The Minor Field Exam

HIST 804 readings courses conclude with a minor field exam that assesses the student's ability to discuss historical literature in an analytical and creative way. 

The Exam Process

The Graduate Coordinator proctors all minor field exams. Students receive their examination prompts from the Graduate Coordinator via email after the last day of classes. They submit their completed exam to the Graduate Coordinator one week later. The Graduate Coordinator circulates the exam to the readers, who complete the Minor Field Exam Form to signal whether the student has passed.

The Exam Format

Overview

Minor field exams are written "take-home" exams. Students write two roughly 10-page essays, answering broad historiographical questions about the minor field. 

Exam Objectives

The goal of the exam is to map the field, think about large-scale conversations taking place between authors, and identify new avenues for research and scholarship. Students draw on specific examples from specific texts to craft their arguments. This is not a test of whether the student has read and comprehended the details of all the books. Rather, the exam probes the student’s understanding of how the literature of a field fits together. High-quality essays will prioritize analysis of connections, disagreements, and miscommunications between texts, as well as between different sub-sections of the field. 

Use of AI

It should go without saying: use of artificial intelligence to generate text or even ideas for the minor field exam is strictly forbidden, contrary to the spirit and intent of the exam process itself, and counter-productive, given the nature of the major field exam students take later (an oral exam).

Exam Models

The model for this form of writing is the historiographic essay. This is a different form of writing than a book review. The author of a historiographic essay must maintain a critical eye on each work, but they write about the texts at a higher level of abstraction and generalization than simply stringing together summaries or reviews. This is difficult and takes practice, but it is an important skill for the historian. For example, students will exercise this skill when writing the literature review for the dissertation.  

Sample Essays

The Department does not provide sample student essays. However, published historiographic essays suggest compelling ways to write this kind of piece. Students should talk to their minor field advisor to make sure that the student’s expectations are in alignment with the professor’s.

Suggested reading:

• John E. Wills Jr., “What’s New? Studies of Revolutions and Divergences, 1770-1840,” Journal of World History 25, no. 1 (2014).
• Peter Geschiere, “Witchcraft, Shamanism, and Nostalgia: A Review Essay,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 58, no. 1 (2016).
• Paul Lovejoy, “The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature,” Journal of African History 30 (1989).
• Antoinette Burton, “Parsing the Woman Question, Rethinking Feminist History,” Journal of Women’s History 20, no. 1 (2008).
• Kevin Kenny, “Twenty Years of Irish American Historiography,” Journal of American Ethnic History 28 (4) (2009).
• Emily Conroy-Krutz, "An H-Diplo State of the Field Essay, on 'Empire and the Early Republic,'" H-Diplo, Essay #133, Sept. 10, 2015. http://tiny.cc/E133 
• Cornelia H. Dayton and Lisa Levenstein, "The Big Tent of US Women's and Gender History: A State of the Field,” Journal of American History, Volume 99, Issue 3, December 2012, Pages 793–817.
• JGAPE is publishing classic book reviews that often situate the works in a broader field. Here’s an example: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537781418000622  
• The Oxford Handbook of American Indian History, specifically the topical chapters.
• Eric Foner and Lisa McGirr’s book American History Now, which has historiographic essays for many times and topics.