Program Insight

[apnew]

Hi,

So my undergrad was a double major in philosophy and French with a modern French/ German History concentration. My interests fall into cultural & intellectual history, but I have not settled on Europe as my area of focus. I am interested in Japan and Korea post-WWII, specifically the exchange between East and West political/social ideologies but I don't have the academic foundation in the east. So I am looking at some masters programs with the intention to find this grounding. At the same time I don't know if I should focus on Europe now and build my concentration in the east as I go through the PhD program, or if I really need this foundation before applying to the PhD track.

So I have some questions.

1. Is a Master's program worth it in light of costs and time?

2. If not, how do I explain these interests to POIs sans the academic foundation and at the same time avoid sounding "wishy-washy" ?

Also I am looking for some more information on the Intellectual History MLitt program at St. Andrews and the History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz. I have looked on both of the websites, but I was wondering how these programs are viewed upon completion.

 

[ashiepoo72]

I personally would apply to MA programs so you can get the foundation in the field you want to pursue in the PhD. Try looking for funded MAs though. I did an unfunded MA to help me narrow my interests--I knew the general period but not the more nitty gritty details of what I wanted to study, and my grades were mediocre so I needed the MA as a stepping stone. I would not recommend an unfunded MA to anyone. Maybe if you had to pay for one year out of the two it'd be worth it if your debt from undergrad is minuscule, but it is extremely costly and isn't worth footing the entire bill in light of job prospects for history grads. If you dig around the history threads I'm sure someone has listed funded MA programs somewhere.

Anyway, if you have languages for your proposed research down, a solid writing sample (even if unrelated to your proposed research) and a focused SOP, you should definitely throw some PhD apps in this season just to see what happens. But I'd definitely have an MA as a backup plan, and if you don't have languages you should get on that ASAP. Another option is to teach abroad in Japan or Korea for a year. I know several people who've done it in Japan and enjoyed it, that'll help with acquiring languages and give you valuable teaching experience and a cool thing to talk about in the SOP. End of the day, research interests change and advisers know this. If you have primary source-based research experience, grounding in methodology, languages and an interesting, focused research proposal, you'll have a decent shot even without coursework in the field. Definitely spend a lot of time talking about research experience in your SOP. Reading up on the historiography of your new area of interest and talking about it in the statement would be good too. It'll help if you can explain why you want to switch and show you've thought deeply and meaningfully about it.

For your SOP, you should think about what political-ideological exchanges you're interested in scrutinizing and why anyone should care about them. Grounding in historiography will help you identify any gaps, but that's half the battle--you need to figure out why the gap matters and how you can fill it, or at least have ideas for the directions a research project in this vein can go. 

I don't known much about UCSC's history of consciousness program despite being an alumna of the history program, except that your philosophy background is a boon if you want to apply there. UCSC is rad though.

good luck!

 

 

[TMP]

If you are interested in East Asia, you'll definitely want to get your languages together.  We have had applicants on this forum who have done quite bit of language training as their primary focus prior to applying for the PhD.  As you know well from studying Korean, studying Asian languages can be quite time consuming (compared to French) and the PhD program by itself is demanding as it is.  The more proficient you can be in Korean and Japanese, the better off you'll be for yourself and your PhD adviser.  Language training tend to be a major culprit for why students in East Asian history take longer than most to finish (especially in my program).

[kyjin]

Japanese historian here, and like TMP said, languages are going to be key if you want to focus on Korea/Japan. I would definitely suggest an MA program first to help with your languages, and to get yourself more grounded in the field. In addition to History MA programs, if you think you'll go the Asia route, do check out some East Asian Studies MAs. These tend to be interdisciplinary programs that will allow you to focus on language as well as history courses. There are some funded MAs out there (I went to a fully-funded MA in Canada), but they may take a bit more hunting to find. Even with the MA, Asianists do tend to take a bit longer. For example, in my program they expect Americanists to be out in 5 years, but Japanese historians tend to take at least 7. This is due in part due to both language training as well as the need to travel abroad to complete research. 

Good luck!