Specializations?

[datroy]

I'm interested to see how your career proceeds. It seems that military history is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, but your work seems more broadly applicable.

And yet it is just about the most popular of all history consumed by the general public. So if military history did something at some point to decrease its relevance in the academy, then academia has just as much to answer for as the discipline itself. But, I don't really mind. I'm going to be 32, give or take when I finish my program, and not likely in the running for any serious tenure track positions. The whole reason I wanted to get my PhD in history (I got my MA in international relations but my BA in history) was based on almost 6 years working for and consulting for DoD on IW/COIN/CT. Sociocultural studies have been done to death - DoD has made a big deal about bringing in social scientists (sociologists, anthropologists, etc), but the one thing they still lack is any kind of in depth historical perspective on anything that happened prior to Vietnam (or the Malayan Emergency in some cases). Furthermore, social scientists love case studies, so they can can create data sets and let the numbers give them the answers - anything more in depth than a 10 page case study takes too much time. I'm not looking to find the secret to winning in Afghanistan by studying the Civil War or the American Revolution - historians make that mistake much too often of assuming that every historical event has some direct correlation or lesson for current events. But I do want to study the way opposition/resistance movements have historically responded in areas where they were the political minority, because these were strategic questions that have been dealt with, within their own context, as far in the Civil War, the Revolution, and log before that. More important, though, what I want the PhD for is to develop those skills in historical analysis to eventually bring a missing skill-set back to the academic components of the military and government. If history as a discipline doesn't think that's a skill or niche worth pursuing, and is content to abandon strategic thinking to political scientists and sociologists and their data sets, then that is their loss (nothing against people in those fields). This in no way means disrespect for other fields of history that are more prevalent in academia today - I am fascinated by many fields of historical study, from ancient and medieval history to labor history and urban history. There are certainly goofy and bizarre areas of military history, just as there are in other fields of history. Studying whether Pickett shaked when he should have baked at Gettysburg is of great interest to re-enactors and tacticians, but there are many other areas of traditional military history that we desperately need to foster in academia, and I don't think students who want to study military history should be forced to study some aspect of the field they have no interest in or that isn't going to help them simply because it fits within the new academic trends.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now, and I hope I didn't insult anyone's academic interests or anything like that. I'm just glad that there are some programs that continue to foster military history programs even as they have fallen by the wayside elsewhere.

[sankd]

Keep fighting the good fight!

[RPits]

hey all! i'm going to jump on the train...

i'm in the final stages of completing my master's thesis on the anti-suffrage movement in upstate new york. specifically, the organizational tactics used and the gaps that existed between the antis urban and rural methodology. bigger idea? women's conservative and oppositional movements

on a side note: congrats to all you historian hopefuls who are currently receiving word. i'll be further preparing throughout the course of this year and applying to programs come fall, so i will soon feel your anxiety-ridden pain!

[PhD or Bust]

i know many professors and students of native american/first nations history personally, and none of them are native. it would actually be comforting to know that graduate schools are taking on native americans as graduate students.

I'm an Indian and have yet to get in to a school ...Not to play the "race card", but I honestly thought that being indigenous and wanting to do indigenous history - with great grades - would have helped me to get into schools... Edited March 3, 2011 by PhD or Bust

[The Dudester]

I'm an Indian and have yet to get in to a school ...Not to play the "race card", but I honestly thought that being indigenous and wanting to do indigenous history - with great grades - would have helped me to get into schools...

Maybe they are worried you are "too close" to your subject. They don't want you to go all Edward Said on them.

[Jeppe]

Maybe they are worried you are "too close" to your subject. They don't want you to go all Edward Said on them.

I'm guessing this is a joke, but for what it's worth both of the two professors of Native American history at Yale are Native Americans themselves. I don't really know Alyssa Mt. Pleasant, but Ned Blackhawk is a truly amazing professor, and comes highly recommended for anyone going to or considering Yale.

[ReallyNiceGuy]

I am very new to this forum. I do not know if what I am about to do is bad form; I apologize if I am breaking any rules.

I am an aspiring historian. I hope to study National delimitation and the following korenizatsiya in the former USSR. I am also interested in the industrialization of the central Asian SSRs.

With that in mind, if any of you have 5 minutes to spare, I would appreciate it if you'd reply to my questions. If not, I wish you all the best of luck with applications and coursework!

[aspiringhistorian]

I have been- and intend to continue in graduate school- specializing in Modern European History with a focus on nationalism via mega-events (such as the Olympics, World's Fairs, etc), architecture, propaganda, etc. So far I've worked with countries such as France, Italy, and Germany, and I currently have a grant that supports the study of Soviet and American nationalism during the Cold War at the Olympics. It's a little outside what I generally work with but I wanted to get a more robust background in the subfield so that I could write a more effective senior thesis this coming year.

So if anyone knows of any American schools that seem to support such an interest, please let me know!

[sandyvanb]

My field is Atlantic World with a particular interest in the French Atlantic. I wrote my MA thesis on the French and Indian War, I intend to continue PhD studies on the French perspective of this conflict. Applications go out this fall!

[Sigaba]

I'm an Americanist. My primary research interests are naval strategy and policy during the Cold War, the army during the Gilded Age, and the impact (or lack thereof) of historiography on American civilization.

Entire post.

FWIW, based upon my research, I think Datroy has the relationship between military historians and the academy a bit skewed. Because so many military (and naval) historians take a utilitarian approach to their fields of study, and because these historians have the advantages of popularity among laypersons and often produce works relevant to the American armed services (and for other reasons as well), they have not yet participated sufficiently in the big debates among academic historians over the last fifty or so years.

I'm increasingly convinced that this lack of critical, intense engagement with our peers in the Ivory Tower is one of the primary reasons why the study of war is in bad decline in history departments throughout the U.S.

My $0.02.

[CageFree]

Latin Americanist, second half of the 20th century My interests currently have to do with the Dirty War in Argentina. One little project I am working on right now (to see if I can turn it into a writing sample) is the radicalization of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and whether any of it had to do with their own children's alleged (and in some cases, real) radical, ultra-left wing agendas.

My second field is modern U.S. History, specifically foreign policy toward Latin America. My resarch will likely combine both fields - I'm interested in U.S. foreign policy toward those military dictatorships, especially the ones in Argentina, as part of a policy of containment. I do want to look at it from the point of view of the dictatorships.

Since I grew up in Argentina during the 1980s, a lot of those issues were part of the political atmosphere that I grew up with. I experienced a lot of rejection for being American-born (to Argentine parents); there was (and still is) a lot of anger directed at Americans, both due to allegations of CIA assistance to the dictatorships and to American pro-British involvement in the Malvinas war. I have a lot of background in modern U.S. history from teaching it at the secondary level, so I think that's definitely influenced my research interests.

Edited August 5, 2011 by Teacher4PhD

[Sigaba]

Latin Americanist, second half of the 20th century My interests currently have to do with the Dirty War in Argentina. One little project I am working on right now (to see if I can turn it into a writing sample) is the radicalization of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and whether any of it had to do with their own children's alleged (and in some cases, real) radical, ultra-left wing agendas.

My second field is modern U.S. History, specifically foreign policy toward Latin America. My resarch will likely combine both fields - I'm interested in U.S. foreign policy toward those military dictatorships, especially the ones in Argentina, as part of a policy of containment. I do want to look at it from the point of view of the dictatorships.

Since I grew up in Argentina during the 1980s, a lot of those issues were part of the political atmosphere that I grew up with. I experienced a lot of rejection for being American-born (to Argentine parents); there was (and still is) a lot of anger directed at Americans, both due to allegations of CIA assistance to the dictatorships and to American pro-British involvement in the Malvinas war. I have a lot of background in modern U.S. history from teaching it at the secondary level, so I think that's definitely influenced my research interests.

T4PHD--

Please keep me in mind if you need a sounding board on the Reagan administration and/or the CIA and/or the historiography of that period in relation to American foreign policy during that period.

[CageFree]

Will do, thanks!