Changing Fields

[hopeful_humanist]

Hi. 

 

First, as a note, I've browsed through the forums and I haven't found anything that really addresses this-- however, if I am incorrect and simply overlooked something, then please redirect me. 

Also, please forgive me if this is somewhat long. 

 

I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about what it looks like or requires to change disciplines while in graduate school. I'm posting here because I'm only interested in the way these things work in the humanities. 

Background info on this: Currently, I am a first year student in a philosophy phd program in the US (I think for fairly obvious reasons I'm not going to disclose the institution) interested in switching fields to history or medieval studies. I have absolutely no idea, however, how one does this and I am positively terrified of bringing it up to any of the faculty in my department. 

I've read around on the internet a lot and I can't find anything on this kind of switch. My plan, at the moment, is to carry on in my current program and leave at the two-year mark (switching my degree track at this institution from a phd to a terminal Master's) and then apply to institutions in the subjects I'm more interested in. I just have no idea how institutions would look at this and while I'm hoping that finishing out a master's degree would counteract some of the stigma of abandoning a program, I don't know if I would be an appealing candidate at all, simply because I'd be coming out of a different field. Part of my present reasoning, however, is that the intention to switch fields altogether might look better than just wanting to jump programs in the same discipline. At minimum, it seems like a rationale that doesn't imply any necessarily negative feelings about my current program. 

 

As an additional side-note: Assuming the current trend continues, I'll be leaving my current institution with a good graduate transcript and I'm submitting to conferences (though I haven't heard back on anything yet, so that might not go anywhere). Would these things help with applying to departments in a different field? Should I be attempting to integrate my intended new discipline into articles and papers I work on for my current one? (On this last, my current department has very few resources and seemingly little support for interdisciplinary work, so my best bet here is probably conference submissions)

Basically, I'm really baffled about what this process would entail, but as I'm incredibly unhappy where I am now and extremely unenthused about my future possibilities in philosophy, I don't know what to do but to pursue it. 

[ἠφανισμένος]

Since I have no experience with this, I'll defer to other, more knowledgeable, posters.  But there was a recent Chronicle thread that you may find useful.  The OP there was asking about switching from one school to another in the same field, but some of the advice I think is applicable to your situation as well.

[hopeful_humanist]

Cool. I'll check that out. Thanks!

[wetheplants]

If you don't feel like you could bring it up to any of your professors there, what about asking one of your undergrad profs for some advice? Maybe they'd have some ideas for you?

[hj2012]

If you're unhappy in philosophy and can't see yourself as continuing in the discipline, then I don't really see any reason to stay. I agree that you wouldn't be hurting yourself to finish out the M.A. at your current institution. Depending on your interests (intellectual history or history of ideas, for example), it may be a plus to have a grad degree in philosophy. Furthermore, if you'd be applying this upcoming season, it'll give you something to do in the meantime.

 

From what I understand, people dropping out of programs (and especially leaving with a master's) isn't particularly uncommon. It sounds like you have pretty articulate reasons why you don't want to stay, so I would hope your current adviser(s) would be able to respect that.

 

The thing that concerns me the most, however, is your background (or potentially lack thereof) in history. Did you take a significant amount of history coursework as an undergrad? I know people can crossover into different disciplines, but you want to be sure that you can articulate a "sufficiently historical" research question and demonstrate your ability to do archival research. (Quite different from the methodology in philosophy, even for those who do continental!)

 

Also, you'll probably have to share with your philosophy adviser your plans to transfer at some point in time, as I'd imagine you'd want at least one recommendation letter from your M.A. program. However, that can probably come further down the line.

 

Best of luck to you!