ReneeGrad

I write it ? AND this is also my area of interdisciplinary research (definitely growing genre -- slowly -- over the last 2+ years). BUT I'm having a hell of a time finding faculty to work with. If anyone happens to know of any scholars -- I've already scoured English and Science and Technology Studies departments. Now moving on to Sociology, Communications ?‍♀️?‍♀️.

I was mindfully advised on the reality of the marketability of an interdisciplinary PhD -- it comes with risks, but they are apparently somewhat mitigable as long as your scholarship and teaching experience are still marketable to a defined discipline once you are on the other-side of the PhD process (as mitigable as possible in an overall fraught job market, even with a "normal" PhD in hand). Stanford's Modern Thought and Lit and UCSC's History of Consciousness are really the only two ACTUALLY interdisciplinary programs I've found that are inherently interdisciplinary enough to really fit my needs. I've kept an eye out for where those alumni have ended up. Often I've found that departments like to market themselves as interdisciplinary but then I ran into hard walls when trying, for example, to integrate elements of STEM/sociology into potential research within an english department, or elements of sociology/literature into potential research within an STS department. The precedent simply isn't present in either discipline, i.e. the scholarship of present faculty in the field across the board.

I contacted UCSC's Sociology department a while ago on a whim and asked if they were going to waive again this year and they never replied to me. IF departments decided to waive again this year, it would have been responsible and mindful if they made the decision BEFORE everyone invested a ridiculous amount of time (and often money) into the test this time. It just boggles my mind that even though the peer-reviewed research shows definitively that there is no correlation between GRE scores and superior performance in graduate school/later "success", the test so often continues to be required, especially when we also know it exacerbates so many issues of inequality and disparity.

We saw 50+ humanities and social sciences programs' applications cut (https://www.chronicle.com/article/more-doctoral-programs-suspend-admissions-that-could-have-lasting-effects-on-graduate-education?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in). I think at this point we can extrapolate what happened to cohort sizes (Yale's English PhD program went down to THREE: https://www.chronicle.com/article/are-graduate-programs-pressing-pause-or-pulling-the-plug). Wondering who knows more about other programs. Many universities and programs have hiring freezes. I found one very random report in the fall citing "experts" (eye roll) that admissions to med/biz/law schools had skyrocketed. My rejection for Indiana's English PhD program said their applications had increased by almost 40%. Who knows what about what happened with other schools and programs? What can we project? There is a very annoying lack of data and information out there.

Talking to my profs, we conjectured that there would be more applications this cycle due to the pandemic. I found ONE very random article in the fall online the cited "experts" saying applications to law/business/med schools had increased. I applied to English and STS (Science and Technology Studies) programs. My rejection from Indiana University's English PhD program said that received almost 40% more applications this year compared to last year. Anyone have any knowledge about or experience with this application cycle (humanities and social sciences in particular)? Anecdotal, yes please, but very interested in sources or data I can cite. TY!