Endorsed by the Executive Committee of the Department of History, November 19, 2025

The History Department believes that writing history requires a commitment to the highest ethical and professional standards. The work of history relies on individual scholars directly encountering and interpreting primary sources, equipped with knowledge of the scholarly literature and the broader historical context. This means a deep immersion in the historical record, and careful and complete citation of the ideas and evidence that were used in forming an argument.

It also means an ethic of responsibility and integrity: As you write your own scholarship and submit it for scholarly review and publication, you must know that while it rests on the scholarship that has come before, your work is distinctly your own.

While large language models may provide new tools for research and analysis, and we encourage graduate students to reflect on and engage with how they and other technological inventions have transformed historical research, we do not believe that these new technologies can or will substitute for the critical intelligence of the historian.  Writing is a mode of thinking, and we cannot fully own our ideas if we do not choose the precise words and structures with which we express them. 

For this reason, students should not use generative AI to create text that they submit for coursework (reading responses, historiographical papers, or research papers); field exams; or, most importantly, for their theses and dissertations.

For coursework, faculty may require students to include with all final submissions of coursework an affirmative statement that they have abided by the department’s policy on generative AI.

For theses and dissertations, all submissions should include an affirmative statement: “This dissertation was prepared following the guidance of the History Department on AI usage. I wrote this dissertation without the use of AI tools to create the text.” 

We recognize that there may be particular uses of AI (and other technologies) that are appropriate in individual cases to accomplish specific research goals, and we encourage innovations when they can make us better scholars. Faculty should be clear and specific about their expectations, and to this end, there should be an annual discussion between faculty and graduate students of the state of the field regarding research uses of technology, jointly organized by the DGS and GHA.

Finally, students should be aware that many publishers also require disclosure of the use of AI tools, even for research, and may be reluctant to publish research that has been entered into a large language model for copyright and other reasons. If a student wishes to use these or other technologies for research or writing and revision, they must discuss the choice with advisers and faculty in advance, and usage of the tools should be cited at all times.