Fields of Study by Directed Reading (PhD)

Canadian History

The following fields are offered: History of Atlantic Canada, social, cultural, and political history of Canada, with emphasis on an integrated approach; legal history; welfare history; naval history; gender history.

Atlantic History

This field explores the history of the Atlantic world and its relationship to the study of Atlantic Canada. Some areas of concentration include the staples trades, Native peoples, Acadians, the first British Empire, forced migrations, maritime labour, reform and responsible government, gender in Atlantic societies, industrialization, and regionalism.

African History

This field may be studied with special attention to conflict and crime, social and economic history, intellectual history or labor history especially of Anglophone Africa during the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods covering the 19th and 20th centuries.

British History

The following fields are offered: British history, 1150-1850; political, social, and cultural history of England, 1150-1700; the history of northern England, 1100-1700; diplomatic, military and political history in the 19th and 20th centuries.

United States History

Fields are offered in Colonial and Revolutionary America; 19th century American social, labor, and ethnic history; Civil War and Reconstruction; 20th century American foreign relations; intellectual and cultural history.

European History

Fields are available in European history 1650-1914, especially in Italian and French history, intellectual and cultural history, behavioural history, and the social history of music.

German History

Only one field is available in German history: Germany 1870-1945. Within this, students may concentrate upon particular topics or periods especially relevant to their thesis work.

Russian History

Two fields are available: one in nineteenth-century Russian history and one in twentieth-century Russian and Soviet history.

Caribbean and Latin American History

Fields may be offered in early modern and modern Latin American history, especially in Cuban diplomatic, history (Cuba-Canada-Mexico), 19th century Cuban intellectual history, and Cuba during the Castro years.

Gender History

Fields are offered, both as single units and in combination, on women and gender in 19th and 20th century North America, early modern England, modern Europe, and Africa.

Middle East and Islamic History

Fields are available in pre-modern and modern history of the Middle East, Central Asia, Muslim Africa and South Asia.

Alternate Topics

Offers an individually tailored field of study not offered by our current faculty but by a cross-appointed colleague at SMU or elsewhere.