Teaching Assistantships - The Department of History now offers about twenty Teaching Assistantships for graduate students in history. Teaching Assistantships cover the full cost of tuition and carry a stipend of roughly $10,500 per academic year. Teaching assistants work with faculty members in the introductory courses in United States history (HIS 108 & 109), European history (HIS 104 & 105), and Western Culture: Science and Technology (HIS 106 & 107), conducting discussion groups and grading papers and exams.
Criteria for Awarding Teaching Assistantships - Assistantships are awarded by the Graduate Committee. The committee begins meeting in late January or early February of each year to review the applications of teaching assistants eligible for renewal, students in the program who apply for a teaching assistantship, and applicants who might be admitted for the Fall semester. Competition for these awards is stiff and several criteria are considered in making the decisions.
In the case of those applicants not yet in the program, the committee weighs the overall quality of the application. With students already enrolled in the program, the committee considers the quality of the original application, but it places more emphasis on the nature and quality of the student’s work upon admission to the program. Each applicant for a Teaching Assistantship among current students will be asked to complete a TA Portfolio which contains the following: a TA application form, a statement of academic progress, a letter of support from the student’s primary advisor, one additional letter of support from a UK faculty member, copies of teaching evaluations, a writing sample, a vita. The DGS will also add to the student’s portfolio any written evaluations of the student’s performance in graduate level courses or faculty evaluations of the student’s teaching. Graduate students with any incomplete “I” grades are not eligible for appointment or reappointment as teaching assistants.
The minimum course loads for teaching assistants in the MA program or first-year doctoral students is six hours a semester.
Criteria for Renewing Assistantships and Fellowships - In the case of students holding a teaching assistantship or fellowship, the committee evaluates the applicants’ performance as a student in graduate courses, the pace of their progress toward the degree, and their performance as a TA. Continuation as a TA is contingent upon satisfactory progress as a student and satisfactory performance as a teaching assistant. The incumbent TA or Fellow with an incomplete (“I”) grade in any course will not be re-appointed or re-nominated.
- The teaching assistant who has not completed the requirements for the M.A. degree after five semesters in residence shall not receive further aid until such requirements have been completed.
- A teaching assistant or fellowship recipient in the Ph.D. program who has not taken the qualifying examinations after four semesters in residence shall not receive another appointment until the examinations have been completed.
- Renewal of teaching assistantships and fellowships for post-qualifying students depends on the submission of a Dissertation Prospectus within 60 days of the completion of the post-qualifying exam.
*In order to qualify for renewal of departmental and Graduate School assistantships and fellowships every post-quals student without exception must provide a copy of a completed application (submitted or to be submitted) for extramural grant support in the student’s field of research. The project description in a successful grant proposal generally contains the same elements as a good dissertation prospectus. All students are encouraged to attend our annual grant writing workshop. Student failure to submit a proposal for extramural funding, after promising to do so will jeopardize the success of the reappointment process.
Forms