Narrowing down my interests

[Derfasciti]

Hey guys!

I am currently looking at doing a Masters program for European history at WVU (or any better place that might accept me) but because I'm still not sure in what to specialize in, I'm wary of narrowing down my schools too much. Recently, I've decided to go roughly the more modern Eastern Europe (mainly Russia) route, thinking that I'm very interested in it, but more importantly it would seem one of the best specialties for one who may have to work in the government to have (since academia seems quite crowded as of late). However, throughout my decade + of serious interest in history, I have mostly found myself interested in western and central Europe. Particularly 18th-20th century France and Germany which focused to a large degree on the Seven Years War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Franco-Prussian War, and the World Wars. I have tended toward looking at history through a gods-eye view, being mostly interested in the people shaping events, and the politics and ideologies that dominated those centuries as well as the military conflicts themselves. With Russia, it has mostly been the latter years of the Tsars and the early Soviet Union up to the death of Stalin. And this was after much contemplation over whether or not to do medieval history. So, as you can see, my interests are very broad and probably (do correct me if I'm wrong) need some narrowing down.

So my primary question is: How can I narrow this down? How specific should I be when applying to a Masters program and explaining my interests? Are there better job opportunities for one focus over the other (is Russian probably more useful for the government or is it not really a big deal so long as one has a ph.d and can learn languages?)

Thanks very much. Any help in this task would sure be appreciated!

[JustChill]

You are very vague in your interests in government work, but if you're talking about federal employment (State Dept., FBI, etc), knowing the Russian language usually goes farther than nineteenth century Russian history.

I can tell you with certainty that you will need to decide before your application whether you want to do pre- or post-Revolutionary Russia. Our field is inherently divided into imperial and Soviet history, and all Russianists (and thus advisors) do one or the other, but not both. When applying to graduate programs, you will definitely need to decide which side of 1917 you want to concentrate on. As you probably know, there are more American scholars working on the Soviet period than the imperial, so it's a little more saturated and therefore harder to find an academic job. In my opinion, there is still a lot more work to be done on the imperial side (especially the late nineteenth century), and I think the job market is not quite as competitive there.

Bottom line, if you're trying to decide whether to do imperial or Soviet Russia, you are more likely (but obviously not guaranteed) to have more employment (not to mention more research) opportunities on the imperial side.

[robot_hamster]

Have you thought about doing something with historical geography? Just a thought.

Edited September 29, 2010 by robot_hamster

[TMP]

Let me be blunt here, you haven't taken any Russian language courses. How do you know if you'll like it enough to actually work with it on a regular basis, especially if your job totally depends upon it? If you think you'll really love Russian language and are more concerned about working for the government, I would skip the idea of doing a MA in history and focus on Russian/Eastern European Studies (like the one at Georgetown), which will serve your broad interests better.(i.e. you'll get to take 19th century Lit while doing Soviet history, learn more about the government and economics of Soviet Union, etc.).

Even so, these programs do usually require 3rd year Russian, which can be accomplished during a year off by spending a summer or two semesters in intensive Russian language program to zip through the first two years.

If you're not sure how much you'll *love* Russian, then go for history MA, so if it doesn't work out, you can back out quickly and switch geographical fields. As JustChill said, you do need to narrow your interests down. You seem to be focused on the military. Make an argument for European military history, specifically 19th century wars involving Russia, and then explain WHY Russia and these specific wars. What trends in these wars interest you? Is it the method of acquiring ports? Is it about the civilians' lives? What big questions do you have? Because you'll need to start thinking about your MA thesis as soon as you get into the program, the adcoms will want to see some kind of research proposal. What do you want to write your MA thesis on? I'm not kidding about this part- my (excellent) graduate adviser asked me in NOVEMBER of my 1st semester in my MA program if I had already thought about my thesis topic.

Whatever you do, plan on taking intensive Russian somewhere next summer, if not WVU, to get a good headstart and have undivided attention to learning the language and getting a solid foundation of vocabulary and grammar.

[Derfasciti]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! As you can tell I'm still a little new to all of this and although I've been wanting to go to grad school for years now, I've only recently started to try to make some real plans so I'm always looking for advice on anything.

@robot_hamster: Probably a stupid question but... what do you mean by historical geography? lol.

@JustChill: Yes, sorry. I indeed I meant things like that. Department of Defense, State, the CIA. Basically any government organization that could still use those fluent in Russian and/or someone who is very well versed in Russian history/politics. My current advisor seems to think that I will actually have plenty of time to narrow down my interests while doing my Masters but I still want to narrow it down as much as I can before I get there just in case. As for pre or post-revolution, I currently tend to lean pre-revolution just because I've recently thought that exploring the ultra right-wing factions such as the pan-Slavs and the intellectual/philosophical justifications for absolutism could be fun. I tend to gravitate to exploring right-wing politics rather than left. Although, just to keep my indecision obvious, I'm also big on exploring the history of Marxism.

@ticklemepink: The short of it: I don't know. I mean, I've heard the Russian language spoken and have tried a little of it on Rosetta Stone and it does at least SEEM like it's something I really would enjoy. But of course I simply cannot truly know until I've got more than my feet wet. However, my end goal is really not to work for the government. I think I'd be most comfortable and happy in academia. I merely continue to mention government work because I think (and, as always, correct me if I'm wrong) that academia is a little crowded right now and getting a job there might be hard. So I'm trying to consider other job opportunities that may require Russian or some other language and trying to base some of my research interests off of that. Plus, I'm trying to figure out to narrow down places I can get that will be financially feasible as I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do much in the way of work as I do my Masters. WVU has told me they're not going to really give a TAship and, after re-reading their website, it does mention that it's mainly for Ph.d candidates and ocassionally outstanding MA students. But still, being in-state is probably less expensive than out of state.