Hitting a Cold Streak Searching for Research Help

[thedig13]

Basically, I'm a sophomore looking to eventually go to graduate school and get a PhD in History.

My short-term goal right now is that I'm searching for a professor to basically supervise and mentor me in my attempts to get some primary research done, and give me some research experience.

I've already spent about 6 - 8 months doing research in the Ethnic Studies department, but, frankly, I've grown weary of it, and I feel that it's too impersonal and lacks direction. The professor struggles to actually mentor me through the process (he usually just tells me to do some research, and expects me to work incredible magic), and usually doesn't reply to inquiries with any semblance of promptness, and isn't very easy to track him down on campus. I am probably going to explain to him that I can't continue working with him by the end of the academic year.

I've met a few good professors. One professor of mine, specializing in African History, has been very helpful. Unfortunately, his time at my university has passed, and our only communication now is via e-mail, as he's working somewhere else now. I recently sent him an e-mail asking him if he'd like to supervise and/or collaborate on a project, and I haven't heard back from him since. Obviously, I don't want to press the issue by sending another, especially since he's taken much longer than this to get back to me in the past. Then again, I can't help but be a little discouraged.

Another professor of mine in the Anthropology department who looked promising is now on sabbatical, and hasn't gotten back to me yet. And, just yesterday, I found out that a pretty cool professor who seemed like a decent guy is holding a position as Lecturer, as opposed to an actual research position. I haven't gotten to know him that well, but it's upsetting to know that any work he does with me won't be sponsored in any way by the university.

Basically, it's been one giant beatdown after another, and I don't know where to turn. I don't want to be baby-sitted or hand-held, obviously, but I've never done any serious projects involving primary research, and I'd really like to have some degree of mentoring and assistance before I'm let out into the wild.

I don't know where to look or where to turn, and I feel like the clock is ticking down on my opportunity to "get ahead" of the competition, as it were. Eight months ago, I was starting a promising research internship with a 3.9 GPA while most of my peers were struggling to adjust to college. And now, I can almost smell them closing the gap; many of them have started racking up research assistantships and internships, and I feel like they're catching up to me.

It's really frustrating. Help me?

Edited September 28, 2011 by thedig13

[maeisenb]

Just breathe. It's perfectly fine to not be completely "on track" as a first term sophomore. Your GPA is fine so just keep doing well and any professor you want to work with you'll want to take multiple classes with anyway, so try out different history classes this year and then once you figure out an area you like take more classes the following year. You've only spoken with 3 professors (plus the 4th who is a lecturer) in widely differing areas, so try some more this fall and next spring to nail something down and you'll be fine. It sounds like you're not even sure what area of history you want to work on, so figure that out first, then worry about everything else.

My only caution would be if you want to work on something that requires a significant number or languages (e.g. ancient history) or something with strong knowledge in one particular one that you don't know at all (e.g. middle eastern), then start thinking about those now. Otherwise first figure out what areas you want to do before you feel like you're "falling behind." (which you're not at all).

[remenis]

As maeisenb pointed out, it seems that you've asked professors from such a wide variety of subjects if you can help them with their research. It would probably help if you could identify the time-periods, regions or types of history that you are most interested in studying and focus more on finding research projects that directly relate to your interests and previous coursework.

One thing I've noticed from experience is that a professor is more likely to want to help you and give you a research project if they know that you are specifically very interested in their field and that you have the background knowledge and skills needed to do serious work in that field.

If you have only taken one survey or first-year course in some branch of history, say African history, and suddenly ask that professor if you can work with them it's likely that they will think you are not ready to primary source research in that field until you have completed upper level coursework and have a much more solid understanding of the relevant historiography. As maeisenb also pointed out: in many fields primary source work requires extensive language preparation and often requires random other skills. Medieval history research, for example, often requires training not only in the Latin language but in medieval Latin paleography as well.

Depending on what field you want to go into, it might be more valuable for you to spend your extra time learning some languages as opposed to doing research in a field which is vastly different from the type of work you would want to do in graduate school.

I don't know whether or not you've been doing this already, but if you haven't, another thing you should do before asking professors if they might be able to use you as a research assistant is read their published work (the more recent the better). Reading their actual work should be able to give you a really good idea of what they really research and what their primary sources might be. If you notice that all the primary sources are in a far away archive, or are written in a language you don't speak it is less likely that they are going to have a need for you. It still wouldn't necessarily hurt to ask them if they have other projects going on that are more accessible, and it will probably impress a professor more if they see that you are interested in their work and not just in finding research experience.

And you are definitely not falling behind. Research experience is important for a graduate school application but it isn't the only important thing. It's more important to do one or two solid projects in a field you love than to do five or six in a bunch of random subjects you don't care for.

Edited September 29, 2011 by remenis

[TMP]

Agreed that whatever you want to do really needs to be relevant and with certain qualifications. Unless you're in American history, it's very difficult to assist in professor's research. You're likely not even qualified to copy-edit their manuscripts as it requires certain proficiency in academic English if you're looking for anything to do in English. In example, one of my undergraduate professor was in Russian history and in lieu of a 20 page research paper, she gave the Russian majors primary source documents that she had collected for her research to translate for her.

Once you've completed an upper level seminar, things may get a little easier. Students are more successful at securing research projects if they completed a research paper and have demonstrated interest in doing more research in that area that may complement with the professor's current research. For example, a student may take a course on World War I and want to write about the university town's WWI experiences (even if the course itself is set in Europe). At the same time, the professor is considering a pet project relating to the university town's role in WWI. So the professor can say "okay" and agree to supervise the student's research so the student can do more digging in the library and local archives to learn more about the town during World War I, thus collaborating with the professor.

These kind of "local history" research projects tend to be a bit successful because students don't have to go very far to find primary sources and there's just that vested interest in developing town-gown relations by raising awareness of the past roles by the town and the university in responding to national and international issues and events. Local history is really fascinating. Don't underestimate it.

In the meantime, start developing your language skills, either in French or German (two most popular languages) if you still don't know what geographical areas you want to be in. And think about what you'd like to do over next summer- find an internship or partake in a language program (though you may want to start looking around for grants like FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) if you're at a large university).

Trust me, you are not far at all. Most people don't even think about PhD until... their senior year.

[StrangeLight]

1) try to get into a program at your school that allows you to complete a senior or honours thesis. this will be based on primary research and you will have a mentor that works with you on your interests, not the other way around.

2) don't spend too much effort trying to find a professor to let you work on their project. they won't. you're not trained in that work yet. a prof might approach you if they think you'd be good for a position, but you have to wait for them. everyone i know who got a research assistantship job as an undergrad (myself included) was approached by the prof, not the other way around.

3) focus on your language skills. figure out what your geographical or thematic interests are and then ask yourself what languages you'd need to know to do that work. interested in latin america? learn spanish and either portuguese or french. interested in subsaharan africa? french and portuguese are probably your best bet. modern europe? german and french. this will help you get into a PhD program. i swear, languages make or break applications.

[Sigaba]

In addition to the excellent guidance in the previous posts, you might also consider the utility of identifying one or more of the most significant historiographical debates in your areas of interest. Get your hands on a monograph, journal article, or dissertation that has advanced the debate and then "reverse engineer" the primary sources. Determine if your reading of the primary sources agrees or disagrees with the prevailing interpretations.

If you pursue this option, please limit your objective to "getting your feet wet." Do not jump into the deep end -- you'll be blindfolded, bound, and thrown in when you get to graduate school.

HTH.

[qbtacoma]

If you pursue this option, please limit your objective to "getting your feet wet." Do not jump into the deep end -- you'll be blindfolded, bound, and thrown in when you get to graduate school.

And how!