Content
We offer a distinctive Ph.D. program in History that emphasizes both broad and focused historical knowledge as well as skills training for the 21st-century historian.
As their focus field, students concentrate in one of these focus areas of faculty strength:
- Modern World
- Transnational History
- Modern Europe
- Nineteenth or Twentieth Century U.S.
- North American West
Ph.D. students gain a mastery of a geographic concentration in North American, European, or World history.
You will supplement your historical study with your interdisciplinary concentration in Ethnic Studies, Great Plains Studies, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Nineteenth Century Studies, or Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as an applied field (Digital Humanities and Public History, History of Education, and Law and Policy).
Our department is an innovator in digital history, and our program offers intensive training in teaching history with opportunities to intern in the editing and publishing industry and at museums and archives. Our graduates use their diverse skillset and creative scholarship to obtain positions in academic and public institutions throughout the country.
Applications are due by December 1 for admission for the following August.
Requirements
The following Ph.D. requirements apply to students entering the program in Fall 2026 and beyond; the most recent Graduate Student Handbook is available online. Students who entered the program between 2018 and 2025 may use the 2023 Handbook or 2018 Handbook.
- Forms and Deadlines
- Graduate Courses
- Sample PhD Timeline
- Funding
- Info about Fields and Comprehensive Exams
*Additionally, all Ph.D. students are required to fulfill foreign language requirements, either by passing four semesters of coursework in at least one foreign language (two for students in non-U.S. fields) with an average grade of B or better or by demonstrating equivalent comprehension by taking a placement exam; coursework can be completed while a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. All Ph.D. students must also pass a document-based reading fluency exam before advancing to candidacy for the Ph.D.; this exam is offered only during finals week in the fall and spring semesters. With the endorsement of their adviser, Ph.D. students may appeal to the Graduate Committee for an alternative assessment of particular cases such as coursework in a spoken language that generates few written documents, or a previous degree from a foreign-language institution.
90 total credit hours*
| HIST 900 | 3 |
| HIST 901 | 3 |
| HIST 950 (to be taken twice) | 6 |
| HIST 990 | 3 |
| 3 Courses in Focus Field (800- or 900-Level) (Modern World; Transnational History; Modern Europe; 19th or 20th Century U.S.; North American West) | 9 |
| 4 Courses in Geographic Concentration (2 in main region + 2 in other two areas): Europe = HIST 931, HIST 933, HIST 941/943 + HIST 961/963; U.S. = HIST 941, HIST 943, HIST 931/933 + HIST 961/963; World = HIST 961, HIST 963, HIST 931/933 + HIST 941/943 | 12 |
| 4 Courses in Interdisciplinary Concentration (ETHN; GPSP; HRHA; MRST; NCST; WMNS) | 12 |
| 4 Courses in Applied Field (DH & Public History; History of Education; Law & Policy) | 12 |
| 3 Courses in Skills/Professional Development (HIST 801A, 801B, & 801C; 1 credit hour each) | 3 |
| HIST 999 (Dissertation) | 27 |