wluhist16

I would think about university rank and placement record, as well as ultimately what your goals are for your future career. If you want to teach at a very research-oriented university to the exclusion of considering schools with high-teaching loads, then the recruitment fellowship might be worth it, although those jobs are few and far between. However, I'd also say that since the majority of jobs right now are at teaching-focused institutions, you could be a disadvantage in future job applications if your CV appears too research-oriented. (Not to say that you can teach your way to a job, you can't, there has to be balance, but teaching positions want people with... teaching experience and an understanding of pedagogy.) I'm just speaking from personal experience as someone who is about to defend, was on the market this year, and accepted an offer at a regional public university with a 4-4 teaching load. I needed the fellowships/publications to get noticed, but all of my job interviews were focused on classroom management and pedagogy. If you have other career goals, then disregard and pick the university where your scholarly relationship with your advisor is best, regardless if they are a strictly environmental historian or not. My project shifted during grad school and no longer aligned with my advisor as closely as when I entered, but a good advisor is a good advisor regardless.

I echo everything that's been said above and also urge anyone in this position to read Anne Helen Petersen's series on masters programs in the humanities. Also, for Columbia specifically, I believe those programs run about $50k per year for just tuition. At least, those were the numbers in 2016. https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-masters-trap?s=r

I'll just plug my own program here for you to take a look (I'm finishing soon) - Penn State has a joint PhD in History and WGSS (or AfAm or Asian Studies). About half of the coursework is in WGSS, you take comps in both fields, and have two chairs of your diss committee. This allows you to study gender history with a strong feminist theoretical backing. The program only admits students with full funding (about 20k/year for 5 years). I have taught in both departments as a TA and instructor of record. Other programs like this might exist, but I just know about this one. For a straight up WGSS PhD, Emory leads the pack.

Hi, I'm a current Penn State student (although I'm a 6th year and about to finish). Please DM me and I can help answer your question in more detail.

If it's out and you have a real PDF - send that!

Use the version that you submitted to the article (or rather, the copy-edited version). Add a line at the top with something like "Forthcoming in Blank, please do not circulate." Source: I used a forthcoming article for early job apps.

Chiming in from Penn State - offers have been extended, at least by my advisor. We're expecting a cohort of 4, maybe 5 - one student in each of our four primary fields. Looks like it'll also be another cohort of 4-5 next year as well. We're a small program in non-covid times though, I came in with a cohort of 7 in 2016.

Hi all, current ABD student at Penn State popping in. We just heard from our department head that we will be taking on new students, but that the university is shrinking our cohort size to about 5 per year. TBH, I came in with a cohort of 7, so our program has always been on the small side. All incoming students are guaranteed 5 years of funding. I also imagine preference will be given to people expressing interest in the dual-title PhD program (in WGSS, AfAm Studies, and Asian Studies), because that will help with funding. I'm dual in WGSS and History, happy to answer any questions about that. Also, the History department (not university-wide) has been wonderful during covid. All teaching duties were moved online, we were given a relief stipend in April, and we were just informed that all funding contracts will be extended one year. Obviously it sucks that a lot of timelines are being extended because research is delayed, but in the current climate I'm happy to have a stable trajectory for the next couple of years.

During my application cycle (2016), this program was send out a ton of emails to faculty at my undergrad asking for "promising students" to submit applications. I had received a few rejections in a row, so my advisor asked me if I wanted to throw my hat in the ring for this and sent them an email inquiring about funding. They replied that they didn't really have any and that tuition/fees were $60k/per year. My advisor politely told them to stop spamming her with a program that would be harmful to her students. It's been said before, don't go into debt for an MA. Unsure if it's a one year program, but I was also advised to stay away from those. If you're intending to reapply for PhDs, you'd barely start relationships with your professors there before asking them to write recommendation letters. A final uplifting comments. I was at my bachelorette part recently, surrounded by 7 other women also pursuing PhDs in various fields (apparently my friends are all nerds). Almost half of the women there got rejected across the board on their first attempt, came back the following year with a stronger application and a better understanding of themselves and the programs to which they were applying. Literally every one of them says that they are so happy they didn't get into some of the places they thought they wanted that first year, because they ultimately ended up exactly where they needed to be. Just food for thought.

I just got an email notification yesterday that I am a semi-finalist for Germany for research! I'm a dual-PhD Candidate in History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the process of writing my dissertation. Here's hoping for good news in a few months!

Hi - Current ABD student here. I've seen a lot of posts about women/gender history. Just want to shamelessly plug that there are programs that offer joint-degrees or minor certificates in WGSS. I'm currently in the dual-PhD program in WGSS and History. I came for the history program, which hovers around #25 in rank, but found that the WGSS program is much higher-ranked and regarded, leading to more open doors. From personal experience, working in multiple departments offers more funding/teaching opportunities (I'm at instructor of record in the WGSS dep) and works to your advantage on the job market. Plus, theory and methods classes are often weak in history departments and interdisciplinary work at any level of formality can help to strengthen your work. alright, soapbox done! PM me if you have any questions, your work sounds like it would relate to people in my department!

I'm a current student at Penn State. Let me know if you have any questions!

Hey guys, I'm a third-year in a PhD program and I lurk on these forums every year... Quick advice - as you turn down offers, please remember that if you've done your legwork properly, these are probably big names in your field that you will continue to see and cite for years to come. I turned down an offer three years ago and continue to email that professor regularly. In fact, she reviewed my comps list for me! All this is to say, please keep in mind that academia is a small small world. If you liked these people enough to apply to work with them, you probably want to be able to come back to them over the years. Good luck to everyone! You're almost there!

I'm right there with you.. at this point it's just a little bit rude.

What field are you in? I'm Early Modern Global with a joint in Women's Studies and I interviewed in mid-February and got a call from my POI announcing my acceptance a week later. I visited last Monday and officially accepted my offer yesterday morning. =) just to give you a bit of a time line. Good luck to you! I hope you hear soon.

I'll be visiting and committing to Penn State in two weeks!! Still waiting on one other application, but I'm pretty positive this is it.