Ph.D. in History and Sociology of Technology and Science

Doctoral students must complete the requirements for the Master's degree or their equivalent. Beyond these, there are no specifically required courses. Students concentrate upon completing two additional tasks: their comprehensive exams, and successful defense of a dissertation making an original contribution to scholarship and research. Doctoral students must also demonstrate reading competence in a foreign language.

The Comprehensive Exams

Students pursuing the Ph.D. will typically enroll for a third year of graduate courses (directed readings and, when appropriate, core electives) to help them prepare for a set of comprehesive examinations covering three fields.

For students concentrating in Technology, Science, and Modern History , fields must be distributed in three areas:

1. History of Technology and/or Science
2. Modern History (Asia, Europe, or the United States)
3. open

Those concentrating in the Sociology of Science and Technology must complete exam fields in:

1. Sociology of Science and/or Technology
2. Social Theory and Social Structure
3. open

We encourage students to structure the third field within one of our areas of thematic emphasis:

At most one of the three fields may be taken under the supervision of faculty residing outside HTS.

Language Requirement

Each student must pass a language translation exam before being admitted as a Ph.D. candidate.

The Dissertation

The ultimate requirement for the Ph.D. degree is the writing of an original doctoral dissertation and the successful defense of its conclusions in an oral examination. With assistance of their primary faculty supervisors, students first prepare a prospectus, which must be read and approved by three other members of the faculty. The prospectus also provides a basis for grant and fellowship applications. The final dissertation is read by the supervisor and four others, including at least one person from another unit at Georgia Tech or from another university.