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Happy New Year! As of January 1, I have been directing our graduate program for two years. Through this role, I have learned so much about our Department, our program, and our wonderful students, and I am consistently in awe of what we are accomplishing individually and collectively. This month, I wanted to share a couple of exciting developments that are in the pipeline:
MD-PHD PROGRAM
The University of Rochester is proud to now be one of a handful of universities in the country offering an MD-PhD in History. The University has long boasted a prestigious and highly successful Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), in which medical students have obtained PhDs in fields such as the biological sciences and neuroscience. Thanks to the leadership of Professor Mical Raz, herself an MD-PhD and practicing physician, prospective medical students with a strong interest in the history of medicine can now apply to undertake doctoral study in our department. MD-PhD students will complete two years of medical school before beginning their history coursework, and most will return to the medical school after spending four years fulfilling their PhD requirements. We are so excited to welcome future MD-PhD students to our program, and I am grateful to Professor Raz for all that she has done to make this happen.
VAGANTES CONFERENCE
I am so thrilled to announce that, thanks to the hard work of our graduate students, the Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies is coming to the University of Rochester! The Vagantes Conference is a three-day graduate student-led conference established more than two decades ago by scholars at Harvard University and the University of Toronto. The interdisciplinary conference is hosted by a different institution each year, and the University of Rochester will host the event for the first time April 9-11, 2026. This will be a fantastic opportunity for our graduate students to present their research and also to network with medievalists from across the globe. I want to give a special shout out to co-organizers Claire Becker and Emmarae Stein and to Jeff Baron and Mau Garza, who are also representing history on the interdisciplinary planning committee. We look forward to sharing further details as the event gets closer.
I remain so grateful to our alumnae for their continued support of our program. I will be back toward the end of the academic year to provide more updates on individual student accomplishments.
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