Research abroad- possible or no?

[bright on time]

Long ago in the process of starting applications, all of my professors/advisors cautioned me not to pursue PhD programs abroad-  I was particularly interested in the UK- if I wanted an academic job in the States later on. Although that seemed a little ridiculous to me, I took them at their word. However, I would still LOVE to be able to spend some time in graduate school abroad and am curious as to whether or not any of you have experience with this/ know if that's in any way possible- my subfield is IR. I'm asking about a predoctoral or visiting researcher sort of thing rather than a 'study abroad program' of any sort, as I paid for that in undergrad and have no intention to do so again simply because it's nice to travel. 

 

If this isn't just a crazy dream, I'd be interested to hear about any part of your experiences. I'd also want to know whether or not I should ask programs during recruitment weekends if they encourage or support students in doing this- I'd like to be able to inquire about the level of support (in looking for grants, contacting researchers abroad, etc) I could expect but don't want my POIs to look at me like I've sprouted another head if this is unheard of. 

 

Thanks!

[Wemayet]

I offer this advice from the perspective of someone who has been abroad for 10 years, intends to go abroad during PhD for research, and planning to work in IR / Comp IPE / Security -- by all means, I do not yet fully understand what is available, but I have been looking into deeply during the last year. My personal angle has been to find schools with professors that have active research abroad in regions that I would like to research, hoping that they can point me to a local contact.

 

After reading your post a second time, trying to figure out what about it bothered me I realized.  But let me first say that you're never going to get to do what you want to do if you don't start asking around!  So yeah, why not ask about your future when you have a recruitment visit, if there is time to do so?

 

Back to the thing that bothered me... not all "study abroad" programs are created equally.  Some are vastly better than others.  I did a very nice Chinese Law study program while getting my JD, for instance; it was no undergraduate study abroad.  My thought for you is that if you don't have access to a "sister" school abroad that takes exchange researchers for a semester or two, then look into what's offered at schools other than your own and see if you can qualify for their program.  If not this option, then perhaps you should consider another study abroad.  Make some contacts while on that program, and develop your own path.  For some countries, you need a letter from a local professor or a sponsorship from a local university.  The study abroad programs are just a door opening to those who might be able to provide you what you're seeking, if that's how you decide to approach it.

 

A final thought is that many language programs lead to abroad experiences, and could be a worthy supplement to your education.  For the more qualitatively inclined, language seems a necessary substitute for quantitative coursework.  Many of the programs out there that I've seen have the additional benefit of being well funded.

[Penelope Higgins]

There are several fairly standard ways to spend time abroad in graduate school. Nearly all, however, unfold in the post-coursework stage. I've seen students as exchange scholars abroad, spending a year at another institution usually but not always with funding from their home institution but with the invitation of a scholar at the receiving institution who can facilitate integration into the intellectual community. So long as your funding does not require you to be in residence, or you have funding from the receiving institution (this can be very hard to acquire) there is usually no obstacle to doing this. I know, for example, that an Americanist who is now teaching in a top department wrote much of his dissertation while spending time in Indonesia.

I may be wrong about this, but my experience has been that these sorts of graduate school trajectories usually unfold on the initiative of the student and not as a result of the networking efforts of faculty members. This means that you might not get much useful information out of conversations with faculty at campus visits. Doesn't hurt to try, though - and so long as you have an intellectual or professional justification for this I don't think it should hurt you at all to explore it in those conversations.

Given that you are an IR scholar and interested in Europe, some of the places I would explore a bit are the EUI (which does have some funding for visiting scholars) as well as universities in England, Ireland, and (if language permits) Germany and Spain.

[GopherGrad]

Maybe I'm totally missing the point here but ... isn't the way that most IR and comparative folks go abroad during graduate school research? My research interests lean more comparative, but most of the programs to which I applied all but require fieldwork. My current uni recently hired for a human security line and all of the candidates had spent multiple stretches of multiple months in the field collecting data.

[Penelope Higgins]

Previous post is correct. But I thought OP was asking about a more sustained and formal affiliation with another university, which is also possible. Sometimes that happens in the course of fieldwork, but I know people who pretty much moved to another country as soon as coursework was done and communicated with their advisors by email for the next four years while developing, researching, and writing a dissertation. I was assuming OP was interested in that sort of thing.

And sustained research abroad is much much more common in CP than in IR, though not unknown of course in the latter subfield.

[bright on time]

Thanks so much to each of you for the responses- they're very helpful.

 

Wemayet, thanks for the additional info about study abroad programs. I should have clarified that what I was trying to avoid was traveling for the sake of traveling. Although I firmly believe that does have its own benefits, I'd only be willing to do the type of programs you discussed- ones that really do give you a leg up in your career path or research. 

 

Penelope and GopherGrad, I'm honestly not 100% sure about whether I'd be pursuing more of a fieldwork or sustained research situation (as Penelope noted, a lot of what I know about fieldwork comes from comparativists- I'm honestly not sure what will be expected of me). Most likely the latter, although I'd be happy with a year or so. Heck, if I can do both I'm definitely down for it. Penelope, thanks much for your input on funding and possible places, as well.