Recommended contact on leave?

[theburiedgirl815]

I'm going to be applying to the English PhD program at Emory, largely because the focus of my research is on Irish Studies, and they offer a great incorporated program. The program was recommended to me by my undergrad advisor/mentor, not only because it's a wonderful program for what I would like to do in the future, but also because she knows a head of the Irish Studies program who is usually on the admissions committee. I was hoping this would give my application a slight nudge, as I will be speaking about the Independent study and the other work I did with my mentor as an undergrad, and my mentor is also one of my recommenders so there would be a greater chance that this member of the committee would see that and give my application greater consideration for admission, based on their status as colleagues in Irish studies.

I was therefore planning to email this professor at Emory and explain that I was looking to apply to the program, and to ask more about what work she does with English doctoral students, just to make initial contact and show interest in the work she's doing with the program. Unfortunately, when I went on the website earlier today to be sure I had the correct email address, I was greeted with a message that she is on leave in Ireland for the current academic year.

I am trying so hard not to let this bother me, but am I going to seriously hurt my application if I don't make contact with someone at Emory? The reason this person was really recommended was not only because of the connection she has with my mentor, but because the work she is doing at Emory is the closest to what I'd like to pursue as a doctoral student there. Right now I'm unsure of what action to take. I don't know if she is accepting academic emails regarding Emory while she's abroad, and I obviously don't want to bother her with something like this even if she is. (Not to mention I'm going to feel pretty foolish emailing her anyway knowing full well that she is out of the country, which probably means she's not sitting on the admissions committee this year). But at the same time, I don't know if the other professor listed on the website (whose work is somewhat further from my own research interests) would offer the same insight. If this were a bigger program, I doubt I would have this issue but unfortunately, the Irish Studies program is very small and very specific, and the website doesn't really offer much valuable insight.

I'm planning on meeting my mentor on campus sometime in the next week or two, so I was going to bring this up with her and see what she recommends, but until then I'd love feedback from others. I feel like I cannot be the only applicant who has had the misfortune to be applying during a year when an important contact is unavailable, and I was wondering what other people did or would do when/if this happened? 

[rising_star]

I don't see why you couldn't just send the email you've outlined above. Either the professor responds or they don't. That's not up to you. Knowing whether the resources at Emory are the right ones for your project does seem like it is useful for you, which is why you should go ahead and email.