oryantin

You're welcome As for your question about Leiden, yes they do have some funding oppurtunities through various scholarship programmes like this http://www.studyinho...ship-programme. For more information, I'd suggest you to contact PhD students in MES at Leiden. And ask Prof. Zurcher to make it clear whether there is any funding source that can support you through your research there. My only concern for Stanford is that Prof. Ali Yaycıoğlu had told me that they accept only one student in Middle East history every year and it is really competitive considering the name of the school. A note: the school you apply to should not necessarily be an excellent fit. Any versed historians of the 19th and 20th century Ottoman empire can supervise your thesis. If your interests greatly match with those of a Professor, that may only make him/her more willing to stand for you in the admission committee. But at some schools they have no effect on the result, and they are only your grades, skills and papers which work for you. Best wishes.

Merhaba, Have you ever considered of applying to the PhD program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at Washington University where you will have a chance to work with Resat Kasaba? Michigan's Sociology department may be another option if you plan to approach the question from sociological perspective. As you might know, Fatme Muge Gocek works there. If Professor Quatert did not pass away, you could also apply to Binghamton What about working with Joel Beining of Stanford University? http://www.stanford.edu/~beinin/ He also has similar interests as you. If you think of studying in Europe, Leiden with Zurcher and Atabaki would be an excellent choice too. Don't hesitate to ask if you need further help. Selamlar, Oryantin.

Sigaba, thanks for the good advice! To finish within the time limit set by the University, I must be sure enough that there is a satisfactory gap that should be filled. I made such a mistake when I was writing my Master's thesis, my guess that there should have been enough sources to support my claims was ended up being not true after reading a lot on the topic. However, that was partially the mistake of my supervisor who was not interested, even not informed enough. Now, I think that I chose an appropriate one who seems to be very interested, modest and versed. Nevertheless, probably because of the English system of graduate study, instead of a close relationship, she does expect me to see her bimonthly after having done the necessary work. I am afraid of doing everything on my own, though. Riotbeard, it is not a stupid question as I am sure many of the Ottomanists have not read Orientalism. I have read the whole corpus of Said, though. As Said emphasized, I also believe that the Middle East (or the Orient in a broader sense) cannot be studied properly by only taking account of the theories and understandings of Western history. In this regard, it would be shallow to judge the East on the lack of Reforms or Renaissance in its history. Even though I respect the idea of connected histories, I am also not sure they were connected enough to reach meaningful results. I would not say history of the orient should be fully understood seperately, in its own context. Therefore, I prefer to place mysef in a position between them.

Sigaba, thank you very much for your reply. Reading secondary sources first is definetely a good point to start with. You are right that I should begin reading with what has been written before. Though there is a problem that not many works have been done so far on the topic I plan to explore, I will be able to figure out what has been left unmentioned by the previous contributors. Funding I received for my studies at the University of Oxford is for 3 years, meaning that I have to start reading immediately so that I can finish in time. I chose the English system instead of American one, but I am still not sure enough if that is a good choice. Within these three years (if I can find further funding, I'll make it 4), I'll also have to polish my languages. Uh, God, save me!

Hi all, I am beginning the D.Phil program in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford this October. For my PhD dissertation, I plan to examine a group of unemployed bachelors in the Ottoman Empire who have been settled in Istanbul to seek employment between the mid-sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries. This project is an interdisciplinary one as it relates to migration, gender, labour economy etc. I don't want to write an outdated history of these migrants based on merely historical methods. Instead, I want to make use of contemporary theories of these non-historical disciplines, in which I am not trained at before. Where should I begin? Do I need a course on Quantitaive methods? Which books should I read? Thanks for any help.

German annieca, kotov, Kelkel, Ganymede18, grlu0701, hbeels (veeeeeery rusty), Orient Spanish annieca, crazedandinfused, Ganymede18, grlu0701 (kind of), CageFree, StrangeLight, pudewen (very rusty and basically useless to my work) French theregalrenegade, Ganymede18, CageFree (reading, can speak a bit), StrangeLight, Safferz (Franglais), hbeels, sandyvanb Hebrew uhohlemonster, crazedandinfused (ktzat) Italian Latin Kelkel, Ganymede18 Greek Ganymede18 (New Testament) Russian Polish runaway Romanian kotov Japanese kyjin, pudewen (sort of, it's in process) Portuguese CageFree (reading), StrangeLight (reading, swearing) Hungarian StrangeLight (swearing only) Somali Safferz Arabic Safferz (reading), Orient (MSA) Chinese pudewen (modern and classical) Turkish orient (modern an ottoman) Persian Orient (reading)

Anyone applied to the D.Phil program in Oriental Studies at Oxford on the March deadline? Did you hear back about the outcome of your application?

Hey all, I just realized this forum as I was hanging out in History forum for a long time. My research interests lie in the religio/intellectual history of the Ottoman Empire, and medieval Anatolian beyliks. In fact, since I did not get a good score on GRE and I've been too late to prepare my apps, I applied to a few schools, one of which already rejected my app. I am still looking forward to hear back from the University of Toronto. I'll apply to Oxford and SOAS as well. Did anyone else here apply to Toronto? I think someone posted his/her acceptance on the results board. But I suppose there are two rounds of acceptances. I don't know, I got sick of f5'ing.

hi! i just saw someone got accepted into the near and middle eastern civilizations department at toronto. do you think i should send an e-mail to the director of graduate studies or wait until i am contacted?

hi, i have just completed my application to washington university in st. louis. in the online application system, it is written it is strongly encouraged to apply earlier. I have some quess. But what does this mean to you? Bad sign?

Joshua, if you are interested in applying to some other schools with funding in Europe, you can PM me.

Hey, I just wanted to post as I have many friends who have done their MA's or still doing there. Actually I was also admitted to its MA program in History two years ago, but decided to stay in my home country. If you want to do MA in Medieval Studies, and their interests fit with yours, I will definetely recommend you to apply to CEU. I don't know which one of their MA options (1-year or 2-year) you are interested in. In the first option, a year is divided into three semesters. For the first two, you take courses. The last semester is seperated for writing your MA thesis, which rather looks like a term paper as it is a bit difficult to finish a good one within only three months unless you don't have some earlier research about your topic. The second option is a regular one. During your stay in Budapest, you are provided with a single room at CEU's residence center (seems like a Hotel with even swimming pools and accomodation is for free. Four of six friends of mine who got their degrees from CEU have been admitted to top American PhD programs including Princeton, Cornell, Chicago. And finally Budapest is a great place to live In fact, I am also considering of doing a second MA there, only one year, not a big deal If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I definetely want to work here in my home country after getting my degree. And, you are totally right! Applying to three in the US, and two in Canada will be enough. I should now focus on bettering my applications for the rest, if I do not get in, working on my MA thesis and languages until the next application season. Thanks!

Thank you. Luckily, most of my deadlines were late enough. I decided to apply to four schools in the States (Princeton, WUSTL, CUNY and UC Davis) and two schools in Canada (Toronto and Queens) after I have read your post, Ticklemepink . As Canadian schools do not require GRE, I will prepare the best ever application for the University of Toronto, which has an excellent Near and Middle Eastern Studies Department . In fact, I have a good chance to get in Queens, the Professor there whom I want to work with clearly told me that he will make effort to get me admitted. But I am still not sure if I should accept an offer from Queens instead of waiting one year more while finishing my MA thesis and improving my Arabic so that I will be a better candidate for big name US schools. If I am accepted to Toronto, however, I will definetely go without looking back anymore. In fact, I am working as a RA at a Turkish state University and have an oppurtunity to acquire a YOK (Turkish Council of Higher Education) grant to study abroad. If I can get this grant, I can alternatively go to the UK to do my PhD at Oxford Oriental Studies department with a Prof. who have been really interested in supervising my thesis. Ticklemepink, I'll especially appreciate if you can say anything on what I should do now.

Hi, This application process wore me out. I got low scores on GRE, Q: 160 V: 146, by being familiar to the structure of the test, but without studying much. I expect to get a 5 in writing section according to the sample responses that I read before. I know these do not seem good enough to get accepted but some department websites state that they understand the difficulties international students may have writing these types of exams. I am not sure if I should still apply with such low scores. Anyway, I know it will be much late if I attempt to take it again. Do you think departments will be understandable in case of late scores? Applying only to Canadian schools still remains a strong option. I'll be happy if I get admitted to the University of Toronto, for instance. However, all I want was to minimize the risk of not being admitted anywhere.

because of the application fee and shipping fee from turkey that costs a lot?

Does anyone know how flexible they are for late GRE scores? In fact, it is very clear on the web site of Graduate School that incomplete applications are not considered for fellowships but TA'ships or RA'ships may be more flexible. If it is %100 percent true, I will not apply.

hey everyone, a friend of mine doing his phd in the states told me that schools care earlier applications more, and these applicants have more chance to get admitted. is this true? my files will arrive at schools very close to the deadlines. does it lower my chance? second, i plan to retake gre within two weeks. do schools tolerate a score that came after the deadline if all other materials arrived on time?

i've heard something different, they offer no funding except some external oppurtunuties. the best way to learn is to contact gradute studies director.

Hi, as it is clear in the title of the topic, I was wondering if there are some others who apply for Middle East history. Last year, when I was checking here regularly, I do remember several of them who applied and got accepted. But this year I doubt there is someone other than me. If you hear me, what stage are you in now? What are you interested in? Time period, region? I'd like to share anything special to our field.

hey, another question :S is a writing sample on an intellectual biography of an early modern muslim mystics okay? how important is using primary sources? is there anyone who is willing to give some feedback on my paper when it is completed hopefully at the end of this month? i'll appreaciate especially if someone who studies islamic history does so. i have already requested a professor for feedback but an early check before him will be great.

I've been told by a friend of mine who got accepted into Michigan last year that it may be good to a bit exeggerate qualifications that I have. Do you think that way and that this does not harm the chance of being admitted? For example, he said that if you are beginner in Arabic, state that you have an intermediate level of it. In case of acceptance, you'll improve it until the first semester of your PhD. He also warned me not to do this in my application to Princeton because they call a group of applicants to the school

oh, i feel diappointed. i hope this is not the case for near eastern studies department where i was planning to apply to. for those saying that they should have expected this, i would say that this sometimes cannot be predicted because they admit more students than than the number of students in the entering class just because some get more than one acceptances and choose other schools.

Recently, I started contacting Profs whom I want to work with. This helped me narraow my list down. Some POI's I contacted, however, did not relpy my e-mails. Do you think I should not apply to these schools even if their research interests overlap mine? I am pretty sure that this does not always mean that they are not interested at all. But I still do not know what to do.

Find a Professor who can help you write a better SOP. This will be better than asking people in the same level as you because Professors know what they are looking at. Of course, bear in mind that every school cares different things. There is no standart! Everyone recommends different points to focus, but you will never know which points they are as long as you do not ask a Professor at the University you are applying to. And, you can not do that