2022 Application Thread

[Manana]

16 hours ago, AP said:

When I was applying, my first intention was to go to the UK. A friend suggested the US because there is more funding available.

In my first round of applications I applied to US universities as well for the same reason (also more potential advisors there). I was rejected from all of them. Then the second time around I considered applying again but due to Covid most of the programs I was interested in either didn't admit or admit an even tinier number of new doctoral students so I decided not to go for it.

[sayf]

On 5/6/2021 at 11:14 AM, Manana said:

From my understanding the training is indeed more comprehensive in US programs. On the other hand, I am now 33, so starting kinda late, and the US programs are much longer, so that is also a concern considering how ageist the job market (not the academic one in particular, just in general) is.

Fair enough. The length can be a concern. I would not be averse to attending, let's say, Oxford, if they give me enough money. 

[jebbush2k20]

Hi all - I am a practicing lawyer with a Masters in English who is applying to a handful of History and American Studies programs this year. I am especially interested in considering histories of law and medicine together with a focus on reproductive healthcare and patients as consumers. I am also very interested in the history of risk as a legal concept. I am planning to apply to Yale Am Studs, Penn History, Princeton History, NYU Am Stud, and probably a few others, but I am limited by geography. I did a lot of research on English PhD apps before going to law school, but I don't feel nearly as comfortable with history, so any tips would be appreciated. I'm especially concerned by everyone's focus on language skills. I did many years of French and could brush up on it, but I imagine I'd need a second language and I'm not sure what the most effective one would be for someone studying mostly 20th century U.S.

[psstein]

21 hours ago, jebbush2k20 said:

Hi all - I am a practicing lawyer with a Masters in English who is applying to a handful of History and American Studies programs this year. I am especially interested in considering histories of law and medicine together with a focus on reproductive healthcare and patients as consumers. I am also very interested in the history of risk as a legal concept. I am planning to apply to Yale Am Studs, Penn History, Princeton History, NYU Am Stud, and probably a few others, but I am limited by geography. I did a lot of research on English PhD apps before going to law school, but I don't feel nearly as comfortable with history, so any tips would be appreciated. I'm especially concerned by everyone's focus on language skills. I did many years of French and could brush up on it, but I imagine I'd need a second language and I'm not sure what the most effective one would be for someone studying mostly 20th century U.S.

I think the most important thing for you to do would be to understand and articulate where your interests fall in the wider literature and what's already been done. I know, for example, that there's quite a lot of work about the development of mortality tables and John Graunt's demography in 17th century London. I don't know if that work exists in a US context, but it wouldn't shock me if it did. Something else worth considering is the connections between history of risk and how corporations have attempted to mitigate risk (via technology, labor practices, and so on).

Beyond that advice, many US history programs don't require more than one non-English language, at least based on my memory of them, though it's been 5 years since I applied.

[TMP]

On 5/20/2021 at 8:16 PM, jebbush2k20 said:

Hi all - I am a practicing lawyer with a Masters in English who is applying to a handful of History and American Studies programs this year. I am especially interested in considering histories of law and medicine together with a focus on reproductive healthcare and patients as consumers. I am also very interested in the history of risk as a legal concept. I am planning to apply to Yale Am Studs, Penn History, Princeton History, NYU Am Stud, and probably a few others, but I am limited by geography. I did a lot of research on English PhD apps before going to law school, but I don't feel nearly as comfortable with history, so any tips would be appreciated. I'm especially concerned by everyone's focus on language skills. I did many years of French and could brush up on it, but I imagine I'd need a second language and I'm not sure what the most effective one would be for someone studying mostly 20th century U.S.

Are you interested in a specific demographic group in the United States? It sounds to me that you may be crossing into Spanish-speaking and Black communities with your interest in medicine, law, and healthcare. As @pssteinindicated, you will want to do some secondary source readings to see what's already out there in your areas of interest.  For example, I particularly enjoyed works by Laura Briggs, who focuses on transnational connections between the United States and Latin America with regards to reproductive health and rights, children, and power.

[jebbush2k20]

4 hours ago, TMP said:

Are you interested in a specific demographic group in the United States? It sounds to me that you may be crossing into Spanish-speaking and Black communities with your interest in medicine, law, and healthcare. As @pssteinindicated, you will want to do some secondary source readings to see what's already out there in your areas of interest.  For example, I particularly enjoyed works by Laura Briggs, who focuses on transnational connections between the United States and Latin America with regards to reproductive health and rights, children, and power.

This is really helpful! I was actually thinking Spanish could be useful, both for potential contemporary field research, and historical research about reproductive health-related experimentation in Latin America/Caribbean. I feel fairly confident about getting up to speed from law side of things (I'm a recent graduate and took a lot of history-focused law courses) but I'm a little more concerned about history of medicine. Trying to read the classics and more contemporary work I'm interested is tough but fun, and I'm open to any suggestions folks who might be closer to the material have! I will definitely check out Briggs. 

[AfricanusCrowther]

5 hours ago, TMP said:

Are you interested in a specific demographic group in the United States? It sounds to me that you may be crossing into Spanish-speaking and Black communities with your interest in medicine, law, and healthcare. As @pssteinindicated, you will want to do some secondary source readings to see what's already out there in your areas of interest.  For example, I particularly enjoyed works by Laura Briggs, who focuses on transnational connections between the United States and Latin America with regards to reproductive health and rights, children, and power.

To add to this, there's been some important work done on the public health activities of radical groups like the Young Lords. Spanish could be useful here.

Edited May 25, 2021 by AfricanusCrowther

[psstein]

15 hours ago, jebbush2k20 said:

I feel fairly confident about getting up to speed from law side of things (I'm a recent graduate and took a lot of history-focused law courses) but I'm a little more concerned about history of medicine.

I'm happy to go into greater detail in PMs, but you should definitely read some of the major journals like Bulletin for the History of Medicine and the historical sections in Public Health Reports.

[jebbush2k20]

On 5/25/2021 at 10:50 AM, psstein said:

I'm happy to go into greater detail in PMs, but you should definitely read some of the major journals like Bulletin for the History of Medicine and the historical sections in Public Health Reports.

Amazing, thank you!

[jebbush2k20]

On 5/6/2021 at 2:14 AM, Manana said:

From my understanding the training is indeed more comprehensive in US programs. On the other hand, I am now 33, so starting kinda late, and the US programs are much longer, so that is also a concern considering how ageist the job market (not the academic one in particular, just in general) is.

I am also just now applying in my 30s! On the one hand, any PhD program will be way more fun than my job. On the other hand, a bit concerned about my ongoing ability to stay up late reading...

[wynntir]

Hi everyone! I'm a senior history/education double major getting ready to apply to a mix of PhD and masters programs this fall. I'm interested in studying mostly in history of science/medicine departments, focusing on the intersection between public health and public education. I'd love to do work specifically on the anti-vax movement in the 19th and 20th century US. At the moment my top program is at Yale, but I'm also looking at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Penn, and Oregon State. I'm deaf so learning languages is quite difficult for me and many schools unfortunately don't count ASL in their history departments, so that will be my big tough sell. I'm feeling pretty anxious and out of my element, so any advice is appreciated, particularly if you know of any programs that would fit my interests.

[psstein]

2 hours ago, wynntir said:

Hi everyone! I'm a senior history/education double major getting ready to apply to a mix of PhD and masters programs this fall. I'm interested in studying mostly in history of science/medicine departments, focusing on the intersection between public health and public education. I'd love to do work specifically on the anti-vax movement in the 19th and 20th century US. At the moment my top program is at Yale, but I'm also looking at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Penn, and Oregon State. I'm deaf so learning languages is quite difficult for me and many schools unfortunately don't count ASL in their history departments, so that will be my big tough sell. I'm feeling pretty anxious and out of my element, so any advice is appreciated, particularly if you know of any programs that would fit my interests.

I'd encourage you to become a little bit more specific in the way you articulate your interests and research topics. What, specifically, about the anti-vax movement in the 19th/20th century interests you? What years are you going to examine most closely? As you know, anti-vax is a very diverse movement over time, ranging from religious (and some medical) objections in the 19th century to the crackpot fringe (Lyndon LaRouche and the like) in the 20th century. How do you see this interacting with other areas, such as the history of religion, or the history of social movements?

Also, please check your PMs.

[wynntir]

5 minutes ago, psstein said:

I'd encourage you to become a little bit more specific in the way you articulate your interests and research topics. What, specifically, about the anti-vax movement in the 19th/20th century interests you? What years are you going to examine most closely? As you know, anti-vax is a very diverse movement over time, ranging from religious (and some medical) objections in the 19th century to the crackpot fringe (Lyndon LaRouche and the like) in the 20th century. How do you see this interacting with other areas, such as the history of religion, or the history of social movements?

Also, please check your PMs.

Thank you for the advice! I want to focus on organized resistance to public health movements. My interest lies in uncovering how public education has become a catalyst for antiscience thought. Fighting against compulsory vaccination has always started with schools. If you've read Kim Tolley's School Vaccination Wars, I was greatly influenced by it. Situating that debate within the Progressive Era and its many restrictive social movements is where my main points lie, but the timeline of education/health is vast (as you mentioned) and I don't want to marry myself to one time period. However, the intersection between religion and social movements are exactly what interests me, as they are so clearly represented in the response of parents to compulsory vaccination in schools throughout history. I'm hoping to find a department that will allow me to work interdisciplinarily.

[psstein]

38 minutes ago, wynntir said:

Thank you for the advice! I want to focus on organized resistance to public health movements. My interest lies in uncovering how public education has become a catalyst for antiscience thought. Fighting against compulsory vaccination has always started with schools. If you've read Kim Tolley's School Vaccination Wars, I was greatly influenced by it. Situating that debate within the Progressive Era and its many restrictive social movements is where my main points lie, but the timeline of education/health is vast (as you mentioned) and I don't want to marry myself to one time period. However, the intersection between religion and social movements are exactly what interests me, as they are so clearly represented in the response of parents to compulsory vaccination in schools throughout history. I'm hoping to find a department that will allow me to work interdisciplinarily.

This is a good place to start from. You've honestly outlined a lifetime of work, which is good (in the sense of having quite a lot to look at), but bad in the sense of needing to narrow down further. You might also want to look at James Colgrove's State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America, as well as Karen Walloch's The Antivaccine Heresy: Jacobson v. Massachusetts and the Troubled History of Compulsory Vaccination in the United States.

Edited June 4, 2021 by psstein

[sonnybunny]

Looking for some school recommendations for an MA, must have funding as a possibility. I am primarily interested in studying post-1945 UK, viewing national identity in popular culture through a gender and race critical lens. For example, some of my undergraduate work analyzed British identity of the 1960s through espionage novels from the time period.

So far, I have University of New Mexico, Northeastern University, UC Santa Barbara, and University of Maryland on my list. I unsuccessfully applied to CU Boulder last year (waitlisted and told by POI that there wasn't enough relevant faculty.)

I appreciate any advice as my preparation for a full application cycle begins.     

[KindGriffin]

41 minutes ago, sonnybunny said:

Looking for some school recommendations for an MA, must have funding as a possibility. I am primarily interested in studying post-1945 UK, viewing national identity in popular culture through a gender and race critical lens. For example, some of my undergraduate work analyzed British identity of the 1960s through espionage novels from the time period.

So far, I have University of New Mexico, Northeastern University, UC Santa Barbara, and University of Maryland on my list. I unsuccessfully applied to CU Boulder last year (waitlisted and told by POI that there wasn't enough relevant faculty.)

I appreciate any advice as my preparation for a full application cycle begins.     

It's in Canada, but I know UBC funds all of their MA students for the two year MA through TAships+small fellowships, although it's quite tight in Vancouver considering the cost of living. Joy Dixon works on modern Britain with similar thematic interests. 

[sonnybunny]

9 minutes ago, KindGriffin said:

It's in Canada, but I know UBC funds all of their MA students for the two year MA through TAships+small fellowships, although it's quite tight in Vancouver considering the cost of living. Joy Dixon works on modern Britain with similar thematic interests. 

Thank you very much, I appreciate it! Are you currently in the program? If so, are you a Canadian student or international?

[gsc]

1 hour ago, sonnybunny said:

Looking for some school recommendations for an MA, must have funding as a possibility. I am primarily interested in studying post-1945 UK, viewing national identity in popular culture through a gender and race critical lens. For example, some of my undergraduate work analyzed British identity of the 1960s through espionage novels from the time period.

So far, I have University of New Mexico, Northeastern University, UC Santa Barbara, and University of Maryland on my list. I unsuccessfully applied to CU Boulder last year (waitlisted and told by POI that there wasn't enough relevant faculty.)

I appreciate any advice as my preparation for a full application cycle begins.     

Off the top of my head, here are some schools with British historians who work on gender and/or race and/or 20th century stuff, and that also offer terminal MA programs. I don’t know what the funding possibilities are, though, and of course some may be better fits for your work than others:

UC-Santa Cruz (definitely look here since you were interested in Colorado- Marc Matera was Susan Kent’s former student)
University of Kentucky (I don’t actually know really what Phil Harling works on but I know his students have done gender and race)
Florida State
UNC-Greensboro
Indiana
Rutgers-Newark (I think they have a British historian, but not sure; Rutgers-New Brunswick MAs are not funded)
University of Vermont
Slippery Rock University
University of Colorado-Denver
University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Also, I don’t think UC-Santa Barbara offers terminal MAs, only MAs en route to PhD programs.

 

[hydro]

Update! I finished compelling a list of 8 doctoral programs for this cycle. I'm hoping they waive the GRE requirement again.  

[jpc34]

On 6/22/2021 at 9:21 PM, hydro said:

Update! I finished compelling a list of 8 doctoral programs for this cycle. I'm hoping they waive the GRE requirement again.  

Of the schools I’m planning on applying to, only Rutgers seems to be asking for the GRE. I hope that when they update the site for this cycle they will remove the requirement, seems strange for them to keep it when everyone else is dropping it.

[psstein]

18 minutes ago, jpc34 said:

Of the schools I’m planning on applying to, only Rutgers seems to be asking for the GRE. I hope that when they update the site for this cycle they will remove the requirement, seems strange for them to keep it when everyone else is dropping it.

Public universities sometimes use it for funding decisions, in terms of who gets a more prestigious package.

[sonnybunny]

On 6/21/2021 at 8:34 PM, gsc said:

Off the top of my head, here are some schools with British historians who work on gender and/or race and/or 20th century stuff, and that also offer terminal MA programs. I don’t know what the funding possibilities are, though, and of course some may be better fits for your work than others:

UC-Santa Cruz (definitely look here since you were interested in Colorado- Marc Matera was Susan Kent’s former student)
University of Kentucky (I don’t actually know really what Phil Harling works on but I know his students have done gender and race)
Florida State
UNC-Greensboro
Indiana
Rutgers-Newark (I think they have a British historian, but not sure; Rutgers-New Brunswick MAs are not funded)
University of Vermont
Slippery Rock University
University of Colorado-Denver
University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Also, I don’t think UC-Santa Barbara offers terminal MAs, only MAs en route to PhD programs.

 

Thank you very much! I'm actually traveling to Santa Cruz this summer, I'll have to see if I can possibly arrange a chat when I'm there. Thanks for the heads up for UCSC. I may apply anyway... I'm okay with applying to the PhD for a couple of programs if the fit is strong. Thank you again, solid advice as always.

[Sigaba]

On 5/20/2021 at 5:16 PM, jebbush2k20 said:

I'm especially concerned by everyone's focus on language skills.... [I] imagine I'd need a second language and I'm not sure what the most effective one would be for someone studying mostly 20th century U.S.

FWIW, I satisfied my second language with statistics. Would you be interested in developing a stat-related skill set so you could crunch some data and make tables/charts/graphs for your research papers and (perhaps) your dissertation?

On 5/24/2021 at 4:43 PM, jebbush2k20 said:

This is really helpful! I was actually thinking Spanish could be useful, both for potential contemporary field research, and historical research about reproductive health-related experimentation in Latin America/Caribbean.

Developing fluency in Spanish to the point where you could use it for both field and archival research is potentially ambitious, if not also perilous. If your primary area of specialization is going to be reproductive health, you could use a narrower approach as a graduate student then widen your reach (to include Spanish) down the line.

[sonnybunny]

I know it is a bit earlier to be contacting potential advisors, but has anyone else sent out some introductory emails? I sent out a handful and had my first zoom call with a potential advisor today. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but overall ended in a great conversation. 

[psstein]

1 hour ago, sonnybunny said:

I know it is a bit earlier to be contacting potential advisors, but has anyone else sent out some introductory emails? I sent out a handful and had my first zoom call with a potential advisor today. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but overall ended in a great conversation. 

It's summer, so many faculty are checking email infrequently at best. Don't be too discouraged if you don't get a reply, just try again in the Fall.