History

Our doctoral programme aims to provide students with both a broad-ranging command of several fields and a more focused expertise in their major field.

In the first year, doctoral students take two full year seminar courses, and a required fall-term course on historical theories and methods. They also prepare for an oral defence of their major and minor fields that is structured around the preparation of undergraduate course syllabi in these fields.

Half way through the second year of the programme, they defend an extended thesis proposal before their dissertation committee.

The structure of the programme is designed to enable students to complete their doctorates within four years.

Queen's History also offers PhDs the opportunity to take advantage of international graduate programmes, notably Birkbeck College, University of London, and Fudan University in Shanghai.

• Capitalism: A Historical View 
• Cultural History of Enlightenment France
• Global, World and Transnational History
• The State and Civil Society in British North America and Canada to the First World War
• U.S. History to 1900
• Comparative Colonial North American Societies
• Topics in Early Modern Europe I 
• Liberalism, Authoritarianism and Citizenship in Latin America 
• Topics in Modern European History II 
• Approaches to History
• Selected Topics in History I: The British Discover their Past, 1475- 1730 
• Topics in Irish History 1798 to the Present
• The Atlantic World I
• Imperial and Postcolonial History
• Canada’s Racial State 
• Race and Ethnicity in Latin America, 1492 to the Present 
• Topics in Early Modern Europe II 
• 19th Century Colonial North America 
• The Social History of Canada 
• The Crusades and the Latin Kingdoms 
• Empires and Intimacies 
• Topics in Modern European Intellectual and Cultural History
• Canada at War 

Requirements

• Admission to the Ph.D. is normally limited to applicants with first class standing on their M.A. work (A minus minimum, GPA 3.7).
• If English is not your first language, we require a total TEOFL score of at least 627 (paper-based), 263 (computer-based) or 88 (internet-based) as well as a TEOFL test of written English section score of 6.0 (paper or computer-based) or 24 (internet-based). All required test scores must be received directly from the testing agency, before your application is complete.Any applicant who has recently studied (in the previous 12 months) for at least one complete year at a university where English is the official language of instruction may be exempt from the English language proficiency test.
• Two current academic reference letters are required. Where possible, one of those references should be by the student’s MA supervisor. Applicants applying online will have the option to have their referees submit letters of recommendation to Queen's University electronically. If you have been out of university for a number of years, one or more professional recommendations may be included. However, all effort should be made to include academic recommendations.
• Two official copies of transcripts for all post-secondary institutions which you have attended are required. Please send both transcripts to either the School of Graduate Studies or the Graduate Office in History
• The writing sample should be a minimum of 20 pages. It can be a chapter of the MA thesis/essay or a course paper.
• You will be prompted in the online application to describe your research interests. The online application generally does not provide sufficient space for doctoral applicants to describe their research interests. Please print and send along with your writing sample a longer research statement to the Graduate Office in History (address below). Research Statements for doctoral candidates are typically 3-5 double spaced pages. If you have applied for a SSHRC PhD award, you could use that as a basis for this statement. The Admissions Committee looks very closely at the research statement and we encourage you to be as specific as possible, at the same time indicating how your proposed research addresses larger questions and problems.
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Want to improve your English level for admission?

Prepare for the program requirements with English Online by the British Council.

• ✔️ Flexible study schedule
• ✔️ Experienced teachers
• ✔️ Certificate upon completion

📘 Recommended for students with an IELTS level of 6.0 or below.

Enroll in the course

Scholarships

• Basic Funding Package (teaching and research assistantship, internal fellowships, bursaries and incremental growth).minimum $18,000; most students receive between $18,000 and $22,000 per year
• Queen’s Graduate Awards (QGA)
• Graduate Entrance Tuition Awards (GETA)
• International Tuition Awards (ITAs)
• Conference Travel Awards