Joint Ph.D. Program in History
and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
Director of Graduate Studies: Professor Khaled Fahmy

Contents
Introduction
Admissions
Financial Aid
Course of Study
Degree Requirements
Advising
Evaluation and Screening
Grades and Incompletes
Maximum Time-to-Degree
Types of Courses

Introduction
The joint Ph.D. Program in History and Middle Eastern Studies was established by the departments of History and of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies during the 1995-96 academic year; the first students were admitted to the program in the fall of 1996. It was established in order to ensure that all graduate students studying the history of the Middle East, regardless of period, topic or geographical focus, receive the kind of training in historical thinking, methods and approaches that future historians focusing on other parts of the world receive - in short, a solid grounding in history as a discipline.
If you are in the joint program, you will probably work most closely with those members of the MEIS faculty who, though historians by training and inclination and holding appointments in the History Department as well, are primarily based in MEIS. You will also normally work with the members of the MEIS faculty who are not historians. But you should also expect (and strive) to work closely with members of the History Department who may know relatively little about the Middle East but can offer valuable training and guidance in historical thinking and approaches, as well as provide solid grounding in a non-Middle Eastern field.
The joint program is intended and designed to ensure that this kind of interaction happens, in a variety of possible forms: course work on non-Middle Eastern topics that are nonetheless relevant to your interests and future research; preparation for a qualifying exam in a non-Middle Eastern field; the required seminar on a non-Middle Eastern topic; independent study; individual advising; participation of History Department faculty on dissertation committees; and so on. In addition, you are encouraged to participate actively in the intellectual and social life of the History Department as well as that of MEIS, by attending lectures, becoming involved in graduate student life, participating in festive occasions, and so on.
In the past, the History Department has occasionally admitted a small number of students planning to specialize in some aspect of Middle Eastern history, and modern, Ottoman and medieval Islamic history are among the major fields which History Department graduate students may choose. It is expected that History will continue to accept applications from, and consider for admission, students who wish to specialize in Middle Eastern history. However, it is likely that most graduate students who wish to be trained as historians of the Middle East will (if they have only the B.A.) apply via Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and then be screened into the joint History/MEIS Ph.D. program after completing the M.A.; or if they already have the M.A., that they will apply directly to the joint Ph.D. program.

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Admissions
If you have only the B.A., you should apply to either MEIS or History while indicating that your ultimate goal is admission to the joint Ph.D. program. Students admitted in this way must, during the course of the program, meet the requirements for the M.A. specified by the department to which they belong. When you are close to completing your M.A. requirements, you may apply for admission to the joint Ph.D. program, in accordance with the procedures specified by the departments of History and MEIS; you will then be evaluated for admission. However, admission is neither automatic nor guaranteed; applicants who are denied admission will receive the M.A. as their terminal degree. Admission is in any case contingent on outstanding academic performance, and will be deemed provisional until the completion of all M.A. requirements and until qualifying examinations are taken and passed.
If you already have an M.A. from another NYU department or program or from another academic institution, you should apply directly to the joint program in accordance with GSAS admissions procedures. Make sure that you specify that you are applying to the joint program on your application, using the correct code number(s).
All applicants for the joint program must submit Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. Graduates of undergraduate institutions where instruction is in a language other than English must also submit scores from the TOEFL or equivalent. It is strongly recommended that applicants plan to have already acquired proficiency in Arabic, Persian or Turkish at the intermediate level or beyond before their matriculation at NYU. The joint program accepts applications for fall admission only.
There are four ways of obtaining an application:
1. Download an application from the Web
2. Email gsas.admissions@nyu.edu
3. Phone (212) 998-8050
4. Write to: Graduate School of Arts and Science
P.O. Box 907, Cooper Station
New York, New York 10276-0907 GSAS Application and Admissions FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

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Course of Study
Joint Ph.D. students must complete a total of 72 points, including three graduate seminars; at least one of those seminars must be in a non-Middle Eastern field. Students must demonstrate proficiency in at least one Middle Eastern language and in at least one European language. A student may be required by his or her dissertation adviser to learn additional languages, in keeping with the student's specific research needs.
Students should begin defining the fields of historical study in which they wish to specialize and concentrate as early as possible. Before the end of their third year of full-time study, students must take and pass an examination in each of two major fields of history. One field must be focused on some period or aspect of Middle Eastern history; the other may be Middle Eastern or one of the other fields defined by the Department of History. Subject to the availability of faculty, Middle Eastern fields may include modern Middle Eastern history (1750-present), early modern Middle Eastern history (1200-1800), and early Islamic history (600-1200); other Middle Eastern history fields may be approved later. Each student's choice of fields must be approved by the directors of graduate studies of both departments.
Both examinations are normally taken at the end of the same semester, but students may petition to take one of their examinations no later than the end of the following semester. Students who do not pass an examination may petition for permission to take it one more time. Students preparing for an examination in any of the fields for which either MEIS or History prescribe “literature of the field” courses must take those courses. If no formal "literature of the field" course is offered for a particular field, preparation for the examination in that field will be done through reading courses or other means under the supervision of a faculty member. In either case, students will prepare for their comprehensive examinations by course work in the field and by working through a reading list for the field under the supervision of the faculty member who will examine them; each examination will have a second reader as well. Joint program students must also take the “methods” course (G57.3603, “Approaches to Historical Research and Writing”) required of all History and History/MEIS graduate students.
After successfully completing their examinations, the student should begin to formulate a dissertation proposal, in consultation with the faculty member who will serve as his or her primary dissertation adviser. On completion of all course work (including all incompletes) and the fulfillment of all language requirements, the student must defend his or her dissertation proposal, with the student’s adviser (who must be a full, associated or affiliated member of the Department of History) and two other faculty members serving as examiners.
You may then proceed to research and write your doctoral dissertation, under the supervision of your adviser and committee. The completed dissertation must conform to departmental and Graduate School of Arts and Science standards, be read and approved by the student’s supervisor and two other NYU faculty members (or approved faculty from other universities) who serve as readers; however, such approval means only that the dissertation is ready to be submitted to a defense. It must then be submitted for a public oral defense in which these three readers, along with two other examiners designated by the department, participate. To be accepted, the dissertation must be approved by at least four of the five participants in the dissertation defense, in accordance with GSAS procedures.
The completed dissertation must conform to departmental and Graduate School of Arts and Science standards, be read and approved by the student's supervisor and two other faculty members, and be defended in a public oral defense in which three readers and two examiners participate.

For a more detailed description of the History/MEIS Ph.D. program, please consult the MEIS Handbook for Graduate Students, available from the department office. You should also be sure to read the entries for Advising and Graduate Courses of the Ph.D. in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies section of this website, since they apply to the joint History/MEIS Ph.D. program as well, and you would also do well to explore the History Department’s website.

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Degree Requirements
Note: Program requirements may be subject to revision; contact the director of graduate studies for updated information.

Requirements for the joint History/MEIS Ph.D. program are very similar to those of both the MEIS and History Ph.D. programs.

1. You must complete at least 72 points of graduate course work (normally 18 courses at 4 points a course) beyond the B.A. These courses must include at least 3 graduate seminars, at least one of which must be in a non-Middle Eastern field. You must also take whatever "literature of the field" course(s) that History or MEIS requires for your specific major field(s) as well as any "methods" course the History Department may require of Ph.D. candidates. No credit toward the degree will be awarded for language instruction in a student's primary Middle Eastern language (normally Arabic, Persian or Turkish), except for courses at the advanced level or beyond.

2. If you are an incoming graduate student, you must take G77.1687 (Problems and Methods in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies), taught by MEIS faculty, as soon as possible after your arrival at NYU.

3. You must achieve proficiency in either Arabic, Turkish or Persian (or in some other Middle Eastern language, with the approval of the DGS), to be demonstrated by departmental exam. However, your dissertation advisor or committee may require you to learn other Middle Eastern languages, in accordance with your research needs.

4. You must attain a reading knowledge adequate for research purposes of at least one European language other than English, to be demonstrated by passing a GSAS, MEIS or History language exam, as specified by your advisor. However, your advisor or committee may require you to learn other European languages, in accordance with your research needs.

5. You must take and pass a qualifying exam in each of two major fields, of roughly equal weight. One field must be Middle Eastern; the second field may be Middle Eastern or may be one of the other fields defined by the History Department; see the GSAS Bulletin under "History" for details. Middle Eastern history fields currently include modern Middle Eastern history, Ottoman/early modern Middle Eastern history, and medieval Middle Eastern history; additional Middle Eastern history fields may be approved later. However, preparing for a qualifying exam in any field is contingent on the availability of appropriate faculty with whom to work. Students in the joint program will normally take their qualifying exams by the end of their first year in the joint Ph.D program. By petition to the DGSs of History and MEIS, you may request additional time to prepare for your exams. Both exams will normally be taken at the end of the same semester, but you may request permission to take one of your exams no later than the end of the following semester. This means that you should choose their major fields and begin focusing your course work on them as early as possible in your graduate studies. You must obtain the approval of the DGSs of MEIS and History for your choice of major fields and of the faculty members who have agreed to serve as your major field advisors. Qualifying exam questions in each major field will be drawn from material covered in course work and from material included in a list of 80-100 readings (books, articles, key primary texts, etc.) developed for each field by History and/or MEIS faculty. Each reading list (and the exam based upon it) will focus primarily on the conceptual, methodological and historiographical tendencies, problems and issues in a specific field. Faculty may tailor reading lists somewhat to conform to particular students' individual interests, and the lists will be regularly updated to reflect each field's evolving scholarly literature, debates and concerns. If you are preparing for an exam in any of the fields for which MEIS and/or History prescribes a "literature of the field" course, you must take that course. In some Middle Eastern history fields, the small number of students who in any given year will be preparing for an exam in that field may make it likely that preparation for the exam in that field will be done not in a formal "literature of the field" course but by means of informal reading courses, in a manner to be arranged by each major field advisor faculty member. If there is no "literature of the field" course offered in your field, you may register for up to 4 points per field of Directed Study with their major field advisors over the two semesters preceding their exams. Students who do not pass a major field exam may petition for permission to take the exam one more time. Students in the joint Ph.D. program are exempt from the History Department's minor field requirement.

6. After completing the major field qualifying exams, you must designate a special field. As discussed above in section III, no. 7, your special field will presumably be the field in which you expect to be principally involved as a scholar and teacher. The directors of graduate studies of both MEIS and History must approve your choice of special field, dissertation advisor and dissertation committee members, as well as any subsequent changes therein. Your dissertation advisor must be either a member of the History Department or a member of the MEIS faculty who has also holds an appointment in the History Department.

7. Upon the completion of all course work (including all incompletes) and the fulfillment of all language requirements, you must pass an oral examination in your special field, administered by your dissertation advisor and two other faculty members, who will normally be the other two dissertation readers serving on your dissertation committee.

8. Before taking this exam, you must have formulated and submitted a detailed dissertation proposal, which should include an extensive critical bibliography of the relevant scholarly literature, a thorough discussion of how your proposal relates to that literature, and an explanation of the approaches, methods and sources you plan to use in your dissertation research. Discussion of the dissertation proposal and its relation to the scholarly literature is a key component of the special field exam. Successful completion of the special field exam constitutes approval of the dissertation proposal, subject to whatever revisions are indicated as a result of the exam itself. You may then proceed to research and write a doctoral dissertation, under the supervision of your dissertation advisor and committee, as discussed above in section III.

9. The completed dissertation must be approved and defended in accordance with GSAS procedures.

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Advising
If you haven't indicated a preference before you enter the department's graduate program, you will be assigned an advisor with whom you should consult regarding course selection and other questions; but you should also feel free to discuss any questions or concerns you may have with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). After your first semester at NYU you may change advisors, after consulting the DGS.

Later on, as explained below, you will need to choose a major field advisor, a special field advisor, and a dissertation advisor - though they may well end up being the very same person. Many of you will also be choosing a minor field advisor. The DGS will need to approve your choice of advisors, to make sure that you are working with the faculty member(s) most suited to your needs and interests; when the time comes, the department will also need to approve the composition of your dissertation committee. If you subsequently want to change advisors or the composition of your dissertation committee, you must get departmental approval for that too.

You should plan on meeting your advisor(s) frequently -- at the beginning, middle and end of each semester, at the very least. While you are still doing course work, you will need to meet with your advisor at the beginning of each semester, before registering, to discuss your plans for the semester and get his or her signature on a proposed plan of study for the semester; the signed plan should be turned in to the department office and will be kept in your file. Once you've finished your course work, you will need to meet with your dissertation advisor and other faculty regularly to discuss your research and report on your progress.

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Evaluation and Screening
The department believes that the students it admits into its graduate program have the ability and commitment to complete it. At the same time, the department has a responsibility to monitor and evaluate its students' performance, for a variety of reasons: to let students know how they are doing, to be able to recommend them for financial aid and employment, to certify that they are in good standing, and so on.

As noted above under "Advising," you should meet regularly with your advisor(s) to discuss your work in the graduate program. The more your advisor knows about your progress, problems, concerns, etc., the more effectively the department can provide help and guidance. On a regular basis, advisors and other faculty will report to the department on the performance and progress of all students (especially those receiving financial support). In addition, department faculty will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of all graduate students at least once each academic year.

There are several points in your trajectory as a graduate student at which you will undergo screening by the department, to evaluate your academic performance and progress and to determine whether you should be permitted to enter the next stage of graduate study and receive financial aid. The point of this process is not to harass or intimidate you; it is simply to ensure that you have a clear idea of where you stand and what is expected of you, and that all the department's graduate students are pursuing their studies seriously, consistently and satisfactorily.

As discussed below, students who are soon to complete their master's degree must petition the department for permission to continue graduate study toward the Ph.D. Such permission is neither guaranteed nor automatic, and the department has the right to deny it to students whom it does not feel should continue graduate study; such students will receive the M.A. as their terminal degree.

Students who fail their qualifying exam(s) may also be denied permission to continue graduate study. Students who fail to perform satisfactorily in their special field exam or equivalent may be required to withdraw from the graduate program. Finally, the department may compel any student who does not measure up to its academic standards to withdraw from the graduate program, temporarily or permanently.

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Grades and Incompletes
The department expects that students will maintain a consistently strong academic record at NYU. Be aware that the department strongly discourages "incompletes": even if they are made up before the end of the next semester, at which point any I/P (Incomplete/Pass) that appears on your transcript turns permanently into N (no grade), their presence on your transcript is highly undesireable. Among other things, according to Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS) rules, too many outstanding or even made-up incompletes may prevent you from receiving assistantships or waivers of maintenance of matriculation fees for which you might otherwise be eligible. You should also know that the total number of incompletes cannot exceed the number of years enrolled at NYU.

All outstanding incompletes must be made up before you take your special field exam (or defend your dissertation proposal, under the old rules).

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Maximum Time-to-Degree
All graduate students in MEIS are subject to GSAS rules concerning the maximum number of years they may take to complete all degree requirements. If you enter a graduate program at NYU with a B.A. or equivalent, you have a maximum of five years to complete all your M.A. degree requirements, and a maximum of ten years to complete both your M.A. and Ph.D. requirements. If you enter a graduate program already holding an M.A., you have a maximum of seven years to complete all requirements for the Ph.D. Students who do not satisfy all degree requirements within these time limits may be terminated by the department. In special circumstances students may petition for an extension, but the department is under no obligation to grant such a request.

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Types of Courses
Students in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at NYU can take courses offered by the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, with permission of the instructor. You should also be aware that NYU graduate students can, with a minimum of bureaucratic hassle, take graduate courses at the New School for Social Research, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Columbia University and Fordham University. The department urges its students to explore the many opportunities for course work, faculty assistance and research available in the New York area.

All graduate courses normally offered by the department are worth 4 points. The courses for which you can register can be divided into the following types:

Graduate-level lecture courses: Since we believe that your graduate-level course work should normally take place in small group settings, we offer (on a rotating basis) only three graduate-level lecture survey courses. These are G77.1640 (History of the Middle East, 600-c.1200), G77.1641 (History of the Middle East, c. 1200-c. 1800) and G77.1642 (History of the Middle East, c. 1750-present). MEIS students who need an introduction to some period of Middle Eastern history may take one or more of these courses, after consulting with their advisor; if an introductory survey course in which you are interested is not being offered in a particular semester, you may (with your advisor's approval) take the corresponding undergraduate survey course as a Directed Study (see below) and thereby get degree credit for the course.

Colloquia: Most graduate course work takes place in colloquia, which focus on a specific period and/or problem. Enrollment is limited to about 15 and permission of the instructor is required. The goal of the colloquium is to familiarize students with key issues, debates and texts in a particular field or subfield, through readings, discussion, and writing assignments. Faculty may require students who lack adequate background in a particular subject to take some more introductory course as a prerequisite for a particular colloquium.

With the permission of the instructor, to be obtained at the beginning of the semester, you may take a colloquium for seminar credit; the instructor will specify additional course requirements accordingly, including submission of a seminar paper.

All incoming graduate students are required to take G77.1687, Problems and Methods in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, the first time it is offered after you arrive at NYU.

Seminars: Like colloquia, seminars will be kept small and enrollment requires the instructor's permission. Seminars explore a particular issue or period in depth, and participants will be required to research and write a seminar paper based to the greatest extent possible on primary sources in a Middle Eastern language.

In addition to the regular classroom-based courses described above, the department offers various forms of individualized study, which may carry 1-4 points. Before registering for any of the following types of individual study, however, you must use the form available in the department office to secure the approval of both the faculty member with whom you wish to work and the DGS. Certain restrictions apply to these courses:

Master's Thesis Research: During the semester in which they will be completing their master's thesis - normally the spring semester of their second year of full-time study - M.A. candidates may register for a maximum of 4 points of Master's Thesis Research. This will give you some time free from course work to research and write your master's thesis.

Directed Study: Over the two semesters preceding your qualifying exam(s) (see sections III and/or IV below) or comprehensive exams (see section V), you may register for a maximum of 4 points of Directed Study with your major field advisor(s) for each major field in which you will be taking a qualifying exam, to give you time to prepare for the exam. In effect, students in MEIS and in the Joint History/Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Ph.D. program will use this time to participate in an informal reading course work designed to go through the reading list(s) for their major field(s). However, if a "literature of the field" course is offered to prepare you for a qualifying exam in a major field, you may not take both that course and a Directed Study for the same field.

Directed Study also has another use: it is a means by which graduate students can register and receive degree credit for undergraduate courses - for example, for an undergraduate lecture survey course they need to take when the equivalent graduate course is not being offered. The DGS must approve all such uses of Directed Study.

Dissertation Research: After the successful completion of your qualifying exam(s), you may register for a maximum of 4 points of Dissertation Research; this time may be used to formulate a dissertation proposal and prepare for your special field exam or dissertation proposal defense (see sections III and IV).

Independent Study: With approval from both the faculty member with whom you want to work and the DGS, you may register for no more than 4 points of Independent Study in any academic year. Every Independent Study must include a writing assignment, which might be a research paper, a bibliographical essay, etc. However, please keep in mind the department discourages excessive use of Independent Study: given the growth in the size and diversity of our faculty, you should plan on pursuing and developing your research interests in the framework of regularly-offered courses.

Reading Courses: This category of courses allow a faculty member and a group of students some flexibility if they wish to work together on a specific set of texts. However, as with Independent Study, the department much prefers that students develop and pursue their special interests through participation in regularly-offered colloquia and seminars.

In any case, you may not register for more than 4 points of credit for Master's Thesis Research, Directed Study, Dissertation Research and/or Independent Study combined in any one academic year, unless you have obtained prior approval from the DGS.

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