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Showing results for tags 'humanities'.
Found 31 results
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Grads with stereotypically "fluff" terminal MA's (classics, art history, women's studies, religion, anthro, film, etc.): Where are you now?
Bodhicaryavatara posted a topic in Jobs
Where are you employed? How much are you earning? Do you have any regrets? Are you in a lot of educational debt? ETA: I think these are really cool disciplines. Just saying that society in general views them as "fluff", nonlucrative, etc. -
Greetings~ I'm in a one year masters program, which I felt didn't give me enough time to prepare a successful PhD app [making a writing sample, getting letters of recommendation, really articulating what I want from a PhD program or faculty advisor, etc]. I will be taking a gap year before applying for PhDs in American Lit. I'll be staying in the same city, Pittsburgh, which has plenty of opportunities for English MAs. I'm not too worried about finding the best work for me, but I'm curious-- what are others doing for a gap year? If you did take a gap year, what did you do that made it successful? How did you balance work and preparation for applications? Were you very worried about finding something closely related to your field of study, or is Starbucks just fine? What do you think are the biggest differences between a gap year immediately after undergrad and gap years that are between graduate degrees?
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Employment before graduate school - high paying job or experience?
LEANCO10 posted a question in Questions and Answers
Hi there, After contemplating graduate school for many years, with much consideration for my area of study, I finally decided that I would like to pursue a Master's in American Studies. I plan to apply to graduate school in two years. My question is whether to stay at my current place of employment or move onto a more intellectually challenging position that will most likely pay me less. Current Position Pros: a highly prestigious academic institute that could potentially bolster my CV friendships with faculty, and staff world-class speakers and programming that I sometimes have access to solid compensation and matching pension lively discussions on diversity and inclusion Cons: the position itself is considered entry level - which I didn't know when I accepted it I also thought I would gain grant writing experience in the role but there doesn't seem to be any possibility for that development my responsibilities are pretty menial and incredibly boring an incredible amount of office drama and low morale among staff little opportunities for professional growth Before I was absolutely sure about the course of study I wanted to pursue, I became interested in Foundation Relations, which I am still interested in. Thus far, I've taken a course in grant writing and work on a friend's Board of Directors as a grant writer. After recently becoming more frustrated in my current role, I began applying for positions directly related to grant writing and am starting to hear back from a few. However, on average, they pay about 20% less than my current position. I imagine that it will be a similar story for other positions I come upon given that my current organization has the privilege to compensate us fairly well. I don't want to make any fast and hard decisions but I also don't want to miss out on potential opportunities. Should I make the leap into one of these roles that would provide some intellectual stimulation and also help me maintain my writing skills? Or should I continue building connections at the job I am at now? Other ideas are to look for research jobs or to use the experience at one of these other organizations to move into a position at a better organization. That's also a lot of jumping around prior to graduate school. I'd appreciate any thoughts you'd like to share. Thanks! -
Hi all! After much reflection and soul searching, I've finally decided that I want to pursue further studies in public policy and specialize in policy communications. ANU's Crawford School of Public Policy offers this exact program. Being realistic however, I'm looking to find other universities that offer a similar program. Based on desktop research, it seems that not a lot of universities offer such a program...or at least don't publicize it on their websites. Can you guys suggest any university or programs that let me pursue this MPP specialization? Thank you so much!
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Need advice on advancing career/becoming a more competitive applicant for future professorship positions
johnnie posted a topic in Jobs
Hi, I'm in my second semester as a Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature. I know some people might think that it's too early for me to start worrying about what to do to get hired, others might be thinking that it's never too early, others might be saying "you're a comparative lit. major, there are no jobs" lol, but please just stick with me a moment. I'm looking for advice on how I can become a more competitive applicant when applying for assistant professor jobs (and similar jobs) after I finish my Ph.D. I'm technically first-generation college student (my parents dropped out of college, and my much older sister went to college later through a continuing studies program and received a masters online. However, she doesn't work in academia) so I'm pretty lost here about how all of this works and what's attractive to universities. I'm trying to figure out what I can do to stand out. I've been told that I should go to conferences, so I applied to two and got accepted. Are conferences helpful or do you feel like it doesn't make much of a difference? Should I try publishing more? Researching (you know, outside of my future dissertation work)? If so, how do I start approaching professors or institutions, in general, to start doing that? After graduation, should I apply to a post-doc program? If so, do you know of any stand out ones that I should aim for or even what people look for when hiring post-docs or do you just feel like post-docs are unnecessary? My fellowship requires me to teach one semester gratis. Should I attempt at teaching more? Older students in my department have suggested getting a masters in another department (i.e. English, French, Anthropology, Theatre, etc.) to further diversify myself and make more valuable connections, but I'm not sure if tagging on another year or two to finish another degree for the sake of networking is that beneficial especially when comparative literature programs require you to take courses outside of your department anyway. Should I start building more experiences outside of academia (In undergrad, I was an EIC of a publication for a year, I've also worked in publishing, tutoring, mentoring, and led a social justice/community service non-profit organization for a year, and I minored and worked in social media for a bit-- should I keep doing more things like that in grad school or is it time to refocus and just build on one or two things?) If I sound really young, lost, and a little overwhelmed, it's because I am. I graduated from a private university with a degree in English (writing) in three years and was accepted straight-way into this Ph.D. program when I was 20 going on 21 years old. My program requires 48-course credits, after this semester (I entered in Fall 2017 right now I'm in Spring 2018 semester) I would have 24 credits so I'm approaching that halfway mark with my coursework (I probably need to slow down a bit, but I can't hold a job on this fellowship minus departmental related research/internships relevant to my career so I don't have anything really going on at the moment). I'm required to take a minimum 9 credits Fall/Spring each and a minimum 6 credits in the summer so I'll be at 30 credits when the Fall 2018 semester commences. I'm not at a prestigious ivy league school; I'm in a very small program at a pretty large public university. I don't feel like me being young with a good fellowship is enough to really stand out. So if anyone knows about ways I can further build my CV and experiences to become a better applicant for future jobs, that info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! -
I saw a similar question like this on this forum already and the responses encouraged the asker to be specific about their needs. I am happy to study in Europe or America (or somewhere else). My family resides in the Midwest of America. I want to use this degree in public policy work. I am fine with the degree title being combined with some other related focus that I’ve interest in. I am of Iranian desent, speak Farsi, Spanish and English. I want to learn about conflict and history in the Middle East as it pertains to the current conflicts Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey face, among other countries. I want to ultimately help inform the U.S. through public service work after obtaining this degree. Can you guys help me narrow my research down to a few schools that would be a good fit for me? Preferences: a school that provides funding. is in Europe or America. small classses. more papers than tests. thanks
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Dear all, My specialism is political thought and intellectual history. At top US institutions like Princeton and Harvard, would I have a greater chance of admission if I apply for PhD programs in history, or in political science? Which field is less competitive in top research universities? Thanks, Dem
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Hello everyone, I would like to raise awareness to a new graduate program in the Humanities with the Global Center for Advanced Studies (GCAS). The program features courses with world-class faculty (including Alain Badiou and Jean-luc Nancy), opportunities to publish, and an ever-growing community of researchers. You can study full-time or part-time, either in person in the beautiful Maribor, Slovenia, from a distance using the online classroom, or a mixture of the two. In addition to the regular courses, there are short week-long intensive courses that are offered at various locations throughout the year. For example, a course on the Cuban revolution in Havana, or a course with Luce Irigaray in Paris. The Global Center for Advanced Studies offers both a MA (2 years) and a PhD (3 years) in partnership with Alma Mater Europaea. With the goal of GCAS as being able to provide debt-free education, the yearly tuition is 5,000 Euros, with scholarships available to bring tuition down to 3,500 Euros. Here is the link to the homepage of the school: https://globalcenterforadvancedstudies.org/ The Global Center for Advanced Studies is also hosting a summer institute focusing on the theme "Practicing Intellectual Resistance" this summer (June 28th - July 7th) to which all are invited to come and experience GCAS.
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Granting credit for MA classes completed elsewhere?
justpayingthebills posted a topic in Coursework, Advising, and Exams
Apologies if this has been asked previously. I am a PhD student asking this question for concerned grad students in my department. Our dept chair has been very vague about granting credit for MA classes completed at a previous university towards fulfillment of course requirements for the PhD. Our department handbook has nothing pertaining to this issue. I have been in the program for some time and watched certain students receive credits on what seemed to be an ad hoc basis (I came straight from BA so I never pursued this). We are a small humanities department, and the faculty have suggested that they won't be able to grant those credits from prior MA's because if they did, enrollment by grad students in our own department's seminars would be too low and would threaten our department's stability. Hence, grad students have offered to take those courses as audits to keep up enrollment, but also to reduce stress so that they can pursue coursework that may be more relevant to them. What is it like in your department? I get that this varies very much by dept and uni. Any suggestions for counter-arguments to the faculty's reasoning (re: low enrollment)? I think grad students should be able to take the most relevant courses for them, as humanities PhD's are taking longer and longer, and any time that can be applied to one's own research interests should be seized. Also, MAs in the US are very expensive, and continuing to ignore MA credits will continue to deter students from joining. I would really appreciate any advice. Thanks for your time. -
Hi everyone, I've received an admission offer from Stanford for a humanities PhD with an offer of $28,000 as fellowship stipend. (Tuition, health insurance, summer support fellowship. will be separate). Estimated budgets for living expenses on the Stanford Website are coming up to $38,000 a year(http://financialaid.stanford.edu/grad/budget/index.html). Being an international student, there is simply no means by which I would be able to pay the balance amount of nearly 10000 dollars from my own pocket. I would appreciate any insight on whether expenses at Stanford really do come up as high as 38,000 a year or if the stipend amount might be sufficient with careful spending? Thank you all for your help! PS- I am a single, and would have only myself to support
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Humanities & Soc Sci Conference Proposals BASICS
jujubea posted a topic in Writing, Presenting and Publishing
I would really like to begin submitting for conferences, but I know nothing about the conference-paper submission processes or criteria or etiquette or basically anything. I have past completed research I could discuss/submit, and I have ongoing directions of research with no results quite yet (what I have is evidence of a gap in our field, and an argument for the importance of filling this gap). Is it appropriate to present such things at conferences? The one I'll begin with is a subnational conference. I will be a second-year grad student this year, and have minimal publications, but extensive public speaking experience. Doing some reading up online but wondering if anyone has pointers, resources, Websites, or experiences regarding not just this specific question, but about conference 101 type stuff - including SAMPLES of good PROPOSALS Thanks -
Hi All, After reviewing some of my work, I have decided none of my papers are really what I want to submit with my application. I decided to just write a completely new sample to send in. Has anyone else done this? Or am I just going crazy and getting too stressed about this?
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Hi All, I'm searching for additional funding as a U.S. Citizen in a Canadian doctoral program (Interdisciplinary Humanities). I'm trying to find smaller scholarships that are available through charitable foundations or trusts. I have run across a ton of foundation directories for the UK and some other countries, but haven't been able to find anything terribly useful for the US or CA. Anyone know some good places to look for this kind of thing? Or, alternatively, some good scholarships for me to look into? (I'm applying for OSG, inelligible for SSRHC because I'm not a CA citizen, missed the deadline for Fulbright this year- I applied and started my program very late in the game so now I'm playing catch-up). Thanks in advance for any help!
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Many people I've looked up to over the years, including now, have told me that I should enter a PhD program. The thing is, I don't know what I want out of my career anymore and a PhD makes less sense now than it did before I embarked on my MA; This is due to many complicated political aspects in my industry, whether it be curatorial work or teaching. The problem is that I have a lot of ideas which I'd like to write about and professors keep encouraging me. They tell me the only way I will have time to write and publish is if I have institutional backing and enter a PhD program. Is it enough to enter a PhD program just so I have the ability to publish a few books of [possible] notoriety? I'm not made of money and can't think of alternatives but I also don't know if I want to live in financial squalor for 5+ years just to come out of it with technically less job opportunities (overqualified for many jobs I'd otherwise consider.) I might delete this but I'd like to see some perspective first.
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This is a simple question I rarely see on here. It might seem obvious at first but I imagine there is a greater amount of nuance between answers than one would expect. So, especially if you think your reasoning is nuanced, why do you/did you want a PhD in Art History? And maybe the smaller question should be, how confident are you that you will be [subjectively] successful upon receiving your doctorate?
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I did my undergrad in philosophy and quickly learned how competitive teaching at the college level has become (overwhelming adjunct faculty, etc). Originally I wanted to teach philosophy at the college level and I have been studying for the GRE (as hard as it is for me b/c I don't remember so much of the math!). I am still in self debate mode but I have now turned my attention to online Masters degrees in Education (emphasis in science or social science) since with my current financial situation it's not practical for me to move and/or drive an hour each way to school (I have student loan debt and credit cards, etc). I have been checking out the USC Rossier school online but have read some bad reviews and it is one of the most expensive. With that said, I'd like to get some thoughts and/or new information regarding choices. •What online M. Ed programs are good (if any)? Are any worth it? If possible, I would like to avoid having to take the GRE (since it's been many years since I did all that math and studying is going to be uber time consuming - but I suppose I would do it if I felt like I needed to in order to achieve my desired outcome of getting a good job teaching K-12 somewhere). Any other thoughts/advice would be amazing. Thanks all!
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I recently got my Masters in German literature, and am not too sure if I want to pursue a career in academia. I have been working on re-careering by doing unpaid internships that focus on online community management, social media marketing, and community outreach via social networks. I have learned a lot, and have even had some interviews with some decent sized start ups. I was wondering if any of you have had similar situations, are thinking about doing the same, have done it, and what you have experienced. I know it's terrible to plug, but I've also started a little blog about the journey I've had trying to find a job outside of academia, how I've gone about doing it, as well as small pieces of advice. Thanks
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I'm in the process of writing emails to POIs (not going to send them until after finals are over, though), and I have some questions about etiquette. 1. Can I send emails to more than one professor in the same department at the same university, or is that frowned upon? 2. How much familiarity should I demonstrate with their work? Like "I've read some of your recent articles and they're really cool and intersect with my own interests," or "I've read everything you've ever written"? Somewhere in between? 3. How much should I include on my own work? "My undergraduate thesis was on......and I'm interested in studying.....as a PhD student," or should it be more in depth? I've had literally no guidance in this process, and I really want to do it right this time, so any help you can give me would be much appreciated! -Rosali
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I'm currently a junior in college and considering my options after graduation. I'd be interested in pursuing a Phd in the humanities (ideally, in comp lit, continental philosophy or religion). Ideally, I'd like to apply to a program that is in a major English-speaking city (New York, Boston, LA, Chicago, London, Toronto, Sydney, etc) and is somewhat interdisciplinary. How can I start to figure out which schools offer funded PhDs in these areas, admissions rates, which field are more/ less competitive, etc. Any guidance to help orient myself would be very much appreciated!
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Hello! As we're all figuring out our plans for next year, I have a question that doesn't seem to have come up yet. What's the deal with deferrals? It seems that few graduate departments have their deferral policies listed on their website, and certainly no mention is made of it at visiting weekends so far. I know that our cohort sizes are quite small, so discouraging deferrals to an extent makes sense--but to what extent are they discouraged? What are acceptable reasons for deferring, if any? I haven't made my decision about graduate school yet, and I don't want to frighten any grad schools by asking about this and making them think I won't come next year (I do intend to attend grad school next year... but there is another great 1 year thing--originally a back up plan--that I'm waiting to hear about). Help?
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For future reference, does anyone know which Visual Studies programs are known for providing the best funding? I understand PhD programs are more likely to provide a full ride, but are there programs with good funding for MAs as well? UBuffalo, I believe, but not sure any others.
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Hey guys it's getting quite late and I keep waiting. I haven't come accross many other applicants from this program, is any of you out there waiting? If so are you in the dark as well?
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Hello, I've been offered a place in the MA Art History at the UofT. My first choice remains McGill, however. I was wondering if anyone here has done their graduate studies in art history at McGill and the UofT, and could help me make a choice, but mostly give me feedback about the art history department of both universities. I should also note that I still haven't received a response from McGill, and getting quite anxious about it. But if I got in at the UofT, shouldn't I get accepted at McGill too? As they are both the best universities in Canada. Thanks
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The State of tenure-track teaching positions in the Humanities in the near future
ZeeMore21 posted a topic in Officially Grads
Hi all, Although I am just starting a doctoral program in the fall in Literature, I can't but help feel a bit terrified as far as the job market is concerned...tenure-track positions are dwindling, and job posts for Humanities professors are scarce (been looking at job posts on the Chronicle every now and then out of curiosity). It seems like schools are looking more into hiring adjuncts and instructors, which leaves me questioning at times if getting a PhD is even valued anymore. I guess my question is how are new PhDs in the Humanities coping with the uncertain future? To be clear, I definitely am excited about this new stepping stone in my life... I will be the first PhD in my family, and I don't see the doctoral program as simply a means to an end, but a period of time where I can develop as an intellectual in particular and a individual in general. However, I am constantly thinking about whether or not there will be any tenure-track positions in 5-6 years, when I am hoping to be done with my doctoral program. I am starting to think that it would be smart to think about other careers that I might look into, but I feel as though I should be focused solely on getting a position teaching in a university if that is my main goal. I have also entertained whether teaching abroad would be a viable option or perhaps teaching at a boarding school or a community college. I did read Gregory Colon Semenza's Graduate Study for the 21st Century:How to Build and Academic Career in the Humanities (a very good read!), and he urges that doctoral students see the lack of tenure-track positions as not only a bad thing...students should use it as inspiration to create strong work. However, I am not quite sure that simply creating good work necessarily means one will land a job...luck plays a huge role in landing a tenure track position as well. There are also other doctoral students who I have spoken to who are under the impression that a lot of baby-boomers in academia will be retiring in 5+ years, leaving more teaching positions...I really don't buy this either....with the economy where it is now, people who were planning on retiring soon have been forced to remain in the job market way longer than they expected. And plus, professors usually stay in their positions way past the average retiring age. To end my rambling, I just wanted to know how humanities doctoral students cope with the uncertainty of their future in academia while trying to relish the time they have as doctoral students and creating good work. Honestly, I don't know what is better than being paid to study something you love. It really is such a privilege, and I really don't want to spoil my experience and take it for granted by stressing out too much about my job prospects in the near future. -
Greetings all, As one of the group (legion?) of people admitted to Chicago's one-year MAPH, I thought it might be a good idea to open a thread for discussion of the program for those of us who are even remotely considering it be an option (as well as those who have been through it/ have helpful advice to give). I know there is already a thread going about one-year MA's in general, but I didn't want to hijack it with a discussion that was narrowed to one program. Also, I have discussed this with a few individuals (thanks!) but I figured it would be helpful for anyone to be able to chime in. I have a few specific questions about funding. In particular, I just read that those with partial funding must respond by 4/15, while those without have until 4/29. Is there any chance that, if enough people with partial waivers decline, others without funding will receive an offer? I feel like that is unlikely, but it's worth asking. My other question involves application timing. It strikes me that, since PhD app season begins during the winter quarter, there won't have been much time to generate a better writing sample, have much of an MA transcript, or build relationships in the department. Then again, maybe this worry is unfounded. I'd love to hear other perspectives. I know this will basically come down to money, and whether I am crazy enough to risk debtors' prison. I know it would be insane to take this over any kind of funded offer, and I'm still waiting on a few funded MA's. I'm also aware that with a bit of funding this could still be an irresponsible choice. But I am also obsessed with this school. Anyone else facing a similar dilemma?
