History

[History_Nerd]

ahhh numbers, sigh! Lovely, lovely numbers...

Moving on from this debate, what is your favorite way to let people know that you want/are a historian-in the making?

My favorite is..."I love to talk to dead people" (though inaccurate, still fun to say).

Ha ha!!

Sorry for constantly providing outside links - but you guys might find this article interesting - "HNN Survey: What Kind of History Does the History Channel Show?"

http://hnn.us/articles/24059.html

Its pejorative nickname is the Hitler Channel. Is it deserved?

The results of an HNN survey of three weeks of programming on the History Channel show that the channel mainly focuses on three areas: military history, technology, and religion. The survey covered the period between March 26 and April 15, 2006.

Of the programs analyzed during this period, an average of 20 percent were devoted to military history. Of the military history shows, 70 percent covered World War II, with offerings ranging from programs about specific battles or weapons to a documentary about a family of Hungarian dwarfs kept alive by Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. The remaining military topics dealt mainly with the Civil War, with thirty minutes per week spent on the war in Vietnam, part of a rebroadcast of a 1980 multipart documentary, The Ten Thousand Day War.

I love the History Channel and keep it on in the background when I'm at home (when I'm not watching Sportscenter). Sometimes it really isn't history at all, and some of the programs are just lame, but from time to time you find a fun or really informative program. Meh, anyway . . .

I've worked in museums all of my life and I want to study the history of museums (similar in some regards to the history of education - a rather popular field). People simply can't understand why I wouldn't want to go for a Museum Studies degree. I tell them that I want to teach, maybe want to work as a history museum curator - nothing gets to them - they just can't understand why anyone would want to study museums outside of a museum studies degree. You can study the history of the sex lives of African-American women living in urban high-rises, sure, but study the history of museums and people get all crazy!!

[mhcrosefly311]

hahaha!!! Museum history...psh! whats that...heheh. Same goes for LATAM history (why not Latino-US studies, blah!). But let's keep this thread alive damn it! let's stick it to those sociology kids--yes, kids,

What can I say finals has me wound up tight...going back to the regularly scheduled program.

[History_Nerd]

I'm from Minnesota - by the way - Minnesotan. I only knew one dude that took a gender studies class as an undergrad. Maybe I should audit one while I'm in grad school - it could be enlightening. Who knows.

[Minnesotan]

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[Guest daphna]

well, sheesh what a dissing of gender studies. I mean, it's not my main field of history, but certainly I've done some work on gender and history, and I find it interesting. And btw, gender is not just about women. I did my gender related work on the gendering of straight middle class men in English Victorian Public Schools.

Anyway, when I get asked about History, people generally get the full spiel on how history is really related to pretty much every other field etc. If someone seriously asks that question, they had better be ready to get a serious answer.

[Minnesotan]

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[History_Nerd]

Yeah. That's why I love intellectual history. One can integrate philosophy, evolutionary biology, lit. crit, or any other discipline in the arts and sciences into a discussion about historical works, personages, and intellectual trends. Too exciting (for a nerd like me)!

I like variety.

Out of curiousity - would you mind devulging where in Minnesota you're from? I'm a St. Paulite myself. Are you starting a history program in the fall?

[Minnesotan]

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[History_Nerd]

I applied to three schools in the UK myself. It made the whole process pretty tough. I was admitted far earlier than when I heard back from schools in the US, which was nice, but I still hadn't heard back about funding from schools as of last week, when I told them that I was staying in the states. A lot less red tape and BS in the applications, though. Plus they were the only schools that I did phone interviews with - which was kind of nice actually.

It would be an amazing experience to study in the UK or Canada though, I've been told they are far more plugged in to global trends in the study of history than in the US, but from what I'm told, it would be challenging to get your career going in the US. My sister studied archaeology at University College London and had that problem, and I was just speaking with a historian from Oxford yesterday who talked about what a tough time she had. It is "doable" however, and you end up getting your degree a lot faster, so I think it is kind of a push. I still hope to spend a year in Cambridge someday . . . I started off at school in Morris, finished at "The U" and lived in Uptown for a year before moving to Denver, where I am now.

[Minnesotan]

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[rising_star]

Is it difficult for Americans to get funding for D.Phils abroad? I've been thinking about getting an interdisciplinary Masters abroad but I don't know how to pay for it...

[History_Nerd]

Is it difficult for Americans to get funding for D.Phils abroad? I've been thinking about getting an interdisciplinary Masters abroad but I don't know how to pay for it...

I think it would be safe to say that it is VERY difficult to get funding from Oxbridge (Oxford or Cambridge - which, by the way, are by far the best funded schools in the UK). At Cambridge, it is often all or nothing and it is very competative. You could win a Rhodes or a Gates scholarship and be all set, but have you ever read about the people who actually win Rhodes scholarships? Don't get me wrong, one of the people I work with won one, but this year they had a kid who went to Iraq to help build schools and was shot something like seven times, survived, and is going for his MPhil in International Studies - um, yeah, you deserve it, kiddo.

To be perfectly fair, a lot of people conisder the MPhil programs in the UK to be 'cash-cows' for the Universities. On the other hand, I've heard great stories of people who applied to six schools in the US, got rejected everywhere, then went to go get their MPhil at Oxbridge and were accepted almost everywhere the next time they applied to American schools. If you have all the money in the world, studying at either Oxford or Cambridge would be a steller thing to put on your CV (as Minnesotan will probably attest to) but unless you get a Rhodes or Gates scholarship - I think the American programs are probably the best 'bang for your buck'.

[rising_star]

Good to know. I'm definitely not Gates/Rhodes quality. And I was actually looking at going to Leiden, even though it's not that warm and I don't speak Dutch.

Why must good programs avoid funding people that were just average as undergrads?

[Minnesotan]

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[mhcrosefly311]

LOL "cash-cows" --thought my advisor was the only one who referred to the programs that fund the other programs. Just thought I'd say that (I promise to come play after my finals are in the can--arrrghh!).

[History_Nerd]

LOL "cash-cows" --thought my advisor was the only one who referred to the programs that fund the other programs. Just thought I'd say that (I promise to come play after my finals are in the can--arrrghh!).

That's right, I said it. Better stay tuned because you never know what crazy thing I'm going to say next. mhcrosefly311 - where are you heading off to again? And, you brittdreams? Also, what do you guys want to study?

In some ways, I can't wait until August. Let the torture begin.

[rising_star]

I'm that rando who posts here but is actually starting a MA in Geography at the Univ. of Georgia in the fall. And I'm not in a cash cow program, I've got a lovely assistantship to help me out.

[Minnesotan]

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[History_Nerd]

I better have an offer of a lovely assistantship to help me out soon, or I'm going to start letter-bombing universities. Ok, maybe not letter-bombing, but I have a mind to fill out some pretty nasty comment cards!

I had all the grad schools I applied to on speed dial. I don't think they liked that.

[rising_star]

wow, i basically never called. i did do some emailing. then again, i started hearing good news early so i didn't care so much when the rejections came later on.

[History_Nerd]

wow, i basically never called. i did do some emailing. then again, i started hearing good news early so i didn't care so much when the rejections came later on.

The problem with calling is that they tell you that you'll have an answer by the end of the week, or whatever - you never hear anything on time (which I didn't know at the time), so I'd end up calling a week or so after the deadline to find out what was going on. I could hear there little eyes rolling, but if they didn't feed me a BS line in the first place I wouldn't have called again. Silly. :roll:

[Minnesotan]

I trust the admissions process with my application like I trust Lindsay Lohan (or her boobs) to keep out of the tabloids.

[History_Nerd]

I trust the admissions process with my application like I trust Lindsay Lohan (or her boobs) to keep out of the tabloids.

Nice reference. This thread coming alive makes me feel like I've voted for Pedro and all of my dreams came true.

Is anyone else curious what a year's worth of graduate seminars will be like? I'm curious how many students make it through graduate programs in history, but I can't really finds stats anywhere . . .

[rising_star]

Oh I'm currently completely terrified of taking graduate seminars. Minimum credit hours is 12 per semester. They recommend three classes and an independent study which would be fine if I wasn't already during research for my assistantship. That just seems like too much research. So I'm gonna hope they let me learn/re-learn a language instead. I want to learn French, Arabic, and Hindi, not lose my skill in Spanish, and regain my skill in Swahili. This is what happens when you start in comparative lit...

[Minnesotan]

I'm betting that those of us who were stupid enough to choose history as a profession are more likely to stick to it than those who chose disciplines that could one day lead to a job. Stupid is as Stupid does, and Stupid chooses what Stupid loves over what would make Stupid money.

And that slight note of cynicism (if you noticed it - it was subtle) is just my practicality's death rattle, as it is smothered by my romanticism.