Admissions

Deadline for 2023-24: May 12, 2023

The Program will admit candidates who have already completed at least one semester of graduate study at Yale. Any student working on a Renaissance or early modern area of research— defined as scholarship in the period from 1350-1800 in any geographic region(s)— in one of the partner departments of the FAS is eligible to apply to join the combined degree. The grounds for admission will be the student’s demonstrated scholarly need and passion for a deeply interdisciplinary, intellectually wide-ranging course of study that would not be possible within the existing framework of individual departments/ disciplines. Students will typically apply to join the combined program in the spring of the first year of their doctoral program.

To apply, students must submit:

(a) A statement of purpose (500 words) focused on why the combined degree is intellectually essential to their projected research and career plans.

(b) A writing sample consisting of an essay written in any of the graduate courses taken in their first year at Yale. This should ideally be focused on an early modern topic, but the committee wants to see a sample that best represents the student’s scholarly work at this stage.

(c) A list of courses taken at Yale and a statement of any relevant prior coursework, research or employment.

(d) A formal email from the DGS in the student’s home department confirming support for the student’s application to the combined degree.

Please submit your documents to the Program Registrar, julia.divincenzo@yale.edu.

Admissions Committee

The admissions committee will consist of three faculty members affiliated with the Program drawn from a range of partner departments in addition to the DGS. The DGS will contact the applicants’ advisors and home department DGSs as necessary to confer about the student’s potential for and need to enter the combined degree and to ensure continuity and consistency of advising across both units.