PhD applications for 2013-2014 chit chat...

[11Q13]

It's about that time folks...

I'm exhausted from scouring school websites trying to pick out useful information so I thought I would ask you folks and it's about time we got one of these threads going.

I'm interested in Judaism and Christianity ca 500-500, especially social identity, "the parting of the ways," historically neglected corners of the aforementioned such as "Jewish-Christianity" and Eastern/Syriac Christianity, and the more standard areas in New Testament, Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple.

As of now, I'm certainly applying to:

Brown

Duke

Harvard

Notre Dame

Princeton

Toronto

UPenn

Yale

In trying to expand this list, and would really appreciate any recommendations! It's only September and I'm already stressing out.

Edited September 24, 2012 by 11Q13

[cadences]

I just emailed a PhD student at Yale to ask if there was anyone on staff whose expertise touched on early Syriac Christianity, and the answer I got was a decisive "no". Stephen Davis handles Coptic Christianity, but from what I hear it's not particularly Jewish in character (or at least not the aspects of Coptic Christianity he researches). Have you considered Marquette?

[flanders]

11Q13- Unfortunately I do not have any additional suggestions for you, but I do have a question. Are you applying to the Religion department at Toronto or the ThD program jointly conferred by TST and Toronto? I ask because I too am interested in applying to Toronto, but just saw on the TST homepage that they are restructuring the program and are only accepting applications for deferred admission. Wondering if you know anything more about this?

[11Q13]

I just emailed a PhD student at Yale to ask if there was anyone on staff whose expertise touched on early Syriac Christianity, and the answer I got was a decisive "no". Stephen Davis handles Coptic Christianity, but from what I hear it's not particularly Jewish in character (or at least not the aspects of Coptic Christianity he researches). Have you considered Marquette?

Yeah, Yale's program remains structured in the old fashioned way, ie. New Testament, Judaic Studies, and Old Testament are all distinct fields without the overlap most places have been adopting. Syriac Christianity is an area that, more or less, requires this more interdisciplinary structure to drum up enough need: OT people for the lingustics, NT people for the diversity of early Christianity, and Judaic Studies for the relationship to rabbinic Judaism. That said, I do have a friend that recently finished her PhD in the Judaic Studies program and heavily emphasized Syriac in her work.

Greg Sterling, the new dean, is a Coptic specialist (Copticist?), though who knows how much teaching responsibility he'll have.

I will definitely give Marquette a look. This is my problem exactly, I only really know the big name places like Harvard, Yale, etc., I would have never thought to look at Marquette.

11Q13- Unfortunately I do not have any additional suggestions for you, but I do have a question. Are you applying to the Religion department at Toronto or the ThD program jointly conferred by TST and Toronto? I ask because I too am interested in applying to Toronto, but just saw on the TST homepage that they are restructuring the program and are only accepting applications for deferred admission. Wondering if you know anything more about this?

Religion department. Though I feel your pain about departments being closed. I had planned to apply to the joint PhD with UC Berkeley and GTU, but they aren't accepting applications this year as they too are restructuring.

[goodbye I]

11Q13,

I finished an MA at the Iliff School of Theology this past spring and there is a lot of conversation about "the parting of ways" of "Judaism" and "Christianity" going on there. It is one of the interests of Dr. Eisenbaum, especially in regards to book technology. Much of the conversation is reflective and dependent on Boyarin's 'Border Lines', which might give you a good frame of reference for the kind of conversation taking place. While it is not necessarily one of the big name schools, it may certainly be worth checking out given your interests. I would suggest sending Pam an e-mail, she's very cordial and I'm sure would be willing to discuss your interests and how they match DU/Iliff's.

[sacklunch]

11Q13,

I finished an MA at the Iliff School of Theology this past spring and there is a lot of conversation about "the parting of ways" of "Judaism" and "Christianity" going on there. It is one of the interests of Dr. Eisenbaum, especially in regards to book technology. Much of the conversation is reflective and dependent on Boyarin's 'Border Lines', which might give you a good frame of reference for the kind of conversation taking place. While it is not necessarily one of the big name schools, it may certainly be worth checking out given your interests. I would suggest sending Pam an e-mail, she's very cordial and I'm sure would be willing to discuss your interests and how they match DU/Iliff's.

I looked at Iliff not too long ago and didn't see too many people in bible/historical. A good friend from BC is there now doing a PhD in sexual ethics and has nothing but great things to say about the program, though as I said, they don't seem to have enough folks in the area that (I think) 11Q13 is in. Things may have changed recently that their website doesn't reflect?

Edited October 1, 2012 by jdmhotness

[goodbye I]

I'm looking for suggestions of programs I may not have thought of as well. My interests are in intertextuality, how literary techniques help form identity in the gospels (especially Mark), performance criticism and orality, Pauline counter-imperial interpretations (more specifically, how the Pauline communities interact with empire), and aspectual theory/discourse analysis of the Greek NT. I am an evangelical Christian, but my MA is fron a non-evangelical institution. This makes me a little more flexible in terms of programs I am looking at; I intend on applying to both seminaries and universities. This is my list thus far: Marquette, UT-Austin, Emory, Baylor, Duke, McMaster Divinity School, and Fuller.

[goodbye I]

I looked at Iliff not too long ago and didn't see too many people in bible/historical. A good friend from BC is there now doing a PhD in sexual ethics and has nothing but great things to say about the program, though as I said, they don't seem to have enough folks in the area that (I think) 11Q13 is in. Things may have changed recently that their website doesn't reflect?

That's right the Bible department is a little more scarce right now. The website may not be accurate either because the program is joint with Denver University. I think you have to look at both websites to get an accurate representation of the faculty. Dr. Pam Eisenbaum and Dr. Greg Robbins are the two on the NT side of things (though Dr. Robbins wears a few different early Christian hats--he is primarily a Eusebius scholar). Dr. Ann Brock has recently stepped down and (I believe) they are looking for someone to fill her role sooner than later. Dr. Mark George and Dr. Amy Erickson do HB there.

[sport1]

11Q13,

David Michelson focuses in Syriac Christianity and is a new addition to Vandy. I wonder how AJ Levine would fit with your interest in the blurry boundaries between Judaism & Christianity.

[11Q13]

I'm looking for suggestions of programs I may not have thought of as well. My interests are in intertextuality, how literary techniques help form identity in the gospels (especially Mark), performance criticism and orality, Pauline counter-imperial interpretations (more specifically, how the Pauline communities interact with empire), and aspectual theory/discourse analysis of the Greek NT. I am an evangelical Christian, but my MA is fron a non-evangelical institution. This makes me a little more flexible in terms of programs I am looking at; I intend on applying to both seminaries and universities. This is my list thus far: Marquette, UT-Austin, Emory, Baylor, Duke, McMaster Divinity School, and Fuller.

I would definitely give Notre Dame a look. "Intertextuality" seems like a big thing there, though it might be more DSS, LXX than NT.

That's right the Bible department is a little more scarce right now. The website may not be accurate either because the program is joint with Denver University. I think you have to look at both websites to get an accurate representation of the faculty. Dr. Pam Eisenbaum and Dr. Greg Robbins are the two on the NT side of things (though Dr. Robbins wears a few different early Christian hats--he is primarily a Eusebius scholar). Dr. Ann Brock has recently stepped down and (I believe) they are looking for someone to fill her role sooner than later. Dr. Mark George and Dr. Amy Erickson do HB there.

Here is a list of the joint faculty: http://www.du.edu/duiliffjoint/Faculty.html

By "stepped down" do you mean Brock left the school? The pickings there do seem a bit slim, but Dr. Eisenbaum definitely sounds interesting. The other big thing for me is the funding. I'm really only considering places that offer full tuition remission plus stipend, anything less seems too financially irresponsible to me. They do have two spots that receive tuition plus stipend, but from the sound of things they have a less than ideal standard offer.

11Q13,

David Michelson focuses in Syriac Christianity and is a new addition to Vandy. I wonder how AJ Levine would fit with your interest in the blurry boundaries between Judaism & Christianity.

To be perfectly honest, AJ Levine often rubs me the wrong way... as a contributor, editor, etc, she seems fine, and her contribution to the field are beyond doubt, but in her monographs it's like she's trying to be controversial and edgy with 30-40 year old material that's no longer controversial. Based on how frequently she mentions she's a liberal feminist jew my theory is she's writing to Nashville rather than the general population. That said, I've never met her, we might get along. I was accepted to Vandy for my MTS and I nearly went, so I might add them back to my list again. I would probably have to meet Levine first to find out if I would last.

While having a Syriac specialist would be nice, not having one isn't the end of the world, it's just one (sub)field I think hasn't been completely plowed.

[11Q13]

Oh, and does anyone know about Colombia? As I’ve been trudging through these faculty profiles I’ve been seeing a number of Colombia PhDs, yet, Colombia doesn’t seem to have much in terms of religious studies faculty that I've seen. I know NYC has a consortium of sorts, but I'm probably missing something...

[11Q13]

at the risk of running this further into the ground, I just though I'd ask, how many programs are you applying to and how many would be too many?

Even my short list has 13 right now, and I feel like that's too many, but I also want to make sure I have some back up programs. My main concern isn't doing all the apps myself, but asking my references writers to submit so many...

[vega maudlin]

I'm probably applying to just 5-7, actually. 13 would be way too many for me, but different people go about the process differently, and I don't think there's an objective "too many."

A friend (who's in a PhD program already) advised me only to apply to the programs I'd be really happy at (he only applied to two), so I suppose I'm sort of taking that advice.

[rav989]

I'm applying even to less -- either two or three. This is my first application season, and honestly, if I don't get into schools I really want, I might try law school. It's not that I think I won't learn a lot from other schools or that it won't be a generally rewarding experience. But my other love is law school, I have a good chance getting into a really good one (maybe not YLS but very possibly Columbia, Chicago or Stanford), and I think that I'd like that more than going into a school that was my second choice.

My interests are actually very similar to OP: Rabbinic literature in its late ancient context and secondarily Christianity in the Roman East and the Sasanian Empire. My top schools are Princeton and Yale, and I'll definitely be applying to them; I'm also thinking of possibly applying to Harvard or Columbia.

[Kuriakos]

I'm applying to 8. I'd like to do this in one application cycle.

[Body Politics]

I'm looking for suggestions of programs I may not have thought of as well. My interests are in intertextuality, how literary techniques help form identity in the gospels (especially Mark), performance criticism and orality, Pauline counter-imperial interpretations (more specifically, how the Pauline communities interact with empire), and aspectual theory/discourse analysis of the Greek NT. I am an evangelical Christian, but my MA is fron a non-evangelical institution. This makes me a little more flexible in terms of programs I am looking at; I intend on applying to both seminaries and universities. This is my list thus far: Marquette, UT-Austin, Emory, Baylor, Duke, McMaster Divinity School, and Fuller.

Wow, you sound like someone I could be friends with. We have many shared interests (esp. Mark, performance criticism/orality & lit, Paul and empire). Good luck with your applications.

As for me, I am applying to five schools in the states and one in London.

Edited December 5, 2012 by Body Politics

[Kuriakos]

Duke apps due today. Anyone else stressing about getting it done?

[sacklunch]

Duke apps due today. Anyone else stressing about getting it done?

Good luck! I hope to be in the program with you, but joining in a year later .

[Kuriakos]

Good luck! I hope to be in the program with you, but joining in a year later .

Thanks, Duke would be a hard place to leave. I love it here, and I hope we both get to stay.

[11Q13]

I finished all 14 of my apps (with the exception of mailing a couple finished applications because I'm waiting on transcripts) on the 1st of December, including Duke's. *fingers crossed* I had to get them all done early because I'm teaching three classes next semester and I have to get to work on my lectures, gah!

Edited December 9, 2012 by 11Q13

[rav989]

i have three apps, and i'm not done yet. #alreadyfeelingbehind

[Kuriakos]

I have 7 more to go. One due in 2 days. With a paper due for a doctoral seminar a day after that. So.Tired.

[DivSkool]

I noticed a few people here are applying to UChicago - I'm there now, so hopefully I can answer any questions you may have...

[Kuriakos]

I heard from a Duke prof that they don't guarantee five years of funding for their PhDs. Is that true?

[DivSkool]

Are you asking if Duke doesn't offer five years of funding, or if other schools don't? I don't know the details for other institutions, but at Chicago Div you are guaranteed funding for five years in the doctoral program.