Best Comparative Departments? Best Middle East Departments?

[ep2175]

I am completely lost. I am trying to pick a department, balancing the need to find a strong comparative department with the need to find a department with good Middle East scholars. I am interested in social movements, violence, ethnic conflict, and democratization ... any advice? I'm having a hard time cutting through the hard-sell to figure out which departments will actually allow for a good balance between substantive research interests and regional research interests.

[swr22]

It's tricky, isn't it? I had a hard time too doing the same calculation with Russia/Post-Soviet scholars. Then you have to make a decision regarding one prof who you might want to work with against a stronger comparative department!

[rlayla]

I'm in the same boat, basically trying to decide between Berkeley and Michigan for comparative middle east, and I have no idea what i'm doing.

[ep2175]

I'm in the same boat, basically trying to decide between Berkeley and Michigan for comparative middle east, and I have no idea what i'm doing.

who would have thought that getting in is as stressful as waiting to hear?

regarding berkeley - what are your opinions so far? i've been in touch with chaudhry, but 1) she seemed really focused on political economy, and 2) she seemed like she might be the kind of person who forces her research interests on you. she is the only ME person in comparative. i've had a really nice interaction with ron hassner, but he is IR. otherwise, i guess i'll wait and see to meet them in person.

[rlayla]

Yeah i was thinking of those two people too, although I hear chaudhry is really really difficult to work with. I'm much more interested in hassner's work. But then again... I don't know, how are you supposed to choose these things?

What do you think about Stanford? I'm on their waitlist, trying to figure out if i should pursue it.

[ep2175]

yeah, definitely got that sense from chaudhry.

as far as stanford goes ... seems to be a similar problem in terms of a dearth of ME people. lisa blaydes is apparently away until the 2010-2011 academic year. that said, there are some good people doing work on violence / ethnic conflict in the department - david laitin, jeremy weinstein, and jim fearon. laitin and weinstein are on sabbatical til fall 2009 though...

overall i've been pleased with my interactions with them. they have been very helpful and communicative. however, i do think the department is particularly geared toward quantitative methods / formal modeling / game theory ... which is definitely not my thing.

[plisar]

Michigan for comparative middle east, especially if you are doing anything with party systems or democratization.

[Manchild]

There is literally no combination of scholars doing ethnicity, conflict, and violence stuff that are better than that trio at Stanford.

[Penelope Higgins]

Stanford is a clear #1 for these issues - nobody comes close except maybe the Kalyvas/Sambanis/ maybe Wilkinson crowd at Yale, plus all the visitors at their OCV center...

[FuzzyDunlop]

ep,

all else equal, i would pick yale or stanford.

in recent years, no department has done better placing its candidates than stanford, and they have very good people in the ethnic conflict/violence nexus. i wouldn't go in expecting to work that closely with blaydes, just bc she is very junior and for people at that level at that kind of institution priorities 1, 2, 3, and 4 are getting tenure, not working with grad students. yale also has a great team in terms of ethnic conflict and violence, and also has lust-okar in middle east, who would probably be in a better position to help you (make sure she is staying though). it is also significantly more diverse methodologically. you can definitely do some qualitative work at stanford as part of your dissertation, but if you go there and want to work with fearon/laitin you will also be expected to do some formal modeling and/or stats. nothing wrong with that, just not everybody's cup of tea. in the end, both would be excellent choices, stanford probably has a better placement record but yale may be a better fit methodologically for you.

[ep2175]

thanks so much for the feedback and advice! very helpful information. i plan to visit both stanford and yale, so i guess we'll go from there.