struggling to find POIs with shared interests

[hothamwater]

Okay basically the title, but I have a fairly new and fairly unique area of study, and I've only been able to find ~3 professors in the US who are doing something even in the same ballpark. To clarify, it's digital sociology, but I want to study relationships and the internet. There are a TON of professors in the UK doing this that I would love to work with, but I don't know how I feel about getting my PhD abroad. Any tips for finding professors in the US with similar interests, or even marketing myself to a prof with only sort of shared interests?

[CafeConGabi]

4 hours ago, hothamwater said:

Okay basically the title, but I have a fairly new and fairly unique area of study, and I've only been able to find ~3 professors in the US who are doing something even in the same ballpark. To clarify, it's digital sociology, but I want to study relationships and the internet. There are a TON of professors in the UK doing this that I would love to work with, but I don't know how I feel about getting my PhD abroad. Any tips for finding professors in the US with similar interests, or even marketing myself to a prof with only sort of shared interests?

Totally outside my expertise but I'm curious. 

• Have you reached out to the POIs? I personally would hold off until I'm familiar with their work. 
• I'd go back and read their work. I'd check their footnotes and sources. This may lead to other scholars in the field. I would imagine that the field of sociology is prominent. Maybe check out some sociologists?
• I'd check their CV for clues about what other institutions, organizations, or groups they belong too. Are their talks or presentations they've given in the past? This, again will create, hopefully, new leads.   
• I've thought about PhD abroad but never actually went through with it. I would definitely reach out to current grad student there first and ask about their experience. This forum has lots of people with grad school experiences abroad too.  
• Lastly, when I've read at least a few of the POI's scholarly articles I'll email them. I usually frame it with "I have ___ background, working on ___, and would like to know how ____ research topic would be supported in the department."  I've gotten some professors who were just straight-up no but many more who were able to 1) tell me how my work would be supported or 2) how it could be supported by other professors at other schools. 

I hope I'm making sense. 

[chai time]

I have no recommendations, but I am in a similar situation and hope others can provide more insight!

[beeeeeeeeeeeeeets]

On 2/8/2021 at 8:15 AM, hothamwater said:

Okay basically the title, but I have a fairly new and fairly unique area of study, and I've only been able to find ~3 professors in the US who are doing something even in the same ballpark. To clarify, it's digital sociology, but I want to study relationships and the internet. There are a TON of professors in the UK doing this that I would love to work with, but I don't know how I feel about getting my PhD abroad. Any tips for finding professors in the US with similar interests, or even marketing myself to a prof with only sort of shared interests?

Agree with CafeConGabi, and I have a similar issue with my proposed research in digital education. Find leads by checking references of UK prof's publications for US scholars, dig into the issues of journals those authors are published in for US authors, same goes for conferences, etc. I follow UK scholars on Twitter to see who they're following and tweeting.

What's your specific topic, if you don't mind me asking?

Best to you!

[Hopes and Dreams]

Hmmm I wonder if you have tried doing a lit review on the topic using different combination of keywords 

I am quite sure that there are researchers working on specific aspects of digital sociology (and I personally know a few). If you have access to an academic library, what I recommend you try is to do a thorough search. The institutional affiliation is usually listed inside each article. Approach them.