History | Population and Family Health Sciences With this program, each student fully satisfies the work of one department’s PhD plus more than half the requirements of the other department. This is not the same as a double degree (two doctorates, one in each field) but nonetheless represents more work than is required of the normal degree candidate, or of a candidate taking a “field” based on three courses in the other discipline. The joint degree has two separate “tracks,” one for students entering the History Department and wishing additional training in Anthropology, and one for students entering Anthropology and wishing additional training in History. Each track consists of a full load in the primary department and roughly half a load in the secondary department. We regard this as necessary to assuring each student fully adequate preparation for employment in at least the home discipline.
Students entering in History are expected to fulfill all the requirements for a PhD In History: three “fields,” plus a fourth that can consist of a minor in another discipline. Those who wish the joint degree take in addition at least six graduate courses in Anthropology (no more than one of which might be a reading course); they also complete two of the four examinations required of an Anthropology PhD candidate, which consist of two topical specializations, a geographical specialization, and a prescribed reading list all students must complete. The two examinations require preparing bibliographies; the exams have both a written and an oral component. In most cases, it is expected that the student will not prepare an examination in a geographical area for one of these two Anthropology exams, inasmuch as area training will usually be covered by the student’s work in History. This provision is intended to minimize possible overlap of the work completed for the two departments and thereby maximize the student’s breadth of exposure to the two fields.
Upon successful completion of required fields and qualifying exams, the student will embark on a research project approved by one faculty member in each department. The two official readers of the dissertation will be one person from each department. At the dissertation defense, one of the three outside examiners will be a second member of the History department (along with two from other departments). The successful candidate’s degree would read: “Joint PhD in History and Anthropology.”
The student who enters in the Anthropology Department will be expected to fulfill all the department’s requirements for the PhD: comprehensive exams (with bibliographies) in two topics and a geographical region, plus completion of the prescribed reading list. In addition, he or she will complete two of the four fields required in History and participate in the History seminar system, including the public presentation of a paper during the first or second year. (A “field” is an area of specialization. A field usually, but not always, requires a seminar with a professor, a written exam or paper and an oral exam. Faculty member/s in History and student work out the details together). One faculty member from each department will approve the dissertation topic, the dissertation’s readers will be one faculty member from each department, and the examining committee will have a second anthropologist and two outsiders. The successful candidate’s degree would read “Joint PhD in Anthropology and History.”
The Departments of Anthropology (Arts and Sciences) and Population and Family Health Sciences (Hygiene and Public Health) have established a joint PhD program in Anthropology and Population and Family Health Sciences. The work of scholars in both fields has become increasingly interdisciplinary. While demographers are adapting their models of reproductive decision-making to allow for cultural knowledge and local history, anthropologists are examining the national and international bureaucracies that increasingly affect the most intimate aspects of people's daily lives, no matter where they live. The challenge to link aggregate data with the life circumstances of individuals, and to comprehend both holistically, is methodological as well as theoretical. We have proposed a joint PhD program between Anthropology and Population and Family Health Sciences in order to advance and broaden the contemporary dialogue between anthropologists and demographers, including increasing numbers of graduate students in each field. We anticipate that concentrated interdisciplinary work on the dynamics of such topics as fertility, health and well-being will also contribute to the rethinking of basic concepts and research strategies already underway in the social sciences and the humanities. The joint PhD degree program proposed has two separate tracks, one for students entering the Anthropology Department and wishing additional training in Population and Family Health Sciences, and one for students entering Population and Family Health Sciences and wishing additional training in Anthropology. Each track consists of a full load in the primary department and roughly half a load in the secondary department (including at least one fully year of coursework). We regard this as necessary to assure each student fully adequate preparation for employment in at least the home discipline
Students entering in Anthropology are expected to fulfill all the requirements for a PhD in Anthropology. Required coursework: proven competence (intermediate level) in one major language other than his/her own, and fluency in a second language, if relevant to fieldwork; summer field research, written up as a second year paper, presented in the Anthropology Department's seminar series; comprehensive exams in two topics and a geographical region (written and oral exams, based on extensive bibliographies.) At this stage the Public Health faculty will interview interested students and determine their qualifications for admission. Currently, there is no funding available for the year at the School of Public Health - students are responsible for paying the tuition fees. In the future this may change, as we are in the process of applying for funding from other sources. The final stage is the completion and successful oral defense of PhD thesis.
Once admitted, she or he must complete the twelve quarter-term courses (equivalent to six semester courses) required for the demography track of the Master of Health Sciences degree in the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences. Required courses are Introduction to Population Dynamics (320.600), Introduction to Physiology and Regulation of Fertility (320.602), Demographic Methods I to III (320.610 to 320.612), Population Studies I and II (320.620, 320.621), Family Planning Administration: Evaluation (320.661), and the four introductory biostatistics courses (140.601 to 140.604). Four additional elective courses can be chosen from anywhere in the catalog to complete the standard 64 credit load. The four faculty members for the comprehensive exams will include three from Anthropology and one from Population and Family Health Sciences. Students must successfully complete the coursework (grade of B or better) and qualifying exams in order to go on to do PhD dissertation research. At least one faculty member from each department will approve and supervise the dissertation research; one from each department will be the two main readers. The Graduate Board committee of faculty for the oral defense of the completed thesis will include the two main readers, treated as insiders, and three faculty members outside both departments. The successful candidate's degree will read Joint PhD in Anthropology and Population and Family Health Sciences.
Students entering in Population and Family Health Sciences will be expected to fulfill all the requirements (with one exception) for a PhD degree in Population and Family Health Sciences. Required coursework: successful completion at the end of the first year of a written and oral comprehensive examination, successful completion of a preliminary oral examination, completion of a practicum, completion and successful oral defense of their thesis, and a seminar on the thesis. For the joint degree, students will not be expected to complete the normal requirement of demonstrating basic competence in a minor field. Rather, they are expected to demonstrate competence (intermediate level) in one major language other than his/her own, and fluency in a second language, if relevant to fieldwork; take at least six graduate courses in Anthropology; include a bibliographic synthesis of their anthropology concentration (topics and area) as part of the preparation for the oral defense of their proposed PhD field research in their home department, and defend the finished thesis. The examiners for both defenses will include at least one faculty member from Anthropology.
The required courses in Anthropology must include: two out of three courses in social theory, drawn from the Theory and Practice sequence, and four courses drawn from the catalog offered either in anthropology or related disciplines with the approval of the advisor. Students may also take up to a total of two reading courses (one in each semester), with a faculty member in the department of anthropology in place of a regular course.
Students must successfully complete the coursework (grade of B or better) and qualifying exams in order to go on to do PhD dissertation research. At least one faculty member from each department will approve and supervise the dissertation research; one from each department will be the two main readers. The Graduate Board committee of faculty for the oral defense of the completed thesis will include the two main readers, treated as insiders, and three faculty members outside both departments. The successful candidate's degree will read Joint PhD in Population and Family Health Sciences and Anthropology. With this program, each student fully satisfies the work of one department's PhD plus about half the requirements in the other department. This is not the same as a double degree (two doctorates, one in each field) but nonetheless represents substantially more work than is required of the normal degree candidate. History | Population and Family Health Sciences
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