From: Jerry H. Bentley, University of Hawaii
jbentley@hawaii.edu

Since 1986, the Department of History at the University of Hawaii has offered a Ph.D. field in world history. Ph.D. students in Hawaii prepare four fields, so that formal study of world history at an advanced level may account for about one-quarter of students' programs. The purposes of Hawaii's Ph.D. field in world history are to acquaint students with world history as a stillemerging field of research and scholarship and to encourage them to undertake research on global themes that do not lend themselves to adequate analysis within the frameworks of more traditional fields of historical scholarship.

Those who elect to prepare a field in world history complete at least two graduate seminars. The first is HIST 609, the Seminar in World History, offered generally in the fall semester, which undertakes a historiographical review of the most important literature, themes, theories, methods, concepts, issues, and approaches to world history as a field of research and scholarship. Alongside the classic literature of world history (Wells, Spengler, Toynbee, McNeill, etc.), the Seminar in World History concentrates attention on modernization analysis, world-system analysis, cross-cultural trade, migrations and diasporas, biological and ecological exchanges, imperialism, post-colonial perspectives, frontier societies, and cross-cultural encounters and exchanges. Apart from HIST 609, students preparing a field in world history complete at least one additional seminar that concentrates on some global problem, theme, issue, or analytical approach. Usually the second seminar is HIST 610, Topics in World History, the content of which varies with the instructor. In years pa t, HIST 610 has focused on cross-cultural encounters in the Americas in early modern times, migrations and diasporas, frontier societies, ethnographic historical analysis, biological exchanges, and capitalism in the modern world. Apart from HIST 609 and HIST 610, students preparing fields in world history often take HIST 612, the Seminar in Ethnographic History, and before too long the Department of History expects to add seminars in frontier societies and modern capitalism to its list of offerings.

For more information, write: Professor Jerry H. Bentley; Department of History; University of Hawaii; 2530 Dole Street; Honolulu, HI 96822. For application forms and information on other graduate programs in history, write: Graduate Secretary; Department of History; University of Hawaii; 2530 Dole Street; Honolulu, HI 96822.

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