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Wherein I Name a Dozen or More Doctoral Programs in History that Ought to be Shut Down

Mr. Luker, an Atlanta historian, was co-editor of the first two volumes of The Papers of Martin Luther King. He is the founder of the HNN blog, Cliopatria.

A colleague at Cliopatria recently pointed out an advertisement in the AHA's Perspectives in January. It celebrates the new doctoral program in history at the University of Texas, El Paso and congratulates its first three new doctors. Given market conditions, he asked: "Why would there be any new doctoral programs in history?" It's like pouring more sand on a beach. He might have asked UTEP about where it had placed its three fresh degree-holders.

The AHA's "History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada" is a useful site, searchable by institutional name, state or province, and specialization. This map of Texas and the accompanying list of in-state doctoral programs, for example, may help to explain the rationale for a doctoral program at UTEP. Other programs are concentrated in east Texas and UTEP may have a plausible case to make for its specialization in borderlands history.

By my count, however, the AHA site lists 157 doctoral programs in history in the United States and another 31 programs in Canada. At least 188 Ph. D. programs in history in North America. The AHA's list may not even be comprehensive, however. Georgia's Clark-Atlanta University (scroll down) claims to have a doctoral program in history, but the AHA knows nothing of it. What kind of doctoral program in history would it be, if the AHA has never heard of it? I know something about the department. It shouldn't be granting doctorates.

It's no secret that there are more doctoral programs in history than we need. No department wants to be told that, but it's true. It's true, even if their degree recipients don't all intend to teach in a college or university classroom. Some years ago, I think, the AHA considered the possibility of credentialing or licensing graduate programs in history. But, with characteristic courage, it backed down from that, just as it backed away from adjudicating instances of professional malpractice. Credentialing doctoral programs, like adjudicating malpractice, was too hot to handle. I'm at a point in my career where I have nothing to lose, however, so I'll step into this minefield.

If you look at the states with the largest numbers of doctoral programs in history, a ratio of 2 million people per doctoral program in history seems reasonable, particularly of state institutions that are dependent on public funding. With several wealthy private institutions, Massachusetts has a low ratio at .6 million people per program, but 9 of its 10 doctoral programs are at well-endowed private institutions that draw most of their students from across the country. It's in Midwestern and Southern states that don't have multiple well-endowed private institutions that the ratio of 2 million people per doctoral program in history points to problems: Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

In the South, hurricane damage and low population density ought to force retrenchment of doctoral programs in history in Louisiana and Mississippi. Lousiana has only 1.5 million people per program (probably less than that since Katrina); and Mississippi has only 1.0 million people per program. Whatever recovery New Orleans can hope for, the doctoral program in history at the University of New Orleans ought not be resurrected.* Next door, the University of Southern Mississippi already had faculty members in flight from an arbitrary administration before Katrina struck and should not continue handing out doctorates in history.
*Update: Warren Billings, emeritus professor at the University of New Orleans, writes me to indicate that the AHA site is in error about UNO. It has never had a doctoral program in history.

In the Midwest, Wisconsin's public institutions have had repeated funding cuts. With only 1.1 million people per program, it ought to cap graduate work in history at UW, Milwaukee at the M.A. level. Illinois has only 1.6 million people per doctoral program in history and should, at least, cap the program at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, at an M.A. With only 1.3 million people per doctoral program in history, Ohio simply has too many doctoral programs in history at its public institutions. I'm looking at you: Akron, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Kent State, and Toledo. Except for Cincinnati, these are not well-endowed institutions. Where do you tell your students that you will place them? For the most part, public secondary schools will not hire teachers with doctorates because they can hire teachers without them less expensively.

Elsewhere, the 2 million people per graduate program in history raises questions about doctoral programs in states with small populations: Delaware, where the state university has a substantial endowment; and Rhode Island, where there are two programs -- neither of them in the state university. Why does Providence College have a doctoral program in history?* It is even more revealing in a state like North Dakota. South Dakota has no doctoral programs in history at all. North Dakota has two of them, one for every 300,000 people. The program at either North Dakota State or the University of North Dakota should be capped at an M.A. Better yet: both of them should.
*Update: According to the AHA site, Providence College terminated its doctoral program in 1995, but allowed students still in the program to continue. Ten years later, three students were still in process. Thanks to David Fahey for the pointer.

Even if some miracle of abstraction limited the numbers of doctoral programs in history to 1 per 2 million people, it might still only reduce the number of programs in the United States from 157 to 150. But that moves things in the right direction. If you browse through the AHA site, you'll find other doctoral programs that are obviously weak. Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD, is an example. Morgan State didn't grant its first doctorate in history until 2000, when we'd known for decades already that there were too many doctoral programs in history. Morgan State specializes in African American history, but Howard University's stronger concentration in the field is nearby, in Washington, DC.

Most of the doctoral programs that I've cited are small. Closing them might not dramatically reduce the glut on the job market for young history professors. But they are marginal programs, at best, and would better serve their constituencies by concentrating on offering the best M.A. programs in history that they can muster.

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