Comparative History

The purpose of the PhD program in Comparative History program at Central European University (CEU) is to offer doctoral education matching the highest international standards in the field of Comparative History for prospective scholars and teachers.

Outline and Rationale of the Doctoral Program

• The particular – indeed unique – feature of the Comparative History program at Central European University (CEU) is that it focuses on the comparison of four distinct geo-cultural regions: Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe, and the Eastern Mediterranean area, in close relation to the history of other historical regions, most notably with Western Europe and the Middle East.

• Comparative history is often preached and seldom practiced in advanced historical studies. When it finds its way onto the agenda of Ph.D. programs, the emphasis falls mainly on distinctive regional-national fields with no connecting tissue.
• The doctoral program at CEU seeks to root the comparative dimension in the historical experience of the four distinct geo-cultural regions of Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe, and the Eastern Mediterranean area.

• We acknowledge that these regions are themselves constructions representing symbolic as well as physical and human geographies. But we endeavor to find the loci of these representations in both intra-regional and extra-regional perceptions.

• We seek to avoid the dual methodological trap of seeing the region only from the outside as something ‘other’ than the higher cultural level and material development of the West or alternatively only from the inside as a unique and therefore incomparable expression of indigenous factors.
• In this way, the comparative program will come to grips with one of the abiding intellectual and methodological problems of writing the history of these regions: namely, the tension between ‘Westerners’ or externals and nativists or internals, between the conflicting metaphors of orientalism and nationalism.

Curriculum:

• The first year of the program concentrates on coursework and preparation for the comprehensive examination, which focuses on major topics in the comparative history of two of the three regions mentioned above. A detailed, extensive research dissertation proposal is also prepared, and discussed as part of the comprehensive examination.

• The second year is devoted to research in relevant archives and libraries. The third year is spent in residence at CEU presenting results in the PhD research seminar, and fulfilling teaching assistantship duties. Students may also apply for support for spending a semester during the their studies at one of the leading international universities or research centers.

• The dissertation must be submitted within six years from enrolllment in the program.