The Graduate Program

Director of Graduate Studies

Manan Ahmed
502 FAY
dgs-history@columbia.edu

I write to introduce myself, as the new DGS, and to give you an overview of where we are (currently) in advance of Fall 2020. Columbia has announced that we will have a ‘tri-semester’ model for next year <https://covid19.columbia.edu/content/academic-calendar-2020-21-0>. Columbia imagines partial student presence on campus–no more than 60% of undergraduates; some unknown proportion of graduate students <https://covid19.columbia.edu/news/president-bollinger-outlines-plans-safe-return-campus>. With that background, I want to let you know how how we are going to proceed in the History department.

FOR STUDENTS (INCOMING AND CONTINUING) TAKING COURSES

Messages from the DGS

  • The curriculum for the coming AY is up at our website <https://history.columbia.edu/courses-2/>. You can click on Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Summer 2021 to get the pdf listing all courses. Here is a list of all graduate seminars and colloquiums <https://history.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/HIST-Grad-Seminars-7-22-2.pdf>. We have graduate courses in all three semesters and all fields are working closely to ensure that all graduate cohorts (G1-3), that normally take courses, have adequate course offerings throughout the tri-semester academic year. We are introducing a new Methods seminar, History in Action, in Fall 2020 led by Prof Matt Jones. This seminar will be a modular and practical, with short 2-3 weeks sessions on Digital History, Data Visualization, Process of Writing, History of Columbia’s History Department and more. We recommend that incoming (and continuing) cohorts consider this skills-building seminar. You can see the working syllabus <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rEqlNfLPqPDQVXWYKcKTCol9aXSZT6PPNx_rpaXM7Ks/edit?usp=sharing>. We think this course will be a good addition to your programs given the unusual circumstances.
    You can begin on Monday, August 3, to register for classes, and you will have two full weeks, through Friday, August 14 to do so.
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