , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Sara Awartani , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Nicholas Bagley , Law School

Patrick Barry , Law School

Elise Boddie , Law School

Melissa Borja , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Pamela Brandwein , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Howard J. Bromberg , Law School

Luis C.deBaca , Law School

Pär Cassel , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Sueann Caulfield , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Kristin Collins , Law School

Nicholas Cornell , Law School

Angela D. Dillard , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Gregory E. Dowd , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Jatin Dua , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Matthew L.M. Fletcher , Law School

Sara Forsdyke , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Edgar Franco-Vivanco , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Daniel Fryer , Law School

Kristin Ann Hass , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Daniel Herwitz , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Don Herzog , Law School

Nicholas Calcina Howson ,  Law School

Murad Idris , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Ellen D. Katz , Law School

Leila Kawar , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Noah Kazis , Law School

Alexandra B. Klass , Law School

Brian Klein , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Naomi R. Lamoreaux , Law School

Matthew Lassiter , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Jeremy Levine , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Jessica Litman , Law School

Barbara L. McQuade , Law School

Julian Davis Mortenson ,  Law School

Rafael Neis , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Leonard M. Niehoff , Law School

Richard Primus , Law School

Gabriel V. Rauterberg , Law School

Sanne Ravensbergen , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Margo Schlanger , Law School

Rebecca J. Scott , Law School

Heather Ann Thompson , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

James Clouser Wolfe ,  College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Kate Wroblewski , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Ekow N. Yankah , Law School

Mariah Zeisberg , College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Biennial Simpson Lecture Explores Different Connections between History and the Law

Program in Race, Law, and History Announces 2023-2024 Fellows

Also of interest.

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The Ph.D. Program in History

at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Institute for Constitutional History

The Institute for Constitutional History is pleased to announce another seminar for advanced graduate students and junior faculty:

Reform, Reaction, and Constitutionalism in  Twentieth-Century America

Program Content:

This seminar will selectively study progressive reform efforts in America between 1920 and 1980 — both their successes and their failures.  The first session will focus on the 1920s, when both reformers and conservatives conceived of reform in terms of class conflict carried out mainly in the political process; in that decade, reformers enjoyed almost no success in altering the nation’s law.  The second session will turn to the New Deal and will focus particularly on the issue of how much redistributive change the New Deal actually achieved prior to 1938.  The third and fourth sessions will study the period from 1938 to 1968, when reformers turned to the courts and the constitution in a fight to achieve ethnic and religious equality, and the children of turn-of-the-century Catholic and Jewish immigrants entered the nation’s socio-economic mainstream.  The third session will focus on the impact of World War II on the nation’s socio-economic structure; the fourth will turn to the Cold War.  The two final sessions, still focusing on law and the constitution, will turn to the years since 1968, when equality was reconceptualized in terms of race and gender, with the fifth session examining race and the sixth, gender.  Our hypothesis will be that only marginal change has again occurred.  A key question throughout the seminar will be why ethnic and religious conceptions of equality succeeded in transforming law for ethnic white men, while other progressive conceptions in large part failed.

Instructors:

Hendrik Hartog is the Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University.  From 2006 to 2015, he was the Director of Princeton University’s Program in American Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Brandeis University and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.  His publications include Public Property and Private Power: The Corporation of the City of New York in American Law, 1730–1870 (1983), Man and Wife in America: A History (2000), and Someday All This Will Be Yours: A History of Inheritance and Old Age (2012).  For a decade he co-edited Studies in Legal History , the book series of the American Society for Legal History.  At present he is working on both a general history of property law and a microhistory of Gibbons v. Ogden.   During the 2015-2016 academic year, he will hold a fellowship at the New-York Historical Society.

William E. Nelson , the Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law and Professor of History at New York University, received his LL.B. from NYU and his Ph.D. from Harvard.  After serving as law clerk to Justice Byron R. White of the Supreme Court in 1970, he began writing and teaching in the field of American legal history.  He is the author of ten monographs, including The Legalist Reformation: Law, Politics, and Ideology in New York, 1920-1980 , and co-author or editor of three other books.  In 1981 he founded the Legal History Colloquium at NYU Law School, where nearly 100 younger scholars have held fellowships and received graduate and post-graduate training.  He has taught a broad range of courses at NYU, including constitutional law and federal jurisdiction.

Friday afternoons, 2:00–4:00 p.m., October 2, 9, 16, 23, November 6, 13.  The seminar will meet at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York City.

Application Process:

The seminar is designed for graduate students and junior faculty in history, political science, law, and related disciplines.  All participants will be expected to complete the assigned readings and participate in seminar discussions.  Although the Institute cannot offer academic credit directly for the seminar, students may be able to earn graduate credit through their home departments by completing an independent research project in conjunction with the seminar.  Please consult with your advisor and/or director of graduate studies about these possibilities.  Space is limited, so applicants should send a copy of their c.v. and a short statement on how this seminar will be useful to them in their research, teaching, or professional development.  Materials will be accepted only by email at MMarcus@nyhistory.org until September 15, 2015 .  Successful applicants will be notified soon thereafter.  For further information, please contact Maeva Marcus at (202) 994-6562 or send an email to MMarcus@nyhistory.org .

Additional Information:

There is no tuition or other charge for this seminar, though participants will be expected to acquire the assigned books on their own.

The Institute for Constitutional History (ICH) is the nation’s premier institute dedicated to ensuring that future generations of Americans understand the substance and historical development of the U.S. Constitution. Located at the New York Historical Society and the George Washington University Law School, the Institute is co-sponsored by the American Historical Association, the

Organization of American Historians, and the American Political Science Association.  The Association of American Law Schools is a cooperating entity.  ICH prepares junior scholars and college instructors to convey to their readers and students the important role the Constitution has played in shaping American society.  ICH also provides a national forum for the preparation and dissemination of humanistic, interdisciplinary scholarship on American constitutional history.

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Department of History

Ph.d. programs.

The Department of History’s doctoral degree program seeks to train talented historians for careers in scholarship, teaching, and beyond the academy. The department typically accepts 22 Ph.D. students per year. Additional students are enrolled through various combined programs and through HSHM.  All admitted Ph.D. students receive a  full  financial aid package  from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. 

History of Science and Medicine

The  Program in the History of Science and Medicine  (HSHM)  is a semi-autonomous graduate track within the Department of History. HSHM students receive degrees in History, with a concentration in the History of Science and Medicine.  There is a separate admissions process for students interested in the History of Science and Medicine. For more information, please see the  HSHM website . 

Combined Doctoral Programs

Joint ph.d. programs.

• JD/PhD Legal Studies and Business Ethics

The Ethics & Legal Studies Doctoral Program at Wharton focuses on the study of ethics and law in business. It is designed to prepare graduates for tenure-track careers in university teaching and research at leading business schools, and law schools.

• Degree Requirements
• JD/MBA (4 Year)
• JD/MBE Bioethics
• JD/MSSP Social Policy
• JD/MS Nonprofit Leadership
• JD/MSEd Education Policy
• JD/MSEd Higher Education
• JD/MA or MS Criminology
• JD/MD Doctor of Medicine
• JD/MSE Engineering
• JD/MCP City & Regional Planning
• JD/MPH Master of Public Health
• JD/AM Islamic Studies
• JD/MA and JD/PhD Philosophy
• JD/PhD Anthropology
• JD/PhD Communications
• JD/PhD Psychology
• Certificates
• Legal Practice Skills
• Clinics & Externships
• Academic Support Program
• International Affairs
• Future of the Profession Initiative
• Legal Education Programs
• Executive Education
• Academic Calendar
• Learning Outcomes
• Advocacy Competitions

About the JD/PhD Legal Studies and Business Ethics

The Ethics & Legal Studies Doctoral Program at Wharton trains students in the fields of ethics and law in business. Students take a core set of courses in the area of ethics and law in business together with courses in an additional disciplinary concentration such as management, philosophy/ethical theory, finance, marketing, or accounting.

The program size and flexibility of the PhD Legal Studies and Business Ethics allow students to tailor their program to their individualized research interests and to pursue a joint degree with the Law School. Resources for current PhD students can be found on the Wharton Website .

Program Course Overview

The University’s world-class faculty take seriously the responsibility of training graduate students for the academic profession. Faculty work closely with students to help them develop their own distinctive academic interests. The curriculum crosses many disciplinary boundaries.

Faculty and student intellectual interests include a range of topics such as:

• Philosophy & Ethics : • philosophical business ethics • normative political philosophy • rights theory • theory of the firm • philosophy of law • philosophy of punishment & coercion • philosophy of deception and fraud • philosophy of blame and complicity • climate change ethics • effective altruism • integrative social contracts theory • corporate moral agency
• Law & Legal Studies : • law and economics • corporate penal theory • constitutional law • bankruptcy • corporate governance • corporate law • financial regulation • administrative law • empirical legal studies • blockchain and law • antitrust law • environmental law and policy • corporate criminal law • corruption • negotiations.
• Behavioral Ethics : • neuroscience and business ethics • moral psychology • moral beliefs and identity • moral deliberation • perceptions of corporate identity

How to Apply

Students must apply and gain admission separately to each department. Applications to the Department of Legal Studies & Business Ethics are welcomed contemporaneously with the Law School application and vice versa.

Applications for Fall 2021 Wharton admission opened September 15th, 2020. The deadline to apply is December 15th, 2020. In assessing your application, the Wharton admissions committee considers previous academic work, standardized graduate examination performance (GRE/GMAT), and the evaluations of instructors and professional supervisors. More information is on the Wharton Doctoral Admissions Website.

For more information, admitted or current JD students should contact Amanda S. Aronoff. Applicants or prospective applicants to the Law School should contact [email protected] .

Interested in other PhD joint degrees?

JD/PhD American Legal History

JD/PhD Philosophy

How to Find a Strong Human Rights Law Program

Target law schools with human rights law clinics and journals, as well as a broad selection of relevant courses.

Find a Strong Human Rights Law Program

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An introductory course on human rights law is a start, but a good human rights law program should have a variety of related course offerings.

Key Takeaways:

• Look for more than an introductory course on human rights law.
• Find out what law faculty know and are doing that's relevant.
• Find out what the school's students specializing in human rights law do after graduating.

Clinical opportunities, quality professors and active student organizations are important criteria when choosing a law school with a solid human rights program, experts say, and students should carefully research programs to find their best fit.

The Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law "played a major role in my decision of where to attend law school,” says Gita Howard, a human rights attorney who graduated from the Florida law school in 2021.

Howard’s initial interest in pursuing international human rights law was formed during the many summers she spent in India growing up. She says she developed a nuanced understanding of global issues and a drive to create a positive global impact.

“International human rights law seemed like a tangible and meaningful way to pursue my passion for social change.”

Finding a strong human rights law program is important to prepare students for a successful career as a human rights lawyer, experts say. Here are the top features they say students should be looking for in a program.

A Broad Selection of Human Rights Law Courses

An introductory course on human rights law is a start, but a good human rights law program should have a variety of related course offerings, experts say.

Prospective students should research whether the program offers courses “on the full spectrum of international human rights law,” says Diane A. Desierto, professor of law and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana, where she also is faculty director of the LL.M. in International Human Rights Law and founding director of the Global Human Rights Clinic.

Such courses should include civil, political, economic, social, cultural, developmental, environmental and labor topics, “as well as the frontier courses on the expanding applications of international human rights law across public law and private law ,” she says.

Desierto says students should also find out whether a program offers legal and interdisciplinary methods, as well as theoretical and experiential opportunities to gain expertise in international human rights law.

Experienced Human Rights Law Faculty

Other features to look for in a program are faculty actively working on human rights law projects, faculty publishing human rights law papers and scholar-practitioners.

Notre Dame's program, for example, enables students “to customize their learning, training, and mentoring according to specific professional objectives across different forms of human rights law practice,” Desierto says. The small class sizes mean students have access to one-on-one mentoring and customized learning from different experts throughout the university and its global campuses abroad.

Students already in law school who want to specialize in human rights "should be researching which faculty are specializing in human rights in their scholarship and courses,” says Anna Ivey, founder of Ivey Consulting, which helps people apply to selective U.S. colleges and law schools.

An Impressive Job Attainment Record

Desierto says it's important to look into whether a program invests in the well-being and success of their students during and after graduation.

“Our program does this extensively during the student's matriculation into the program, as well as in supporting postgraduate clerkships and internships in international, regional and national courts and tribunals and organizations,” Desierto says. The program measures success by how its students "flourish and succeed in their work of striving for human rights outcomes in their respective countries and communities."

It's also important to find out whether alumni are working with major human rights institutions. Ivey recommends students check law schools' social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, "to see what alums work in the field to get a sense of the alumni network for that specialization.”

A Human Rights Clinic or Law Journal

Participating in a human rights law clinic or contributing to human rights law journals is important on the resumes of aspiring human rights lawyers, as positions in the field are competitive, experts say.

“Human rights clinics provide a really critical opportunity for students to develop their knowledge of human rights law, as well as practice the necessary skills to succeed in the field under the guidance of experts,” Howard says.

For example, the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami provides students with experiential learning opportunities in U.S. and international human rights litigation and advocacy, allowing students to work with the United Nations and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

“Its inspiring professors and meaningful projects gave me the skills, support and network necessary to pursue a career in human rights law,” Howard says.

Apart from looking at whether a law school offers clinics or journals dedicated to human rights law, Ivey recommends looking at whether such a journal “hosts some kind of annual symposium on the topic.”

Other activities, such as participation in relevant student groups, are important, experts say. For example, Howard served as president and co-founder of the Human Rights Society, an advocacy organization at her school.

Scholarships and Fellowships

Law school can be expensive and human rights law may not pay as well as other law specialties, so scholarship opportunities are an important consideration, experts say.

Experts say a law school’s investment in human rights law can be seen in scholarships offered to students in the discipline. Students can check a school's website for scholarship information. Notre Dame's program typically provides full scholarships for 15 to 20 students, Desierto says.

There are also fellowships available during and after law school. Twice, Howard was a HOPE Fellow, receiving funding to pursue public interest summer jobs while in law school. She spent her first summer interning at the Tibetan Legal Association in Dharamsala, India, and her second summer as an intern for the U.N.'s Office of Legal Affairs in the general legal division.

“After law school, a common way to break into the human rights field is through a fellowship with a human rights organization,” Howard says.

Howard received a Human Rights Program Fellowship from her law school with a placement at Human Rights First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan international human rights organization. After her fellowship, she was brought on as an associate attorney. She notes that fellowship opportunities often require funding from a student's law school, as well.

“It can be helpful for students to research whether fellowship funding is currently or potentially available at a prospective law school,” Howard says.

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