First contact with Advisory Committee?

[Postbib Yeshuist]

So I know my advisory committee now, but have had contact with only one of the three profs. I'm trying to figure out how to make the first contact with them. One obvious approach (though I can't imagine this being the "right" one) would be to wait until Fall. What seems like a better choice is to try e-mail contact and begin a conversation. I'll actually be on campus week after next, so I wonder if I should say "Yo, heard you're on my committee. You gonna be around?" The only problem is, it's their Spring Break too, so I don't want to be asking them to be around for a short meeting when they probably want to leave school behind for a week.

Thoughts? Is there a preferred process for things like this? It's only my first Ph.D., so I'm new to all this

PS One of my advisors seems completely random given her speciality. Is this common? The other two make sense, but the third's field is Hindu religion, while I'm doing Empire & Abrahamic Religions.

Edited March 5, 2010 by Postbib Yeshuist

[Postbib Yeshuist]

No one has any insight?

[grammercie]

I contacted the director of admissions and asked what was the best way of contacting professors. One told me to go ahead and e-mail professors directly, the other preferred to make arrangements for a visit herself. Call the admissions folks and ask--they'll know the culture of the place best.

Good luck!

[jacib]

So I know my advisory committee now, but have had contact with only one of the three profs. I'm trying to figure out how to make the first contact with them. One obvious approach (though I can't imagine this being the "right" one) would be to wait until Fall. What seems like a better choice is to try e-mail contact and begin a conversation. I'll actually be on campus week after next, so I wonder if I should say "Yo, heard you're on my committee. You gonna be around?" The only problem is, it's their Spring Break too, so I don't want to be asking them to be around for a short meeting when they probably want to leave school behind for a week.

Thoughts? Is there a preferred process for things like this? It's only my first Ph.D., so I'm new to all this

PS One of my advisors seems completely random given her speciality. Is this common? The other two make sense, but the third's field is Hindu religion, while I'm doing Empire & Abrahamic Religions.

My situation was slightly different, but I can tell you what I did. I had a visiting weekend where I requested to meet with three professors. Two were available, the third was on sabbatical, so after visiting weekend, I wrote her a rather long email saying, "I was accepted, this is my history in the field, these are resources I'm excited about at the school, if you can tell me more that'd be great, everyone has said such wonderful things about you, I'm really excited about working with you, would it be possible? Do you have experience with graduate students in Sociology (she's in the Religion department)? What are you working on now? I haven't read your work but it seems exciting. I see your name in a lot of acknowledgments. Can you give me an recommendations on things that I should read because I'm new to the field? Congrats on tenure. This other professor says hi."

She is on leave now, so her time is a little short but shot me back a quick note that said, "Dear [Jacib]- your long email introduction deserves a long response but I'm off for the next two days and won't have time to do so properly until Monday. The very short version: I'll be delighted to work with you and am glad that you're coming to [this school]. More soon,

CB"

I think if you wrote something like, "I'm very excited about this school. These are my research interests and my history. While I don't know much about your own work, I'm very excited about the looking at X, Y, and Z in comparative perspective. I've never studied what you're studying, so I am sure you have a lot to teach me. What are you working on now? Do you know why exactly I was assigned to you?" This person could well have taken on a new project about tolerance in the Mughal empire or some such thing. Or you can just say "Hey these are my research interests, I've been assigned to you, can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing? I'm visiting the area next week, and I understand it's your spring break, but if you happen to be around, I'd love to be able to meet and discuss this further. I'm very excited about the possibility of attending this school, blah blah blah."

On a random note, often, I've found, in History of Religion type departments people working on Hinduism are often the ones responsible for method and theory type training, especially when it's comparative (I'm thinking most of all of Wendy Doniger, but also when I was applying to Duke, one professor suggested I contact Leela Prasad even though she didn't have anything directly to do with my topic. Other departments were similar, if I recall, with the South-Asianists doing a lot more interdisciplinary work than, say, the Buddhologists or the Islamists) See what classes this person teaches, and if they teach a method and theory class, it might make more sense. But I might be shooting in the dark. The other possibility is it might be required for you to have an outside person like that, since presumably with your interests, you may well be required to teach a "World Religions" class at some point in the future. But that seems to be really pushing it.

Anyway, it's now official that person's job to help woo you to come to their school, so they should be happy to answer any and all questions. If they say, "Here's what I'm working on.... I have no idea why you were assigned to me," then perhaps contact the DGS.

Also, I am sending you a short PM about religion and the Ottoman empire. Your topic sounds neat.