Author: David Ludden

NYU History MA program

Overview.
The MA requires 32 points of course work (generally 8 courses), of which at least 24 points must be within the History Department. No more than 8 points may be transferred from other graduate schools. Students enrolled full-time complete their course work in 3-4 semesters. Part-time students may stretch the program up to 6 semesters. The MAH Handbook 2021 provides a detailed overview of the program. 
 
FOR STUDENTS WHO SEEK TO GRADUATE IN FALL 2022:
 
By December 15, you must submit the signed MA Thesis Reader Sheet and final thesis (with the title page signed by your primary advisor) via this Google form: https://forms.gle/qFFvy3vLYPdMTkpm6
Important notes:
 
    • If you did not yet register yourself for graduation in Albert (the deadline was Oct. 16), please email graduation@nyu.edu to ask to be added to the Fall 2022 graduation list.
    • All dates should be discussed and cleared with your advisor and second reader.
    • Formatting guidelines and thesis requirements can be found here. 
      • For an example of what your formatted title page should look like, please view the Distinguished Theses linked here. Your primary thesis advisor will need to sign this page prior to you submitting it to the department.
    • You can find the Master’s Thesis Reader Sheet here: https://gsas.nyu.edu/about-gsas/policies-and-procedures/policies-and-procedures-manual-and-forms.html
    • Before submitting the Reader Sheet, you will have needed to arrange:
      (1) the circulation of your drafted thesis to your advisor and second reader.
      (2) the oral defense of that thesis with your advisor and second reader. Most students should aim to hold their defense the first week of December. During this one-hour meeting, you will present and explain the findings of the thesis and answer questions about content and argument from the two members of your thesis committee. The reader sheet is signed by both readers after your defense.
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(PS: There is some flexibility in the above schedule. The key is for there to be an agreement between student and advisor, about when a reasonable deadline is, and let Chelsea and David know.)
 
TO GRADUATE in FALL 2022, the absolute last day to have everything submitted to the department via the Google form is Friday, January 20.

what is history?

… leaving the present; by going back into the heretofore, by beginning again…. The historical experience is not one of staying in the present and looking back.  Rather it is one of going back into the past and returning to the present with a wider and more intense consciousness of the restrictions of our former outlook. We return with a broader awareness of the alternatives open to us and armed with a sharper perceptiveness with which to make our choices.  In this manner, it is possible to loosen the clutch of the dead hand of the past and transform it into a living tool for the present and future. William Appleman Williams, The Contours of American History, Norton, New York,. 1988, pp.19-20

Appreciating David Washbrook

It is with great sadness that I must record the passing of my dear friend and fun inspiration, David Washbrook, on 24 January, 2021. Here is the condolence website. Here are tributes by Sanjay Subramanyam in HIMAL, by William Pinch in H-Net, by Samita Sen for Cambridge, by Anil Seal, Joya Chatterji and Boyd Hilton at Trinity College, and by Prashant Kidambi in The Wire,  This from the Warwick History Department. This from the Warden of St.Antony’s, Roger Goodman. This from Boria Majumdar.   I will post more as they arrive. And here is a link to an essay that he wrote as a Postscript to the volume of essays by Raj Chandravarkar that David edited with Jennifer Davis and Gordon Johnson, published ten years ago, which nicely conveys the brilliant, precise, rapid flowing erudite prose that distinguishes all his work from the days in the mid 1970s when we sat in his Trinity rooms with David typing with two fingers faster than I could with ten to finish The Emergence of Provincial Politics.  Here is an interview he did featuring comments on current trends in Indian historiography, published in the The Hindu, 16 December 2014.  Here is a memorial essay by one of David’s last students, Hayden Bellenoit.

Here is the link to the video recording of David’s memorial celebration on 28 May 2022. (Password: Trinity 1546). a memory from the David Washbrook Festschrift workshop in Cambridge (thanks to Samira Sheikh)