[Some Questions About Teaching for Current PhD Students]

MarXian, unless students receive a fellowship that relieves them of their stipend obligation, then they are required to (1) TA prior to passing their exams and (2) teach their own courses after they pass their comps. Post-comp students can propose the course they want to teach, with the caveat that the course has to already have been listed in the undergraduate bulletin. (Though, they have control over the specific course content that they want to include.)

There is institution-wide support for teachers through The Center for Faculty Excellence: https://cfe.unc.edu/

[Some Questions About Teaching for Current PhD Students]

UNC Chapel-Hill (PhD Religion).

Generally speaking, every student is required to TA. After students pass their exams, they teach their own courses. 

The department also has a Graduate Student Teaching Committee: https://religion.unc.edu/graduate/for-current-students/gsoc/teachingcommittee/  (Committee members haven't been updated in a while.) 

[Program at UNC]

I currently attend UNC. Feel free to shoot me a private message if you have any questions. 

[Some general questions about anthropology and theory]

Thanks for that response. I'm not familiar with Graeber, I'll check him out. 

 

[Some general questions about anthropology and theory]

I'm currently a PhD student in a very good religious studies department. Very generally, I do work in contemporary N. America/Europe, working with theorists who focus their attention on social and subjective plasticity, and performance theorists that focus on the body as it regards eroticism and subjective violence. While my theoretical interests are longstanding, I'm still working to situate them comfortably within a subfield, a professional identity. (And I'm still early in my program, so I've got time.) I've been thinking about beginning to focus more on ethnography/anthropology for reasons both personal and professional. 

How do ethnographers/anthropologists think about their relation to theory? (By theory, I mean something like various manifestations and transformations of the continental tradition.) Is anthropology/ethnography a relatively comfortable place from which to do serious theoretical work? (For example, Lit. departments seem to be a fairly natural fit for those types of interests.) What are the intellectual and pragmatic challenges/benefits of having a strong interest in both theory and ethnography? 

Thanks for listening. 

 

[Job Placement Record]

Hi All,

Does anyone know what institutions post their job placement record according to AAR best practice? So far I've found Princeton U and UNC-Chapel Hill.

[Program Strengths]

Hi, 

Anyone have thoughts on the reputations/strengths/weaknesses of these departments of religion? Santa Barbara, UNC Chapel-Hill, Rice.

(I know determinations of 'best program' are relative. I'm searching for impressions of the departments, reputations they have within the field, insider-info, etc.) 

Best regards, all.