NoirFemme

I wasn't aware that being honest about what is happening in doctoral programs in the middle of a global pandemic, which is turning higher ed upside down, is gatekeeping. I find it highly irresponsible for current graduate students to tell prospective students to apply without laying out what they will probably face in programs that are in difficult positions to offer proper mentorship, research support, financial resources, and general advice. I have mentored first years in different programs since I was in my second year, and I am honest and frank with the incoming first years right now about how little advice I can give because I did not begin my program in this context. Pretending that being a doctoral student is solely about a life of the mind, or a few years to explore a dream, is the sole province of the privileged. Also, I am not and will never be in the position to gatekeep academia, so throwing that accusation at me is astonishing.

I am a black woman who is also first-gen and working class. I should think that my background gives me qualifications for understanding the way doctoral programs are designed to not only keep people like me out and/or marginalized, but create a false reality that will leave you assed out if you don't go through the program with open eyes for your own future.

Coming out of lurk mode to give my two cents: this topic was my specialty--a conversation I fought tooth and nail to have at my university--until I circumstances placed me in a position to realize that the bureaucracy of doctoral programs is not equipped to help PhD students navigate this new reality. As another poster astutely mentioned: the guaranteed salary and health insurance for 5-6 years is a convincing argument for riding out the storm in the doctoral program, but you are also stunting your career growth. You can get certificates in DH or archives out the wazoo, or do an internship for a few months--but if you aren't building any credible, progressive skills for a resume, you are merely treading water. Also, since many doctoral students come fresh out of undergraduate or 1-2 years after undergrad, they are emerging from a PhD program at 29/30 without any real world work experience. The private, govt, and academic sectors are hammered by the pandemic. Who is going to make it past the application stage: a 30 year old PhD with no job experience or a 30 year old with direct job experience (bc remember, most people applying for specific jobs went to school to major in that field)? But again, doctoral programs are not built to address this. Your coursework, your writing assignments, your dissertation, your conference presentations, your TA assignments, and so on are geared towards preparing you for a TT job. You aren't supposed to get a job. Graduate fellowships geared towards some type of vocational training (e.g. editorial assistant at a university press) are few and far between. Your advisors' only assistance is to bring in alums or other PhD "alt acs" to discuss their experiences--they cannot and often will not help you be legible inside and outside of the academy. It is, IMO, the height of conceit to say you're pursuing the PhD to research and write and read for 5-6 years. The only people who say that are those who have a tiny kernel of belief that they'll be the one to beat the odds and get the TT job at the end of the journey. I don't think you shouldn't go for the PhD--my opinion right now is that those whose first dream is to be a professor need to be the last people applying to PhD programs.

No. Because the toes stepped on have to respect the hell out of my work and my prominent external recognition. Maybe my perspective is based on being a WOC, who learned very quickly that the institution of academia regularly grinds out POC. Not to mention that I would not have the CV I have without these core values being at the forefront of my work and experience. I'm curious about what two ways of transformation you mean. Personality wise? Public speaking? Writing skills? Or is it just intellectual?

I must admit that I steamrolled over my department culture to get my way on the topic of alt-ac training. Have I stepped on toes? Hell yes. But the pros of taking care of myself and connecting with people inside and outside of academia who valued the type of work I value outweighed the cons of diminishing myself to jump through hoops that have only wzbeen maintained by "tradition." I also was very explicit in my personal statements about how vital my work experience has been to my scholarship. Mostly because I was naive about the resistance to PhD students who are ambivalent about academia haha! The coronavirus pandemic may make graduate admissions tighten their belts against "ambivalent" students or it may be more eager to accept students who aren't dead set on a tenure track faculty position. Either way, it's always better to be yourself and to go into this knowing what you want out of the experience.

*waves* I'm amused right now because I'm far enough in the process to shake my head at the aspirations, yet still "newbie" enough to remember why I was excited to do this. ?

You should just ask. Especially since COVID-19 has graduate programs questioning how they'll deal with the possibility of new PhD students beginning remotely + university financial issues. The loosey-goosey procedures of last year are likely not on the table right now, so you should ask the programs instead of dithering about it.

I don't know. All I can say is to be prepared to submit applications in the fall. My university is encouraging everyone to just move forward despite being cut off from labs, libraries, international travel, and so on. It's frustrating, and this moment has left us with a murky future, but the folks at the top are of the mindset that it's better to be ready when things return to "normal" vs putting things on hold until we see what happens. I can imagine they're treating Fall 2021 admissions in the same way, until they actually make the decision to not admit or cut acceptance numbers.

Scholars working on food are more than likely to be found in anthropology departments. You should be looking for potential advisors who work in your field (US) and century (nineteenth or twentieth) or era (Gilded/Progressive), and specialize in social & cultural history. Even if they don't work on food, they know its importance to the historiography and they'll be familiar with the methodology of doing food history. Another thing is to look at the anthro departments at your chosen universities to see who's working on food. You are allowed--and hopefully encouraged--to take courses outside of your history department while in a PhD program! Overall, you should be looking at graduate students who do food history and figuring out what programs they are in and who they're working with. You'll probably find scholars you didn't expect, because you're currently focused in finding who has "food history" in their faculty profile.

Currently in this situation myself. Now wondering what my feedback will look like.

Housing: send an email to the department admin and they'll likely circulate your info to the current grad students who may be looking for a roommate or know someone needing a roommate Social life: I thought I'd be a loner, blah blah blah, but I've formed a group of people who go out fairly frequently,, chat, etc. Also, see if your department has (unofficial) mentors. Having a senior grad student usher me into life in our department helped tremendously. On campus housing: a scam. Usually costs more than a regular apartment and often locks you into a restrictive leasing agreement

While I'm sure top school --> top grad school is likely the norm, there are outliers--myself included. I attended an unranked state school in the middle of nowhere and am attending a Top 15 program. The culture of a top private university is my biggest adjustment, which is probably why top school --> top grad school is more likely--it's pretty self-selective since these students have support built into their undergrad experience (e.g. Mellon Mays, Summer Research, access to funding, leading scholars, etc) to nurture them towards attending grad school. During a low point in the academic year, I asked my adviser why I was accepted. At our following meeting, they pulled up my application with the admissions committee's comments, and apparently, they were excited to accept a student with my unique background. All of this is to say that the stats don't tell the whole story.

Someone on Twitter said announcements are delayed bc of the gov't shut down.

If material culture forms the basis of your research, go to Delaware. It is an amazing program.

Please don't overdress. It actually makes us current students discomfited...as though you dressed up to impress professors and not like you're also visiting to see if we're good people too.