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oh_la_la

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    Art History, PHD

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  1. I've said this before on this forum, but the MOST IMPORTANT thing when it comes to getting a tenure-track job is the quality of your dissertation and the research profile that you have crafted for yourself. I was recently on a search committee and we conducted interviews at CAA. We interviewed candidates from Ivies whose research was not nearly as compelling/ground-breaking as candidates who came from institutions that would probably be considered "second tier." So I contend that it simply does not matter all that much. Write a dissertation that will be interesting to people inside AND outside of your field. When we were going through the pile of applications for our tt job, we honestly did not care one bit where each candidate received their PhD. FYI. I work at a respected liberal arts college with an R1 profile.
  2. Not already mentioned above: all of these scholars could also advise a topic pertaining to the Revolutionary era 18c French: Amy Freund at SMU Meredith Martin at NYU Kristel Smentek at MIT Erika Naginski at Harvard (School of Design) Surely there are more excellent people out there, but these would my top picks for 18c French. GOOD LUCK!
  3. Ok. I've just got to jump in here. No matter what your financial position, I fervently believe that it's very dangerous to attend a PhD program that does not fund you. The chances of getting a TT job are SO SLIM that you would have to be delusional to think that you're not going to be crushed by debt when you finish. A word of unsolicited advice for those who make the decision to attend unfunded PhD programs (and really, for anyone in a humanities PhD program, whether funded or unfunded): work it, develop a possible career path outside of the academy, make contacts, develop a Plan B that is truly viable after you get your degree. I am one of the lucky few to have scored a good TT job (meaning: light teaching load compared to some of my friends who teach a 4-4 course load, great benefits, good salary) and it took me three years after finishing to secure a position. I had to hustle between grad school and job land and it was a very scary time. I cannot imagine how much harder it would have been if I had to make debt payments. I went to a very good, well-respected R-1 terminal art history PhD program that is serious about professionalizing its students (the importance of this cannot be overstated) AND funding them completely. It's crazy enough to go to grad school in the humanities, but even more crazy to take on 100k+ of debt to do so. Sorry to be so blunt and potentially offensive to those who are cool with going to into major debt, but let's not pretend that we are isolated from financial concerns; the life of the mind is great, but you also have to eat.
  4. Seriously? Are we going to perpetuate this myth again against top quality R-1 institutions that are not Berkeley? I can't speak to UNC or Iowa (although their grads tend to place at more regional institutions in terms of tt jobs) but I know for a fact that Michigan has been doing pretty well lately. As I have said on this board more than once, the name factor matters when you go up for a job but it is not everything. As long as you're good at what you do, have the support of your diss. committee, do not have any major personality issues, and have written a stellar dissertation, you have a decent shot at a job. This is not an exhaustive list: http://cuart.colorado.edu/people/faculty/jp-park/ http://www.virginia.edu/art/arthistory/faculty/higginbotham.html http://historyarthistory.gmu.edu/people/aho5 http://www.wooster.edu/academics/areas/art/faculty-staff/presciutti http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/history/facstaff/biodetail.html?mail=timothy.mccall@villanova.edu&xsl=bio_long http://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1017417 http://www.dartmouth.edu/~arthistory/facstaff/hornstein.html
  5. Your instincts are correct about treading lightly, but you should absolutely say something about this to the chair of grad studies, if you department has one. If not, then talk to your advisor about the change. Maybe you should embrace it. If this person works in the same field and you're doing an M.A., it should not be an issue for your future professional development unless you think that this other advisor would be a better mentor. Best of luck.
  6. @Seeking: I completely see where you're coming from, but if you take a look at who gets jobs on the jobs wiki, I think it's a more diverse picture than you present. I also think that it's not surprising that the "top 20" programs score the most jobs, given that they all probably churn out the most PhDs.
  7. @anonymousbequest: you are so right about "Oh No Where's The Whole Foods University." Not having a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's was really hard to deal with at first. More to point, it's soooooo important to be realistic about the very real possibility that you may end up taking a job in a place that you would never have considered living in. I agree completely will all of your excellent advice!
  8. I'm glad to see that this question is being addressed on this forum because no one should assume that they will have a job on the other end: it is the new normal to finish your PhD in art history and wait several years before landing a job (I was able to finally land a tt-job a few years after I finished and I could not be happier). But I have several friends from top-tier (ivy and R1: the issue is widespread) institutions who have not found jobs. It's common and it sucks. There simply are not enough awesome jobs to go around. Here are my two-cents from having been on the academic job market for 2+ years. This advice is directed toward those who wish to pursue a TT-job at respectable R-1 institutions and represents my own perspective as an applicant and now as asst. prof who sat on a hiring committee this year: 1. The quality AND dynamism of your dissertation. This is by far the most important factor in earning you a job at a top tier institution. If your dissertation is on a random artist that only people in your field care about, you are making your life harder. There are several caveats to this: if you're going to work on random, meaning non-canonical artists (and for what it's worth I work on artists who nobody has heard of), then you have got to put your artists/image makers within a frame that resonates for readers outside of your field and that has "big picture" implications. If you can figure out how to write this kind of a dissertation, you will be able to win external fellowships, since the committees who evaluate applications are often interdisciplinary: Fulbright, ACLS, AAUW for example. It goes without saying that you need an awesome adviser to write this kind of dissertation; that is why I have consistently advocated on this forum that you should attend a phd program where you will receive individual and careful attention when you are writing: I'm sorry to say this, but at some ivies, this does happen. Proceed with caution; talk to the grad students when you're shopping around. See if your potential advisor actually reads chapter drafts, comments on them extensively and returns them to you in a timely manner: you would be surprised how rare this is. 2. Professionalism: this has a lot to do with people skills and it's a huge factor in hiring decisions. They don't want to hire a grad student, they're looking for a colleague. Based on some of the nasty comments on some of these forums, I'm thinking that there are some folks who really need to work on this. Grad school is a good place to do so. 3. Teaching ability: how good of a teacher are you and can you teach across periods and media? I had to market myself to teach a much broader area than I specialize in. It's now normal for someone who studies 19th-c to be able to teach 18th-c through contemporary; likewise, if you are writing a dissertation on the 18th-c, you should be able to teach Baroque and Renaissance. Get as much teaching experience as you can before going on the job market; try to teach your own classes too. 4. You should not, I repeat, NOT rush to publish parts of your dissertation while still in grad school. Publish one thing in a really good place, but do not try to go for every opportunity that you can find. When you're on the job market as an asst. prof, committees do not expect that your C.V. be full of fancy publications: it's not a question of quantity, but of quality. My advice: write exhibition reviews and book reviews; if you can, try to prepare one article as you are about to defend your dissertation. When you're in grad school, you might not be ready to have you work out there quite yet, especially if it's going to be the basis of your book. Go to conferences and meet other people in your field. BE NICE TO THEM. Cultivate relationships with junior and senior scholars in your field. Find mentors outside of your program. Organize a big conference. good luck. make sure not to assume that you are going to be hired immediately upon graduation. In fact, you should actually assume that you will end up with nothing your first year on the market. Also: many postdocs are far more competitive than tt-jobs. To this end, if you can, try not to go into debt at all during grad school. I had no debt upon graduating and this made my life MUCH easier. Try to cultivate other skills that you can earn a living with while you wait to find your dream job. GOOD LUCK.
  9. Yikes @prospectstu8735: where's the collegiality? If you have any hope of joining the ranks of art history professionals, you should fix that attitude ASAP, and certainly before you start your program in the fall. Your fellow grad students and faculty will not take kindly to it. In terms of getting a job later on, people skills really do matter. Also, if the grad admissions process is already raising your stress level like this, I wish you luck dealing with the super intense competition of applying for external fellowships and jobs in a few years. BE NICE TO EACH OTHER!
  10. @eyeso: I think you already know the answer to your own question. It was kind of your potential adviser to tell you this news and may be a sign from the universe that you should go to the place that is a better fit!
  11. Hi there, I really am not sure that I would agree with the advice to go to the ivy. Based on my own experience in a PhD program in a top tier state school, on the job market and now in a tenure track job, I would say that brand name recognition is a minor issue and arguably becomes more and more minor as you advance through the program. Sure, the Ivy has prestige (and this seems like a really big deal when you are first entering into a program), but this alone will not get you a job when you come out on the other end. Above all, it is the quality of your dissertation, your impact on the field as you are finishing your diss, the prestigious external fellowships you earn and the connections you forge across your field that will get you hired. I was on the job market for three years (and was lucky to get a great job!) and graduated from a highly ranked state school, perhaps the one that you are now admitted to. I have seen how many job searches have worked out (and am now sitting on the other side of a search committee) and it's clear that hiring committees do not privilege ivy league PhDs over other non-ivy candidates: this is something of a misnomer. When you are going through piles of cover letters, C.V.s and writing samples, it is the quality of the work that matters the most (everybody generally has great letters of rec). I would go with the school where you think you will have the better and more active adviser who will actually read and rigorously critique your dissertation. This matters more in my opinion. Best of luck.
  12. @Cleisthenes: do you really think that you need to read Benjamin in German or are you just being funny? I would hope it's the latter, because if not this seems really pretentious; given that many of the readers of this forum are just starting out in their careers, don't you think that's a bit of a tall order? I speak and read German proficiently but I know I'll get more out on the English translation. And why is it necessary that we read only this ONE essay by Benjamin auf Deutsch? Benjamin is relevant on so many levels, especially if you specialize in modern and contemporary, but I would never tell prospective grad students that they need to read it in the original.
  13. Hi art history, Based on the reputation of the faculty, I would say that UCL is a no-brainer, especially if you're studying 18th through contemporary.
  14. @jonathan livingston: People who work in the archival or editorial departments at the Met would probably object to your idea that their offices are "weird." If you are not genuinely interested in those departments, why bother applying? If it's just to score a line on your c.v., the people who are reading your apps can probably see right through this strategy. You would probably have better luck if you went for things that you were truly interested in. If the Met doesn't work out, you should try a smaller museum (maybe not as "fancy" as the Met) that might actually help you get the kind of experience you want. Just sayin'.
  15. or likely one of her students....
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