Hi all,
I'll be applying next year for the 2012 admission cycle, but I've been reading the fora for quite some time and it's been interesting to see discussions of potential advisors. As an Africanist, it's more than likely I will end up in a department with an advisor who studies an entirely different region and/or time period, which is not so unusual in the field. I do know for certain that the one historian (at an institution with a Ph.D program, that is) who studies the country I plan to study happens to already be in his 70s, and will retire soon. I'm on my own!
Yet it seems that with Americanists in particular, there's an emphasis on finding a "match" with the professor who supervises your research. Is this also the case for those specializing in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Middle East, Asia?
Any insight? What are your expectations of an advisor? How important is it to you to have that match?