Texas A&M’s Department of Anthropology offers a Ph.D. in Anthropology with an emphasis in Nautical Archaeology. Applications are reviewed annually (December 1 deadline) and admitted students enter during the Fall semester.

All Ph.D. students must file a degree plan with the Graduate and Professional School (GPS). The degree plan specifies which courses the student will complete (and when) in order to achieve the required credit hours (either 64 or 96).

Ph.D. students in Nautical Archaeology are required to take four NAP core courses, typically in their first year: Conservation I (ANTH 605), Nautical Archaeology (ANTH 611), History of Wooden Shipbuilding (ANTH 615), and Research and Reconstruction of Wooden Ships (ANTH 616).

Ph.D. students are also required to take six Anthropology core courses: Biological Anthropology (ANTH 601), Archaeological Method and Theory (ANTH 602), Cultural Method and Theory (ANTH 604), Ethics and Professionalism (ANTH 640), Teaching Anthropology (ANTH 680), and Proseminar (ANTH 681).  There is also a Statistics course requirement which may be fulfilled by completing one of ten courses including ANTH 642 or STAT 651.  The remaining courses must include at least 12 credit hours of Nautical Archaeology seminars. Additionally, the department requires students to take at least 6 credit hours outside of ANTH in subjects related to their general research interests.

Graduate students may have as many as 9 credit hours of advanced undergraduate (300- or 400-level) courses on the degree plan; courses used to satisfy the language requirement may not be applied toward the degree.

Directed Studies (ANTH 685) are independent study courses in which the student develops a research project in consultation with a professor and produces a paper or other tangible result at the end of the semester. Students may not enroll in more than 8 credit hours of 685.

Research Hours (ANTH 691) are appropriate for students actively engaged in the research and writing of their dissertation. Students typically enroll in 691 credit hours under the direction of their committee chair.  Students may not enroll in more than 8 credit hours of 691, and no more than 12 hours combined 685 and 691 credit hours.

Texas A&M University requires graduate students to maintain a 3.00 cumulative GPA or better.

Students should work closely with their committee chair and the department’s Graduate Advisor when developing a degree plan.  Students are strongly encouraged to share a draft of their degree plan with their committee chair before submitting it electronically for review and approval by the rest of their committee.

Ph.D. committees consist of three faculty members from the Department of Anthropology – with the majority coming from NAP – and one member from outside of the department. The committee chair serves as the student’s principal advisor and can assist with identifying other members of the committee, selection of courses for the degree plan, and the selection of a dissertation topic. The student’s graduate committee has the ultimate authority as to what is required.

The Dissertation process is composed of three parts: Proposal, Preliminary Oral and Written Exams, and Dissertation. The proposal specifies the intended topic of the dissertation, the geographic and temporal areas of fieldwork, methods of research, and theoretical framework. The proposal is submitted first to the  student’s committee chair  for review and approval, then to the rest of the committee for final review approval, and once approved,  filed with GPS. Students are encouraged to format the proposal in a manner of an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant or similar grant application for research funds. If applicable, Ph.D. students are also strongly encouraged to seek university and outside funding for their dissertation research.

Preliminary written and oral examinations assess the student’s knowledge in nautical archaeology and related fields. These examinations are administered after the student has completed all major coursework and are presided over by the student’s committee chair. Each committee member prepares written questions for the student; the oral examination follows and often expands upon the written examinations. The student must pass both the written and oral preliminary examinations and have a GPS-approved dissertation proposal on file before advancing to Ph.D. candidacy.

Each NAP student must complete a thesis or dissertation based on independent research. The format for NAP dissertations is a single comprehensive study, with original data, syntheses, and interpretations presented in multiple chapters. Preparation of the dissertation is a demanding task, and students are advised to choose a research topic in which they have a strong inherent interest.

The dissertation should be formatted according to the guidelines of one of these journals: the American Journal of Archaeology, the Journal of the Society for Historical Archaeology, the Journal of the Society for American Archaeology, or the International Journal of Naval History.

Early drafts of the manuscript are submitted to the committee chair (only) for preliminary review, and only after the chair approves are copies disseminated to other committee members. A defense of the dissertation is held, and once the dissertation is approved by all committee members, the student completes all necessary corrections and submits the final electronic version to GPS.

All incoming Ph.D. students receive a graduate assistantship. Students entering with a Master’s degree who maintain good academic standing are guaranteed financial support for four years; students entering with a Bachelor’s degree who maintain good academic standing receive financial support for five years.
Graduate assistants work as teaching assistants or research assistants within the department. Some teaching assistants are assigned to assist a professor, and others serve as the instructor of record for a course. Assistantships come with a $20,000 stipend per year, tuition coverage and eligibility for university health insurance. Funding decisions are made on a semester-by-semester basis.

NAP Ph.D. students must graduate with archaeological field experience. It is the responsibility of the student and his/her committee chair to ensure that this requirement is met. Ideally, field experience will be on a project sponsored by NAP, CMAC, or INA; students should be aware, however, that in-house field opportunities fluctuate annually, and it is impossible to guarantee that faculty members will be leading major field projects every year. Similarly, we cannot guarantee that there will be space for every student on a given project, although NAP students are generally given priority when field crews are selected.

Each spring, Ph.D. students are evaluated to determine if they are making “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory” progress towards completion of their degree requirements. Students submit to their committee chair a progress report that includes a proposed schedule of classes and/or research to be completed in the next year.  These annual reports are consulted by the Graduate Committee in making decisions about research and teaching assistantships.

Before the end of the spring semester, Ph.D. students will receive a letter from the department’s Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) informing them of the results of their evaluation and expectations for the future. Each annual review will be placed in the student’s official file and a copy will be given to the student.  In cases where the student’s progress is deemed “Unsatisfactory,” the annual review letter will specify what the student must do (including a time line) to improve his/her status. Failure to follow what is specified in the letter and the receipt of a second “unsatisfactory” review may result in a hold on registration or the student’s dismissal from the university.