Where should I apply and/or am I still not ready?

[StephAChamber]

I graduated from Berkeley in 2015 with an undergrad degree in Asian Studies, with 3.9+ GPA. I earned an undergrad FLAS fellowship, studied abroad in South Korea for a summer, spring, and Fall at Yonsei university, completed coursework primarily in modern chinese and korean history, sociology of race,, social theory, and korean literature, along with extensive (Korean) language coursework.  

I had wanted to pursue a PhD/DPhil program right out of undergrad but my faculty and GSI's encouraged me two consider it a bit more and go out in the world for a bit. It is three years later and I think it was the right decision (although for most of the time I regretted it) and this January it became utterly clear to me that: I love learning more than anything else, I loved the learning I did in the classroom in university, and loved the time I spent with faculty and grad students. I also love teaching, and currently teach, and enjoy most discussing academic level material. I have an appetite for knowledge and experiences in many disciplines, and thoroughly enjoyed my extremely interdisciplinary degree. 

 I feel it is what I am best at, what I care about the most, where I belong, and where other people think I belong, and I have some form of executive functioning disorder probably ADHD that makes me interested in many things and, coupled with my personality, pursue unusual paths others see as highly eclectic (rarely in a positive manner on first impression) and for me is what makes sense.

I am conflicted and consumed with worry about what to say to any program when they ask what I want to study, or who I want to study with. I think philosophy of science and epistemology are the core my more recent, inspiring academic thoughts , but I did zero formal philosophy course work in undergrad, and clearly that is a no starter for Phd/DPhil programs, and I would need to go into a Masters, which would also be unusually difficult to enter from a different degree.  Im just being ignorant when I think defiantly that I can succeed in those programs, correct? (except Id be behind because of a preference for students who majored/did significant coursework in undergrad or grad...)

I have had a strong love of history and literature and sociology and it has been a true battle for months to think which I wanted to pursue, but it is definitely sociology. Problem is what I enjoyed in sociology, qualitative, theory work (yep I get all excited at the various incarnations of social theory and political philosophy which I did not realize was so shoehorned in USA to philosophy), but this area sounds to be functionally dead. Nevertheless I think I would be a good candidate for any sociology program, but some of the ones I am most interested in do not have particularly strong philosophy departments on campus and I am not sure how much I should care or not. Typing it out makes me think I shouldn't care I cant access their work from anywhere/contact them and will be in a different program and that my mind may also change.

I have this embarrassing rundown of off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts about more clearly defining what I want to do. I'm worried that even though I went through a rigorous coursework and engaged with it very passionately, I kind of don't know what I'm talking about and am out of the loop  on what I should be thinking academically.  I have had this idea of social theory so clearly in my head, and I admit it may be because I went to Berkeley, but its really not well established in the field , some people just say in US but outside of the familiars in UK havent seen much else and its all like,  a single faculty member whose work isnt primarily in that...sorry for a any cringey things below. 

·         Social theory

·         Critical theory

·         Political philosophy

·         Late modern period and contemporary history

·         Other Topics: Race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality

·         Historical sociology

·         Philosophy of science

·         Sociological methodology

·         Sociology of scientific knowledge

·         Epistemology

·         Philosophy of mathematics

·         History of Science

·         Literary Theory and Literary Critique

·         Philology

·         Sociobiology (human ethology)

 

 Some Things that occupy my mind:

-          What if any substantially unique characteristics are features of experiences of Korean societies on the Korean peninsula through the late 1800’s to present, particularly the societal effects of Japanese occupation eventually combined with WWII, partition, the Korean war, and in the south rapid industrialization, particularly looking at psychological, communal, and societal trauma.

-          What if any substantially unique characteristics are features of governance, politics, and social structures in imperial china and associated societies entities, pre-and post, and during ‘interruptions’

-          Further/proper study of works by Marx and Foucault, and studying notable philosophers concerning epistemeology

·          Characteristics of oppressive social systems/structures as an algorithm, or internal logic, or in a model of evolutionary development , or whatever makes sense!

-          The sociological development of schools of thought in academia

-          ‘Hermeneutics of suspicion’ relationship with the ‘onset’ of the world order of nation-states

-          The discourse around claims of 'the rise and/or nature of peace ' under nation states that are generally capitalist

-          The unique properties of mathematics as a body of knowledge and practice of observation and interpretation, and its implications for all other knowledge, and human societies

-          The nature of human knowledge and how different disciplines are defined, how they (intrinsically, socially, ??) can or cannot evaluate/interpret/illuminate/assess rigor of one another, and how the hows and whats make any limitations on human societies and human experience.

-          The (accurate or inaccurate) prevalence of aggressively distinguishing humans from other animals, frequently as non-animals and the implications for human societies and human pursuits of knowledge and logic.

- literatures ability as a tool to analyze societal wide trauma

- the origins /processes of near absolute  projected-heteronormativity in human cultures

- why can/cant axiomatic systems be applied to any/some/etc field(s) in the same manner as mathematics?

- methodologies of psychology research and theories and their rigor and its impact on society and art of critique/theory of artistic mediums and the latter

 

I'm also worried that people will think I'm ill suited to specializing and that developing philosophical knowledge and skills will be difficult and that the things I'm interested in will make it difficult for me to find a job in academia, and I may have to go back to private sector  post-phd, which I really do not enjoy in any way shape or form compared to the academic environment.

Long story short: What may be some good places/good people for me, and how misconstrued are my notions?

 

[Sigaba]

17 hours ago, StephAChamber said:

Long story short: What may be some good places/good people for me, and how misconstrued are my notions?

Right now,  you're all over the place.

Please try the following.

Rephrase your OP as a handful of statements and questions that define areas of inquiry and methods of investigation.

• What can we learn about X if it is approached from the perspective of A and B?
• Why is a perspective centered around A not enough? Why must B also be considered? 
• If A and B are not commonly used together, what may a reader of your work use as basic tools/concepts to link the two together?

Previous sociological studies of X have revealed this, that, and the other. If one looks at X from the additional perspective of B, what more might we see?

IRT finding a program that is going to get you where you want to go, I recommend that you find schools that are strong in A (sociology) and B (philosophy). Look at how the two programs are structured. Does A have a requirement for an outside field that can be satisfied by doing work in B? Are there established trajectories in A and B that can inform your work?

IRT finding programs, you're probably going to have to prioritize, if only provisionally, A and B. (Are you an A who uses the tools and select sensibilities of B? Are you a B who uses the methods of A?) Find schools that have strong departments of A and B that also have an established track record for interdisciplinary work. (Start drilling down into the faculty rosters so you can really get a sense if professors are walking the talk.) Look carefully at the degree requirements -- will there be opportunities to do an outside field in B? Look at local resources -- especially nearby schools; do those schools have departments that are strong in A or B, if not both?

(Is a materialist [read: Marxist] approach to Korea going to open up doors for you in the old country?)