T Pain

My money's still on this Friday.

And he eventually got the award.

A friend who was an alternate two years ago heard absolutely nothing until March. No email, no letter.

Quite to the contrary, you'll likely be fine: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/05/03/graduates_of_arts_programs_fare_better_in_job_market_than_assumed http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-06/postrel-how-art-history-majors-power-the-u-s-.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-art-history-majors-power-the-us-economy/2012/01/06/gIQAUv36hP_blog.html : )

Obsessing? "Pissing contest"? I know I'm doing neither of these.

I should add: one of the Professors edits an international journal and promised to publish my research in it.

I had letters from two different Professors at the same University in Leuven: one in Arts and one in Philosophy, each directors of institutes that are related and support my multidisciplinary project in philosophy. They were both very strong letters--one of them two pages long--including personal endorsement as well as the soft promise of office space. I would imagine that a "strong" affiliation simply means well-documented, detailed support from individuals of high authority in a host institution....

My money is on Friday, Jan 20.

I believe he got the call around the end of January--in French. His project is in religion/philosophy and he's at Fribourg this year.

Thanks. My friend who received the phone call was a Switzerland applicant and he got the award.

Also: is somebody going to create one of these for 2012-2013? https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Avu5CeaRG24EdGFXVzh4aUt2ZTFUbTZPdzZiSGRoWUE#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?authkey=CNHpkd4P&key=0AriON5PQlVdtdHlKMUhJYlo0bEVXREcxdlJVYUFibnc&hl=en&authkey=CNHpkd4P#gid=8

General question here--for current and past applicants. I have friends who received a phone call during January as part of the vetting process. Is that standard operating procedure in different countries? Can people who have received Fulbrights confirm (or others who know folks who have won) that they received the award without such a phone call? (applying to Belgium in philosophy) TPain

Fulbright (research) to Belgium. Anyone else on this thread applying to Belgium for 2012-13? PM me for details....

On the other hand, the ECS program would likely not prepare you to teach religion/theology at a high school level as high school theology courses are usually things like Introduction to Systematic Theology, Sacraments, or Ethics. It would certainly prepare you for Latin and History. Again: check the alumni page ( http://www.nd.edu/~ecs/alumni.html ), which speaks for itself. Three 2009 graduates were placed in theology doctoral programs. Seems strange to say that someone who has been accepted to doctoral candidacy in theology at Notre Dame, Duke, or Marquette wouldn't be able to teach high school theology and/or philosophy, no? The nature of preparation in this program has to do with your own interests, not the program's constraints, which are really flexible. After completion of this degree, depending on which area of literature in antiquity you focus on, these are your possibilities: If you want to do Latin or Greek classics, you can. If you want to do ancient philosophy, you can. If you want to do historical theology (patristic or medieval), you can. Hell, if you want to do political science, you CAN. Why? Because all of the topics that govern these fields are dealt with in antiquity, and they are dealt with in detail and in influential ways. Nothing is stopping you from conversing with theologians about theological problems in any case. And especially if you already had a master's degree in theology, which many ECS students indeed already do before they take up study at ND, you would already have been initiated into those mysterious rites of "theological method," and so you would indeed know how to converse competently with systematicians about "systematic theology." So again, I say: the ECS program is a phenomenal option for folks interested in doing rigorous theology. If you think you have the linguistic competence to go for it, you should. If you lack basic theological competence and ultimately want to do theological work, the MTS, an MDiv, or an MA in philosophy, is probably a better choice.

Sure, he's right in one sense. The humanities are dying - especially at places like Hope College. But they're dying because they've lost the vision informed by Christian theological tradition that grounded liberal humanistic inquiry in the first place. Check out Quality With Soul. And don't study "religion." Read theology and go to church. You'll have a much better shot at finding work in a confessionally moored institution. Though that will require you to commit yourself to having convictions. . . .and, well,nihilists do struggle with that!. . . . Even Jeff Stout, a card-carrying atheist, would agree with the approach that you have to give up being a relativist to get a job. Small price to pay if you ask me. Or no price at all.

As an alum of this program, I can confidently say it is excellent, and that I am REALLY glad I took the two extra years after my first master's degree to do it. The students involved are highly competent with ancient languages and share a wide array of interests surrounding the study of late antique literature - from theology and philosophy to rhetoric, politics, and ethics. If you're interested in reading anything from Plato to Proclus, from Irenaeus to Cyril, this is the place and the program for you. Course offerings at the doctoral level in theology, history, medieval studies, philosophy, and more are open to those interested and to those who have the skills to work in such courses. Check out the 'alum' page - the placement record speaks for itself. I think there's no question: if you want to study anything humanistic really--especially theology--this program can and will get you where you want to be. [Also, this sort of logic is really bizarre: "But for every language course you take, that's a theology course you didn't take." But for every "theology" course you take before having learned how to read stuff in the ancient languages, the more ignorant you'll be with respect to scholars in the field of . . . theology!]

I have been wait-listed at Chicago for History of Christianity. If there's anybody out there who has been accepted and doesn't plan to go, could you let me know? Ox

FYI: This is simply to confirm - I got an informal email offer to Marquette early on. I'm waiting to hear back from other schools before I make up my mind.