Graduate History

The University of Virginia’s Corcoran Department of History offers a nationally recognized graduate program ranked among the top history programs in the United States. Admitting a small, selective cohort each year, the program provides rigorous M.A. and Ph.D. training supported by strong funding packages, exceptional faculty mentorship, and extensive research resources. Graduate students benefit from UVA’s status as one of the nation’s leading public research universities and from a department known for its strength across geographic, thematic, and chronological fields.

The program emphasizes close advising, professional development, and a supportive scholarly community. Ph.D. students receive up to six years of fellowship support as they complete coursework, language study, comprehensive exams, teaching assistantships, and original dissertation research. In addition to our terminal MA program, the History department welcomes applicants to the joint JD/MA program with the Law School.

With faculty expertise spanning global regions, time periods from antiquity to the present, and thematic fields such as race and ethnicity, political history, environmental history, digital humanities, and the history of science and medicine, UVA provides broad intellectual opportunities for emerging historians.