PhD Program

For Academic Year 2024-25:
Director of Doctoral Studies: Prof. Katie Benton-Cohen
Graduate Programs Manager: Carolina Madinaveitia

Welcome to Georgetown’s Ph.D. program in History! We are a top-notch program with strengths in multiple fields, and we encourage students with interests that span geographical regions, time periods, and thematic foci.  Our doctoral student community numbers roughly 100, with new cohorts of 8-12 fully-funded students each year. Our alumni have gone on to distinguished careers as historians in and out of the academy.

Our Ph.D. program has much to offer. In addition to the attention of a distinguished and award-winning History faculty, our students benefit from Georgetown’s many regional studies programs and intellectual centers, where interdisciplinary activity is prized. Opportunities for language training abound. No city has greater resources for historians than Washington, D.C.: the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the National Library of Medicine, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and many other institutions hold an unparalleled wealth of research material.

Our doctoral program is collegial and collaborative, with a vibrant intellectual life. Outside of class, students participate in seminars and conferences along with faculty, share in the activities of our Institute for Global History, grow through professional development workshops, and socialize with each other when the academic day is over. It’s a fun place to be a serious historian.