A course on borderlands, rather than on the Soviet Union, emphasizes regional linkages. Even explicitly regional courses, as on the Caribbean and modern China, include global dimensions. Doctoral students select a major professor immediately and a committee of three as soon as possible. One committee member may be from outside the department or outside the university. Candidates are required to take a teaching tutorial, a mentored practicum, and then to teach their own courses.
Students take three comprehensive exams, two written and one oral.
A second exam focuses on the candidate's regional specialization and the third focuses on the candidate's methodological and thematic specialization. The dissertation proposal must be approved before the candidate takes comprehensive exams. The dissertation is the crucial element of the program. It is commonly argued that students should begin with a localized study before taking on a broad study. In contrast, we argue that our students' formative book-length research should be with a global study, so that for the balance of their career they can advance their insights within that framework, rather than begin global work only after they have left graduate school.