Skill Set Requirement

1.    demonstrate a reading competency in a foreign language by passing the specific reading examination administered by the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department;

2.    in consultation with advisors, select an alternative tool such as oral history techniques, linguistic analysis, quantitative analysis, GIS, feminist methods, historical theory (general or particular, such as Marxist or post-modern), computer science for history, information technology to develop websites, or other techniques.

Students, with their advisor’s support, then petition the Graduate Committee to approve an alternative tool. Students are responsible for finding appropriate courses and an expert willing to train them and test competency.  The Graduate Committee will approve petitions for alternative tools of research only if they are directly related to students’ work and if  presented before advancement to candidacy; the skill set must be satisfied before the student can take preliminary exams.