PhD in Comparative Semitics/Linguistics

[chutchens08]

Hello everyone!

I am currently three years away from graduating with my MA, and will soon be looking for a PhD program, which leads to my current question.

In my MA I will graduate with a year of Akkadian, three years of Hebrew, a semester of Ugaritic, and maybe some Aramaic under my belt as well. Even though I have a decent handle on a few Semitic languages, my MA will be concentrated mainly in the field of Linguistics. I am trying to keep my options open, and since there are but a few Comp. Semitic programs in the US (I can only find maybe three) would it be wise to broaden my scope and also apply to schools that have decent general Comp. Linguistic programs and concentrate my research to Ancient Semitic? I have absolutely no problem teaching myself languages, and actually prefer working on languages by myself as opposed to a classroom setting.

What would be the strengths and weaknesses of both programs? I, personally am leaning toward Linguistics, but would love to keep my options open as much as possible.

 

Hopefully this makes sense, and hopefully someone can give me some advice.

[Almaqah Thwn]

In addition to Comparative Semitics programs, you could try Huehnergard at University of Texas at Austin. He is pretty amazing with Semitic languages, although the program there is Hebrew Bible/Ancient Near East. You could check and see if it'd be posible to do a PhD in Lingustics, and use Huehnergard as an advisor. 

 

[nevermind]

I agree with the suggestion about Huehnergard. You probably know that him + University of Chicago would be the top two places where you could do your work. I would recommend reaching out to him (Via email), explaining your career goals, and seeing what he thinks your background/preparation/aptitude would fit best. When I talked to him years ago, he discouraged me from doing philology specifically, since it's such a narrow field (and subsequently, hard to get a job in...FWIW, I also had Akkadian, Hebrew, and Aramaic). I think Arabic would also be beneficial in Comparative Semitics, so if you could get that during your M.A., I think it would help too.  Honestly, Chicago sounds like it would best for you since (I think) they have a joint program with the linguistics department.