From: Stephen Maizlish, University of Texas Arlington
maizlish@uta.edu

Program Description Beginning Fall 1998, the University of Texas at Arlington is implementing a Ph.D. program in History that focuses on the study of the interrelations and interactions between and among Europe, Africa, and the Americas since 1492. This History Ph.D. program is called "Transatlantic History." The program is comparative and "transnational," that is, it crosses what today are national boundaries. By its nature, this innovative program about the history of peoples bordering the Atlantic Ocean is cross-cultural and untraditional. The program asks students to look at historical facts in new ways, to discover the interactions and interrelations between peoples and cultures around the Atlantic Rim. Students will study a wide array of historical developments that, over time, have contributed to the making of the interconnected world community we live in today.

The University UT-Arlington (UTA), with 18,000 students, including over 3,000 at the graduate level, is one of the largest public universities in Texas. Centrally located in the growing Dallas-Fort Worth area, UTA is accessible and affordable to a diverse body of students, both part-time and full-time.

UTA has grown with the city of Arlington (1992 pop., 270,000). Founded in 1895 as tiny Arlington College, serving a farming community of several hundred people, the school has undergone several changes in name and mission. In 1959 it became a 4-year college, and in 1965 was transferred from the Texas A & M to the University of Texas System. In 1967, the school was renamed the University of Texas at Arlington. The past quarter-century has witnessed explosive growth, especially in graduate programs. In 1966, six departments began advanced degree programs; in the 1990's, there are available to students about 70 different graduate programs, masters and doctoral.

Institutional Resources Ph.D. students in the Transatlantic History program will have direct access to the rich materials found in the UT-Arlington Library's Special Collections. Central research in this program is The Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library, which contains 7,500 maps and 1,400 atlases and geographies. Special Collections has over 6,500 linear feet of manuscript archives. Recently, the UT Regents Special Collections Enhancement Fund designated $700,000 to Special Collections, an amount matched by another $700,000 in gifts from outside sources, for a total grant of $1.4 million. A Center for the History of Cartography was created in 1991, whose Director has published on historical geography. A faculty member holding an Endowed Chair in the History of Cartography also provides strong support for the Ph.D. program in Transatlantic History. For thirty-three years, the Department of History has sponsored the annual Walter Prescott Webb Lectures, many of whose published volumes have been on Transatlantic themes. In addition, in 1998, the university inaugurated the Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography, which will be an annual series of symposia topics and resulting publications on the study of mapping.

Transatlantic Doctoral Progam Homepage:
http://www.uta.edu/history/transatlantic

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