Quantitative approach

[asldfk234]

I majored in statistics and history (not in the USA) and planning to apply for history phd this year.

I am interested in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. 

I tried to find quantitative researchers/grad schools in history focused on quantitative methods 

but it looks like quantitative methods are not that popular in history department. 

Any advice would be appreciated. Should I apply for other department like historical sociology?

Is there any professors/schools fit my interests?

 

[AfricanusCrowther]

You may want to look through recent issues Social Science History -- an important journal for quantitative historical approaches -- to see if there's someone you could work with. You may find that your historical interests are best served by professors whose "home" department are not history, such as sociology or economics. If that's so, you might be able work within a history department supervised by a co-advisor from outside history. Doing so would allow you to refine your understanding of both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Edited June 3, 2021 by AfricanusCrowther

[Rauschenbusch]

I'm a Ph.D. student at Florida State, and I took a seminar this spring called Qualitative Methods in the Humanities with a history professor here, Will Hanley. You might contact him or look into whether the history program here might be a fit for you.

[asldfk234]

On 6/4/2021 at 1:44 PM, Rauschenbusch said:

I'm a Ph.D. student at Florida State, and I took a seminar this spring called Qualitative Methods in the Humanities with a history professor here, Will Hanley. You might contact him or look into whether the history program here might be a fit for you.

Thanks for the recommendation. It seems his research fits my interests very well.

[asldfk234]

On 6/3/2021 at 10:49 PM, AfricanusCrowther said:

You may want to look through recent issues Social Science History -- an important journal for quantitative historical approaches -- to see if there's someone you could work with. You may find that your historical interests are best served by professors whose "home" department are not history, such as sociology or economics. If that's so, you might be able work within a history department supervised by a co-advisor from outside history. Doing so would allow you to refine your understanding of both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Thanks for the reply. I really like reading articles in SSH. I also submitted my papers to SSH 2021 conference and got accepted. 

[AfricanusCrowther]

5 hours ago, asldfk234 said:

Thanks for the reply. I really like reading articles in SSH. I also submitted my papers to SSH 2021 conference and got accepted. 

You might also look at faculty pages to see if the people who identify as social or economic historians have published books or articles that use advanced statistical methods/cliometrics.

My department has produced a couple of quantitative historians whose primary advisor is an economist with a courtesy appointment in history. So I would make sure to look at "Associate Faculty" or "Affiliated Faculty" pages.

[AP]

Additionally, right now many folks are doing digital humanities which, for some, includes big data or quantitative methods. Maybe you just need to polish your search terms. 

[Sigaba]

On 6/2/2021 at 9:28 PM, asldfk234 said:

Any advice would be appreciated.

It may be worth your while to spend some time studying why quantitative methods are not in favor, especially among Americanists. (R. W. Fogel, The Slavery Debates, 1952-1990, a retrospective isn't too terrible a place to start.)

I also urge you to consider the potential benefits and challenges of a "big data" approach to a discipline that straddles the boundaries between the social sciences and the humanities. You don't want to end up being the House of Klio's version of Miles Dyson. (Or maybe you do! What's the worst that could happen? ?)

Edited June 28, 2021 by Sigaba

[dr. t]

16 hours ago, Sigaba said:

(R. W. Fogel, The Slavery Debates, 1952-1990, a retrospective isn't too terrible a place to start.)

For premodernists, I'd look at Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

K-Z was a hard quant historian during the 60s and 70s who went over to microhistory. 

 

OTOH, I'm currently reviewing a book, and boy can I say that uncritical quantitative positivism is back in a big way in the German academy, if indeed it ever really left.

[TagRendar]

On 6/3/2021 at 12:28 AM, asldfk234 said:

I majored in statistics and history (not in the USA) and planning to apply for history phd this year.

I am interested in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. 

I tried to find quantitative researchers/grad schools in history focused on quantitative methods 

but it looks like quantitative methods are not that popular in history department. 

Any advice would be appreciated. Should I apply for other department like historical sociology?

Is there any professors/schools fit my interests?

 

 

I was looking at one particular cluster at Northwestern that might fit the bill for you - it might not be a history Ph.D, though, but a sociology or political science one (though I'm a bit unclear regarding that since it's listed on the history department's prospective students page as well, so it's all a bit confusing): https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/admission/academic-programs/clusters-and-certificates/comparative-and-historical-social-science/index.html

Edited July 1, 2021 by TagRendar

[Pierre de Olivi]

On 6/29/2021 at 11:20 AM, dr. telkanuru said:

OTOH, I'm currently reviewing a book, and boy can I say that uncritical quantitative positivism is back in a big way in the German academy, if indeed it ever really left.

Sorry for necroing but could you share the title of this book? I'm trying to do more methodological research on DH/quantitative methods in pre-modern stuff and this could be helpful, even if as a cautionary tale to some extent. I can read German if that matters.

[dr. t]

5 hours ago, Pierre de Olivi said:

Sorry for necroing but could you share the title of this book? I'm trying to do more methodological research on DH/quantitative methods in pre-modern stuff and this could be helpful, even if as a cautionary tale to some extent. I can read German if that matters.

 

St. Popovic, Mihailo, Veronika Polloczek, Bernhard Koschicek, and Stefan Eichert, eds. Power in Landscape: Geographic and Digital Approaches on Historical Research. Eudora Verlag, 2019.

My review will be out in The Medieval Review sometime within the next month, or if you DM me I'll send it to you.