What do you want to do with your PhD?

[jacib]

What do you want to do with your PhD, especially those focusing on Christianity? Do you expect to teach or to work for a denomination or to do pastoral work or something else? If you plan to teach, where do you see yourself: at a research university, at a top liberal arts university, at a smaller local school, at a state school, at a secular school, at religious school, at a seminary, at college? Do you expect research to continue take up a large part of your time after you finish your dissertation? Have you looked into job opportunities, or is getting a PhD something you just know you need to do and the rest will be provided for? (Me, I am pretty sure I could be nothing but an academic so there's no judgment on my part if you say "Yes, I just need this PhD"). At my undergraduate university, the Judeo-Christian, especially theological, parts of the religion department were less than half of the whole, but judging from this forum, Christianity (especially pre-modern Judeo-Christianity as well as theology-y things) seems to be far and away the most popular aspect of "religion" at the graduate level. It seems like desire to get a PhD far outstrips the number of spots available every year and that it is much harder to get in a PhD program in religion than in almost any other field that I've seen (one exception could be literature). But as an outsider who has only glimpsed this from the parallel, I am very curious about what people want to do with their PhD in say the New Testament or Early Christianity or Systematic Theology or the other theology, because thinking back on the boards from last year, I feel like in the other topic I followed (sociology) there was much more talk about whether one would want to teach or not teach, and where one would want to teach, whereas on the religion subforum, there was a much stronger emphasis on the long standing desire to get a PhD with much less discussion of what would happen after.

I am honestly just really curious because I don't know what an ideal outcome means here, I mean other than teaching at Chicago or Harvard or Duke or which ever other top research university you can name. Presumably, most people want to do that.

[Sparky]

Well, just a couple of thoughts, quickly:

There are a lot of places to get a PhD in religion, probably more than many disciplines due to the seminary factor. What there are NOT, however, are many *good* places to get a PhD. Religion/theology is really, really insular--like, if academic theology were a social group, it would be Old Money--so the top schools and even some of the "decent" ones will only consider applicants from the other top sc hools.

It also doesn't seem like religion people apply to as many programs as applicants in other disciplines. Partly b/c there aren't as many good ones, I'm sure, but I think also religion applicants are often older and have more local ties limiting choices. In English, philosophy and history you see people applying to 10, 12, maybe more schools; I don't think rel people usually go for more than six, *maybe* seven at the most.

ETA:

The being-older part might have something to do with people being less worried about what they're doing after. Like, if you've been a Presbyterian pastor for fifteen years, you know you can do that, and maybe you even want to go back to that.

Also, at my MA school, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that everyone was intending to teach. It still seems odd, now that I'm in history, when people ask me what I'm going to do with it, instead of, "You want to teach, right?" If everyone is planning to teach, there's no reason to talk about WHETHER to teach or not.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Sparky

[johndiligent]

"What do you want to do with your PhD, especially those focusing on Christianity? Do you expect to teach or to work for a denomination or to do pastoral work or something else?"

I don't expect to teach, because I'm not an idiot. That's simply what I would most like to do. Working for a denomination, doing pastoral work, etc. are not options for me, because I'm in Religious Studies, not Theology. I'm not an in-faith scholar.

"If you plan to teach, where do you see yourself: at a research university, at a top liberal arts university, at a smaller local school, at a state school, at a secular school, at religious school, at a seminary, at college?"

At any one of those options that would hire me, except for a seminary, for the reason mentioned above.

"Do you expect research to continue take up a large part of your time after you finish your dissertation?"

Obviously. I'm an academic.

"Have you looked into job opportunities, or is getting a PhD something you just know you need to do and the rest will be provided for?"

I am aware of the extreme difficulties of getting an academic position in our field, and I am doing everything that's recommended to improve my chances when on the job market. My ideal career - being a professor, requires a PhD, and that's why I'm getting one. But I understand that there's nothing remotely certain about a job in academia. I can do everything within my power to be an attractive candidate, but ultimately I am aware that odds are I will not be successful.

"...Christianity (especially pre-modern Judeo-Christianity as well as theology-y things) seems to be far and away the most popular aspect of "religion" at the graduate level."

On these boards, I think, but I don't think that's true of the academic world as a whole, at least not anymore. Of the 30 odd graduate students at my department, there are probably only five of us who study Christianity. I think these boards tilt appearances toward Christianity because there are a lot of MDiv/MST/MTS students on the board (in fact, there seem to be more of them than those interested in the academic study of religion).

"It seems like desire to get a PhD far outstrips the number of spots available every year and that it is much harder to get in a PhD program in religion than in almost any other field that I've seen (one exception could be literature)."

Philosophy, I'd say, is comparatively much harder.

"I am very curious about what people want to do with their PhD in say the New Testament or Early Christianity or Systematic Theology or the other theology, because thinking back on the boards from last year, I feel like in the other topic I followed (sociology) there was much more talk about whether one would want to teach or not teach, and where one would want to teach, whereas on the religion subforum, there was a much stronger emphasis on the long standing desire to get a PhD with much less discussion of what would happen after."

I thought we discussed career aspirations plenty on the board last year, but maybe my memory is going. I'm in EC, and I want to teach. Since my research interests are also foci of interest in other fields, I can also apply for positions in cognate disciplines.

"I am honestly just really curious because I don't know what an ideal outcome means here, I mean other than teaching at Chicago or Harvard or Duke or which ever other top research university you can name. Presumably, most people want to do that."

I'd be a bit more realistic and state that an ideal outcome is getting a teaching job at all, regardless of whether it's at a top research university or not.