Second MA in Digital Humanities-good idea?

[teafortwo971]

Hi all

I am currently finishing up an MA in Comparative Literature at UCL, with a BA in English Lit from America. I am really hoping to do a PhD in English at a top school in the US-UPenn, NYU, Columbia etc are all on my radar. I know the programs are competitive and as I want to stay in academia, I know that the field is too.

 

I am considering taking a year out and starting another MA in September 2015; Digital Humanities (hopefully a 1 year program in the UK, most likely Kings College London). I know the field is going in this direction and I have always been fascinated by DH (a lot of my favourite professors are working on DH projects, as are some of my peers that were trained in straight humanities) though I have no actual experience and training.  

 

This is obviously a very costly investment as there is no funding for Americans taking on MA's in England, but I feel like this could not only make me a much more competitive PhD applicant, but also more appealing for potential tenure-track positions later on (I am terrified of ending up an adjunct until my soul gets eaten away). 

 

Does this seem like a massive waste of time and money? I know that I need a year or so before starting a PhD anyway as I did not take any time between my undergrad and my MA, but the more I think about it, the more excited I am by the prospect of getting involved in the emerging field. 

 

Is this worth a year and about $50k in loans, or should I just go straight for the PhDs and hope for the best?

[hj2012]

 

Is this worth a year and about $50k in loans, or should I just go straight for the PhDs and hope for the best?

 

Honestly, I don't see it worth being the financial investment. I totally understand why you're considering this option, but if your greatest fear is adjunct hell, adding substantial amounts of debt is not going to help you in the future. If you have interests in DH, I would encourage you to consider PhD programs that offer the coursework for you to gain the requisite training -- they're definitely out there! Additionally, you could use your gap year to strengthen your skillset for DH (pick up some programming skills, for example) or to gain experience related to the DH field (e.g. digital technology internships at the Library of Congress or the NEH). Even if the latter is unpaid, it'll still be better than taking out enormous amounts of debt for tuition, and you'll have the option of working on the side in the U.S. to cover bills.

 

Since you have friends and mentors working in the field, you could also ask them to connect you to research assistant work or other opportunities. Many of the skills that will help you succeed in DH are either easily self-taught or can be learned through free resources (basic programming, database management, wiki management, CMS, etc), so it would be difficult for me to justify taking out that much in loans.

[sacklunch]

Talk to people in the field. See what is actually competitive for those PhD programs. If you need the two degrees to get into Columbia, then it may be worth it. A good way to gauge what sort of background a department prefers is to look through a lot of CV's online (academia.edu for example). This would give you a much better idea than asking on this forum (there isn't a DH section).

[ProfLorax]

I'm gonna vote for totally not worth it. Down the line, when you are on the job market with your PhD, employers won't care about your MA (or MA's). They will only care about the work you did as a PhD student: publications, dissertation, conference presentations, and teaching. Also, most PhD programs will train their graduate students. No one expects for an applicant to be fully prepared to jump into their dissertation, at least in the States where one to two years of coursework is the norm. At Maryland, the English Department is hugely involved with MITH (Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities; English professors have historically been leading MITH). We offer classes in DH in the English Department, and MITH and the i-school offer workshops, intensive trainings, and roundtables on all things DH throughout the year. My point isn't to sell you on Maryland, so much as to illustrate that any English program with a strong DH presence will have the tools and people to train you as a DH scholar. 

 

And I didn't even touch the money aspect. PhD stipends are pathetically low; I'm very grateful that I'm paid for what I do, but I wouldn't be able to live in such an expensive area without coming into the program with some savings and a fully employed partner. Many of my colleagues take out loans to supplement their PhD stipend. This may not be such a problem if you are in a rural area, but if you want to end up in NYC, it's smarter to take this next year off to work, work, work and save, save, save! 

 

Lastly, welcome to TGC! In the future, post your questions in the lit/rhet/comp forum. It's much more active, and you'll get more responses.