Welcome

Welcome. If you have found your way to this page you are probably thinking about applying to graduate school in history at the University of Florida. The pages in this section are designed to provide you with the basic information you need to know about the application and admissions process. We have tried to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about how to apply and about the criteria we use in admissions. You will also find a few links to useful University web pages.

Needless to say, the decision about where to apply for graduate school has many parts. You should consider the obvious logistical questions: Are you likely to be accepted? Will the funding options meet your financial needs? Will you enjoy Gainesville and the larger university? We address those issues here.

But the more important questions concern whether the University of Florida is the right place to pursue your academic and professional goals. Before you can answer these questions you must have some sense of what you wish to study in graduate school. You do not have to have a specific thesis or dissertation topic in mind, but you should be prepared to narrow down your interests to a particular set of topics or themes. Most students apply to study within a particular departmental section (African, European, History of Science, Latin American, United States), but applicants should be aware of departmental strengths that cross geographic and chronological lines.

Once you have decided on your major areas of interest you should begin to research the department and the university. Read over the descriptions of the various sections and study the biographies and web pages of individual faculty members. What are their current projects? What have they published? What do they teach? Have they won prestigious fellowships? My colleagues are better at doing their jobs than they are at self promotion. Be sure to ask your own academic advisors about the scholarly reputations of individual faculty members. Although you will be assigned one advisor, most graduate students receive valuable training from several mentors. Be attentive to clusters of strength in your areas of interest, perhaps involving faculty members from other sections. We have, for example, several faculty who work in each of these areas: the history of religion, gender history, the Atlantic World, race and racial identity, law and criminology, the American South, and urban history.

The University of Florida has particular strengths in several interdisciplinary areas of study. Faculty and graduate students enjoy profitable relationships with the Center for African Studies, the African American Studies Program, the Center for European Studies, the Center for Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender, and the Levin School of Law. For links to these and other interdisciplinary programs see Affiliated Programs and Centers. Students who are affiliated with these programs often have the opportunity to attend special seminars and workshops and compete for separate grants and awards. In several cases these area studies have their own libraries and librarians. As you are investigating the department, you should take the time to consider this web of university-wide resources.

You should also know that as of this writing (early September 2006) we are in the midst of a major overhaul of our web pages. In the next few months we will be adding quite a bit of new information about the department, the University, and Gainesville. So you should plan to check in periodically for more material.

In the meantime, feel free to contact us for more information. It is always a good idea to contact prospective advisors directly. You will find links to their email addresses in the Faculty and Staff Directory. You should also feel free to write me or to Kathleen Clay , the Graduate Program Assistant.

J. Matthew Gallman
Graduate Coordinator