dr. t

...then explain why you said that attending any of the schools listed above from the US was a waste of money?

Yale's history MA and UoC's MAPSS program are both fine, and have good PhD placement records.

This coming app cycle is already fucked, FYI.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not an act, but a habit."

Yes, there absolutely can be consequences to your reputation and career. That doesn't mean don't do it anyway.

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

Eh, mine did.

Didn't know you worked as a resurrection man.

"I think A, B, and C are good ideas, and I will incorporate them into my thoughts on X, Y, and Z." (and then you don't, but thank them in your acknowledgments for their engaging discussions)

From your description of your project, you sound confused to me. But that doesn't mean you couldn't put it better. Reception of Classical culture in the 19th c. US has been a thing since Lincoln at Gettysburg, at least, right?

Yeah, my point is more that you should explain your GPA, since it's part of your trajectory, if you can make an argument about how you have learned (as a scholar) from the experience.

Eh, I had a long paragraph that explained why I had a 0.86 GPA from my first undergrad school and why it took me 9 years to finish my BA. It was, however, in the form of "I thought I wanted to do x, and discovered I actually liked doing y".

Maybe, but again, admissions is a comparative rather than an objective assessment. I don't think you'll strike out on finding a program that will take you, but you will probably have to pay for the privilege, especially since grad admissions always get more competitive during an economic downturn.

Yes, this is a worry. It's not that you won't present as a strong candidate, but that there will be plenty of other people applying who have all the same experiences and strong references, but with a strong GPA. It will be difficult to get an MA with funding.

I taught while prepping for comps. I did not do a good job teaching, and I didn't do a good job prepping for comps. I don't recommend the experience.

"Dear editor, Attached, please find my submission entitled 'The Subtle Art of Basket Weaving' for your review. Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, Telk A. Nuru"

No problem. I should note that the only similarity this prospectus has to my actual dissertation is in the idea that Cistercian monks are more connected to the world around them than most people suspect.

So this is the relevant passage from my SoP, if that helps: ...the majority of my time has been spent studying a collection of thirteenth-century sermons or collationes preached by the monks of the Cistercian monastery of Foigny, which I am translating for publication. It is through my study of Foigny and its sermons that I first began to be suspicious of monastic claims of stability and isolation, the central topic I will address in my doctoral studies. Over the past fifty years, medieval monastic historians have become increasingly aware of problems within their source texts. Simply put, the goal of a monastic author differed from that of a modern historian. Through literature and legal documents, monks created a written world which reflected their internal ideals, not lived reality. With this in mind, recent monographs and articles have turned a critical eye on claims that monasteries were located in ‘deserts’, the nature and role of lay brothers, monastic ‘reform’ movements, and even how monasteries followed—or did not follow—the Rule of St. Benedict. The narrative most scholars have constructed from primary sources (most notably monastic rules) insists that, with the exception of abbots and a few special cases, monks never wandered beyond their monastery’s walls. In the past two decades, this understanding has started to crumble. Scholars of the late Middle Ages have recently challenged this understanding with respect to women, noting that the papal bull Periculoso of 1298 constituted the first real attempt to insist on inclaustration as a necessary condition for being a nun. Based on the decree’s repetition throughout the fourteenth century, however, practice resisted the call to conform to the ideal. Moreover, there was no corresponding decree aimed at men. Did mulieres religiosae have a propensity for wandering not found in their male counterparts, or was monkish migration not a cause for concern? In stark contrast to the ideal of stabilitas found in monastic sources, texts written by members of the secular clergy often feature monks wandering in the world. The Life of Marie d’Oignies by Jacques de Vitry depicts Cistercian monks not only outside of their cloisters, but even processing as a group through the center of town, inspiring the young Marie to a life of devotion. Through my own work, I have found that contact and communication across the monastery walls was much more frequent than previously imagined. An examination of Foigny and its sermons provides substantial evidence for the constant flow of ideas, goods, and people through the monastery. Foigny’s monks were constantly engaged in the broader intellectual, social, and political currents of their milieu. They discussed heresy, crusade, scholasticism, the incorporation of female houses, and even the decline of the nearby cathedral school of Laon and the growing careerism of its canons. An examination of Foigny’s cartularies shows an active relationship between the monastery and distant noble patrons, mediated through the sees of Laon and Reims, as well as constant interest in the monastery among the townspeople of Laon. The frequency and nature of these contacts with the outside world constitute clear evidence for the porousness of the cloister walls. By approaching the question of the connections between monasteries and the outside world through both a traditional examination of the textual sources and the application of spatial and network analysis, my doctoral work will shed new light on the lives of medieval monastics.

Alas, transnational history requires the existence of nations. Here, you've given a couple of answers to a question. But what is the actual question? For example, the question that informs all of my work is "How are lay and religious power related?" In my dissertation, I've explored this through a certain set of sources from certain places and certain times, and that's one answer, but there are many, many more.

You seem very defensive, for some reason. Housing choice and safety had very little to do with why I didn't like South Bend.

Except that's where you live if you want to go there. It was a dealbreaker for me. Sounds like it wasn't for you.

1) are you a Canadian citizen 2) the fact that you haven't heard back is, based on my experience with UoT, a little red flag

This is not without reason. Have you been to South Bend? Can you take 2(?) years there?

Email the program and find out.

I run an informal seminar-ish thing for some technical skills. You cannot assume or insist upon the same power gradient that you would usually have. Think about it like these are your friends, and you're helping them study. The one time I put my foot down is when they try to use the time to chat instead of work on the subject at hand. But even then, it's not "I'm the teacher, do as I say," it's "If you want to waste time, I can certainly use mine better elsewhere."