What Do PhD Fields Involve And How Many Must I Take?

In the humanities and social sciences, you will often be asked to take three fields. One of these will be your major field and two will be minor fields. In the case of some universities, there is no differentiation between the three, making them all majors. For example, a history PhD might involve Modern European history, the history of Germany and US foreign policy.

This part of the PhD program requires that you find a supervisor in each field, who is willing to meet with once every two to three weeks, for 2 hours. You will be assigned readings for each meeting and will be required to discuss them with your supervisor. In most social sciences and humanities programs, you will be required to read about 6 to 7 books for each field meeting, and a total of about 80 to 100 books for each field.

Once you have completed all field meetings (and there are normally about 10 of them) you will be required to pass an oral exam, which will test your knowledge of all three fields. These exams are usually 2 hours long and you will be tested by your three field supervisors.