Viable Dissertation Topics/Research Foci?

[silfeid]

Hi all.

I am planning on applying to History PhD programs this fall, with an aim to enter in 2012 (btw, is it common to allow people to defer their initial appointment by one year in History programs? I could have done this for my current program, and sometimes I think that it might be nice to pull that card in the future. Reassure myself that I've got somewhere to go, but take one more year off to get my life/finances together).

Anyway, I'm wrapping up a Master's Degree in German Studies, with a graduate minor in History, from a top-ten (#4) school in this field (University of Minnesota) this spring, and I'll be off next year trying to make money and beef up my CV - probably work a shitty job and volunteer part-time at some local history centers/museums etc. Possibly take French courses at community college, or perhaps Dutch or Swedish if possible.

The question, though, is what sort of topics are considered viable when I write my Statement of Purpose etc.? I'm really interested in confessional and economic transformation in Hanseatic cities in the early modern era (especially in the era of the decline of the league), and obviously this fits in pretty solidly with German Studies. I double-majored in History and German in undergrad, so again the history connection is obvious - the switch from German Studies to history is not that abrupt or jarring, methinks.

The problem is that this subject matter has been covered pretty heavily in the past (what hasn't though?), and I'm not sure how great of a research focus it would make, for that reason. Obviously I need to do more research myself in this area to figure out how tired this ground really is, but I thought there might be people on this site that already have a good notion of it. I'm also interested in the concept of a German Diaspora across the Baltic Region via Hanse trading activities, and at looking at the entire Baltic region as a unit, similar to what's been done with the Mediterranean in the past thirty or forty years.

I have quite a number of other potential topics, mostly in the early modern period, but this one is my favorite, and I'm wondering how viable the general premise sounds. Obviously my actual research or dissertation would be focused far more narrowly on some sub-set within this (Let's say the role of resident German merchants in transforming religious life in Riga, Latvia in the 16th century, off the top of my head), but getting a sense for whether this subject matter is acceptable or not would be helpful at this point. I haven't done research for very many schools yet (over the summer I shall be getting more involved in all of this), but my top choice, Carnegie Mellon, has 2 professors whose research interests fit very well (early modern and modern Germany) and a couple others whose research interests overlap a bit, or can be brought to bear on the subject matter.

[Jeppe]

The problem is that this subject matter has been covered pretty heavily in the past (what hasn't though?), and I'm not sure how great of a research focus it would make, for that reason. Obviously I need to do more research myself in this area to figure out how tired this ground really is, but I thought there might be people on this site that already have a good notion of it. I'm also interested in the concept of a German Diaspora across the Baltic Region via Hanse trading activities, and at looking at the entire Baltic region as a unit, similar to what's been done with the Mediterranean in the past thirty or forty years.

I have quite a number of other potential topics, mostly in the early modern period, but this one is my favorite, and I'm wondering how viable the general premise sounds. Obviously my actual research or dissertation would be focused far more narrowly on some sub-set within this (Let's say the role of resident German merchants in transforming religious life in Riga, Latvia in the 16th century, off the top of my head), but getting a sense for whether this subject matter is acceptable or not would be helpful at this point. I haven't done research for very many schools yet (over the summer I shall be getting more involved in all of this), but my top choice, Carnegie Mellon, has 2 professors whose research interests fit very well (early modern and modern Germany) and a couple others whose research interests overlap a bit, or can be brought to bear on the subject matter.

It sounds like a perfectly viable subject area, but I think you're on to something particularly interesting in your more regional approach and focus on diasporas and trade networks. If you go this route, you would be able to tie it together with some very recent studies on social networks in the early modern period (see for example Francesca Trivellato's The Familiarity of Strangers, about the Sephardic diaspora in Livorno and beyond), and it would resonate with current trends theoretically, if not as much geographically. That isn't to say that there are no people in the US working on Hanseatic history, but it is arguably a pretty narrow field these days.

Also, as a minor nitpick, Braudel's magisterial work on the Mediterranean came out more than 60 years ago (1949), so the regional unit analysis of Southern Europe is hardly new

[borderlands]

I'm no Europeanist to begin with but I can give some advice to the question: what sort of topics are considered viable when I write my Statement of Purpose. Followed by the problem: this topic/ area has already been covered and/ or perhaps extensively written on.

A good historical paper (e.g. a publishable paper) must cover the historiography of the subject/ topic/ area. The basic premise is simple: this is where other historians have gone; the problem with the previous work method/ scope/ new information e.g. archives (that was perhaps not available before); and this is where I'm going with this where no other historian has gone before. I gather from your historical background that you understand this.

The problem is that this topic area has already been covered and you perhaps doubt the value of the scholarship you produced to that of other scholars and that is perfectly fine. We have all been there when one feels like we are making kindergarden arguments/claims. If it's a new topic area one does not worry too much about this except that other historians, as one does, finds this area possible and worthy of research. Most established topics/ areas have a historiography that one must cover and make one's own argument.

I would work with the ideas/ claims that your research sample makes and incorporate them into your statement of purpose as well as state your other research interests. I would also read Peter Novicks, That Noble Dream: The "objectivity question" and the American Historical Profession.