thepoorstockinger

I haven't read his book but I've read enough interviews with him (particularly after the huffington post piece) and see some videos of him talking to say that I am honestly confused about what, if anything is new about what he's saying. Is this just a case where he's an excellent salesman of existing historical ideas or is there something to this that I don't get?

Congratulations! That's great news.

Looking at previous years it seems like the week of the 15th is usually a pretty intense period of contact. I may buy a cake next Monday so I can either celebrate if things go well or eat my sorrow away if things go poorly.

My understanding is that D'Emilio is in the process of retiring and isn't taking on anymore students, but I could be wrong. Judith Butler isn't a historian by any stretch of the imagination and does not teach or supervise in history at UC Berkeley. Maybe she will at Columbia, but that would just be strange.

My undergrad was a medium sized university on the east coast. I don't really want to give specifics. During my five years there the 20th century Americanist was on sabbatical for one year and leave for another year and they never hired an LTA to replace her. When she was teaching she taught almost exclusively American diplomatic history courses. Like I said, no 20th century courses offered at all the whole time I was there. I didn't mean to suggest that it was common for Canadian universities to do this, but it was my own personal experience.

I was told explicitly that it would be a problem for me to get in at UI because the overwhelming majority of their best candidates apply to do American history and only about half of their incoming cohort each year is planned to be Americanists. The way I look at it is that it's best to get weeded out now if I can't stand out rather than wait seven years when I go looking for a job. The thing that sucks for me is that in Canada very few people do modern US history. At my undergrad institution they never even offered a post-reconstruction survey course and I decided to become a modern Americanist based on my own reading and some comparative course work. If I get rejected across the board this year I might switch things up and apply in Canada as a Canadianist next round in addition to some US schools. Of course, the flip side is that there are fewer spots and fewer strong departments for non-Americanists. This is a tough process for everyone for various reasons. Congrats to those who have gotten acceptances so far and best of luck to the rest of us still waiting.

I got the same e-mail from the departmental secretary. I didn't think it was cold and with hundreds of applicants it's not shocking that it's impersonal. Good to know early on, though. Sucks. I had a decent feeling about UI. Edited to add:

I have no idea what the strength of UIUC's Middle East historians but they have a number of world class American historians and is generally considered to be one of the better department for American history. They also have one of the largest research libraries in the US.

I will have a better opinion on this in a month or so when I hear back from PhD programs I applied to. If I get into a top ranked school then my answer is: yes, it is very important. If I don't then I will think that Ivies and other top ranked schools are over rated and going to one is actually counter productive.

I know I shouldn't even be thinking about this since it is just going to drive me nuts thinking about these things, but this was just poster in results: Anyone here post this? Part of me is freaking out with anticipation but part of me is suspect of this since no acceptances via postal service are listed from previous years. Also if the committee did in fact meet on Friday then I have no idea how a letter would have arrived already.

To the best of my knowledge schools are only informed of students who win awards, not just ones who applied. I don't think I heard from SSHRC about the MA CGS until I was officially awarded one in May. I had to find out if I was forwarded from my home university.

Anyone know if this is only happening in Japanese/East Asian history at Columbia or if other fields there are also making contact with potential students?

Not exactly related to question but something that just occurred to me: I just noticed that you're a junior in college, when are you planning on writing the GRE? If you're not planning on taking it until the fall then I would stop thinking about it until the summer. Giving yourself that much time to worry about it is a recipe for disaster. The other thing to keep in mind is that the test format is undergoing major changes on August 1st. This means that studying for it now is likely going to be a waste of time since the format will change. The other thing it means is that if the current format is giving your major problems then you may want to consider waiting until the new version of the test is available since the new format may be more favourable to you.

In that case: according to the department website UI Urbana-Champaign's admissions committee is meeting on the 29th. Random piece of info but it should provide a reason for people to at least not think about UI until early next week.

I would definitely suggest seeing someone with professional training to help you work through these issues. Seriously.

I 100% disagree with you when it comes to the GRE, not because "learning asinine facts" is a waste of time, but because the GRE needs to be approached strategically. Your own experience is certainly an exception but for many people (myself included) scoring in your target range requires approaching the test with a plan. If your goal is to score 800 then you need to approach the section in a much, much different manner than if your goal is 600 or 700. The most obvious element of this is timing. If your goal is to score in the 750-800 range then you should spend less time on the initial questions so that you have enough time to actually put in considerable effort on the end of the test. If all you want to score is 600 (which was what I was aiming for for quant) you are better served spending a disproportionate amount of time on early questions to avoid the risk of dropping yourself into a lower range early on. For those of us who aren't some sort of standardized test prodigy it is important to find ways to maximize your chances of getting the score you feel you need.

Are you applying for an MA SSHRC or a PhD? My understanding is that everyone gets forwarded for OGS but schools send rankings in to OGS, but I am not 100% sure. Some departments have been known to arrange their rankings in odd ways to try to maximize the number of their students who get awards. So they rank their "best" three students at 1-2-3 for SSHRC and then at 4-5-6 for OGS so that the fourth, fifth and sixth "best" students get ranked 1-2-3 for OGS. The logic is that this increases the odds of the top six students all getting some internal funding... of course it risks screwing over some very good students. Personally I think that trying to figure out how the external awards number game works is just stupid, but that's me.

I've visited numerous times but have never lived there despite my grandfather being from the island. What is the weather like? Wet, windy, but not usually very snowy. It's on the ocean so you end up with very mild temperature fluctuations despite its latitude. How bike friendly, walking friendly is the city? The downtown is very, very hilly. It's a small city so most things you need are in walking distance but I would not want to try to bike into and out of the downtown (double true if you ride fixed gear). What kind of political leanings do people have? People there are friendly beyond belief but generally very isolated so the political opinions can seem some antiquated on some social issues. My experience is that most people there are traditional "Red Tories" which is a political leaning that I don't think has an American equivalent but put simply it would be similar to slightly conservative Democrats, I guess. MUN has a strong contingent of social democrats, particularly in the undergrad and graduate students unions and the TAs union. What is the general reputation of MUN? Depends. It's regarded as a pretty middle tier Canadian university in general but has some significant strengths (used to be great for labour history, is still well regarded for ocean sciences and folklore) What is the cost of living like, comparable to the US (specifically Ohio)? Not sure about rent but some food can be very, very expensive due to the isolation. I remember salad being pricey everywhere. Two things that don't fit into your questions: - It is isolated. Insanely isolated. Driving to another province takes literally 12 hours (assuming you take a very expensive ferry). It's a 16 hour drive to the nearest city with a population over 100,000 people. - The commercial and residential architecture in the downtown is stunning in a really adorable way. One of the most beautiful Canadian cities in my opinion.

My School of Graduated Studies has not responded to my attempts to get information so I went and talked to the administrator of my program. The e-mail I posted earlier indicates that you were forwarded as A-list. Hurrah!

I have several plan Bs: Hilarious only semi-serious ones: - Wedding planner (only funny if you know me) - Motivational speaker Serious ones: - Try to work for a labour union - Go get a graduate degree in urban planning and try to become an urban planner - Open a pizza shop - Open a cheese shop

Modern America (from the 1960s to the 1990s) particularly urban history and the radical left.

No word from my university (not at all shocking given their level of organization) but I received this e-mail today: I assume that this means that my application was forwarded with the recommendation of being offered a SSHRC, am I correct in making this assumption?

I think that this depends heavily on who is funding the student. In many technical and some scientific fields the funding for the student is 100% coming out of the pocket of the professor/lab/research group with very, very little direct funding coming from the department or school. In those cases where funding comes mostly from the school or department (i.e. mostly the humanities and social sciences) getting a student in who is clearly "less qualified" than other applicants is much more difficult and involves faculty burning much more political capital and good will because there's a competition for scarce communal resources that are administered by the department.

One of my friends heard last week.

re: Iggers I found it to be poorly written in a number of ways. First, it manages to simultaneously fail to put things into their historical context (i.e. you could read the sections on historical materialism and never find a mention of Thatcher, Reagan or Trotsky... all of whom seem at least incidental to debates within Marxist historiography) and also fails to have any level of serious explanation of the theoretical concepts underpinning the historiographical debates. Indeed, debates seem to mostly left undiscussed and one would get no sense of just how fierce arguments between, for example, Marxist and Post-structuralist social historians was and continues to be or what exactly was at stake in those debates. There is no real prolonged discussion about exactly Derrida and Foucault are doing (or not doing) or how historians have altered the original theories of post-structuralists for their own uses. So it lacks both an attention to a historical narrative of how the profession has changed or a serious engagement with the theories being discussed and in the end I have no real idea what exactly it is that he's failed to do, all I know is that he's failed. Amazingly you won't find subaltern studies (or Edward Said or any post-colonial historian) in the index or anywhere else in the book except for a passing one sentence mention of Subaltern Studies on page 151 in the afterward. I am sure that there are dozens of other obvious omissions as well. To be fair, I haven't found any historiography survey books which are any good (and I have no idea how one would write a good one) so it's not just Iggers who is at fault.