Preparation and Research

[Pizzas of Eight]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm a second-year undergraduate in a UC history program, and my intent is ultimately to pursue a doctorate in a history. Lately, however, I've been struggling in my head on what I want to study specifically in undergraduate and then graduate. I came into this year thinking along the lines of studying ancient Mediterranean history, so I enrolled in a relevant history class as well as Latin and Ancient Greek language courses.

 

As I've looked through the Internet, however, I can tell I'm basically historically illiterate. I have questions that may seem stupid, but I want to get a sense of the historical process in general. Specifically, I want to know whether formulating a research question on ancient Mediterranean history is even worthwhile - surely for 2000 years everything that can be said about antiquity has basically been said (absent of actual new physical discoveries, i.e. archaeology, etc.). I also want to know how I can educate myself on the theory of history and how historians do their work - essentially how I can become aware of higher-level academic thought, perhaps more specifically in ancient or Middle Ages Europe. Is there any direction that I can be pointed in with regards to this?

 

Thank you all.

[NoirFemme]

Go to a professor in your field (whose class you've taken and avidly participated in), explain your struggles and your goals, and ask if they would be interested in overseeing an independent study/reading course. I had the same struggle until I did just that. 

[TMP]

We are going to turn you around and tell you, go to your professors.  They are the real experts in your areas of interest.  They know the historiography very well and offer suggestions for potential research questions.

Remember, you need letters of recommendations from your professors for graduate programs. How can they write one if they don't know what you're asking here?  They want to engage with you to be able to write a strong and positive letter.

[Neist]

I agree with what has already been said, but I would like to add that many of your questions can be answered if you merely read a lot.

Ask for a few book suggestions from a faculty member and follow the trail of footnotes to more material. Find topical journals and pour over articles. Immerse yourself.

 

[rising_star]

Agreed with the above. In addition, I'd recommend taking upper-level history and area studies classes in your area of interest because it's in those classes where you'll develop a deeper understanding of the historiography and have a chance to engage with the relevant scholarship. If your department offers undergrad courses on historiography and/or research methods in history, you'll definitely want to take those (ideally in your junior year). Since you're an undergraduate, I'd recommend looking at classes in disciplines besides history which also discuss the ancient Mediterranean, which could mean classes in religion, Jewish studies, archaeology, or literature. Having a more well-rounded base of knowledge about the region and time period you're interested in will help you develop research questions and refine your interests.

Finally, I'd just say that it's not unexpected that you don't know what research questions to ask since you're basically in your third semester of college right now. You have lots of time to read and learn before you'll even consider applying to grad school so take advantage of that! You may also want to study abroad in the Mediterranean so you get the chance to work with other scholars interested in the same area and potentially have access to see original documents.

[pro Augustis]

As an ancient historian, I can confirm that there are still questions worth exploring—at least in my opinion. That qualifier matters here, because only you can say whether there are questions out there that you want to dedicate an academic career to. You are on the right track, I think to figure that out. It's not an overnight process. You figure out the state of the field by learning more about it and reading. A lot of reading. Figure out what some recent books are in areas of the field that you might be interested in and think about how those scholars approach the subject matter, what kind of questions they think are still worth asking/answering after all this time. If your interests are in Roman history I might be able to give a few recommendations, but your professors are by far the best place to go for this. 

3 hours ago, rising_star said:

You may also want to study abroad in the Mediterranean so you get the chance to work with other scholars interested in the same area and potentially have access to see original documents.

Study abroad is indeed a good idea—it is one of my regrets about my undergraduate education that I did not take the chance to do so—but for ancient history the original documents part is not really a concern. There simply are not many original documents left*. Unless you are talking about archaeology, what you need is in your university's library.

*Admittedly, this is over-simplified. Inscriptions are a vital source and would benefit from in-person inspection (autopsy), but as an undergraduate the odds of doing serious work with inscriptions are very low. Manuscripts are also if not originals at least more original than what is in the library, but they are not necessarily in the region anymore, and an undergraduate is again unlikely to do very much textual criticism (not to mention that textual criticism of that sort is rarely tied into specifically historical inquiries). 

[AP]

On 11/19/2016 at 8:11 PM, Pizzas of Eight said:

I want to know whether formulating a research question on ancient Mediterranean history is even worthwhile - surely for 2000 years everything that can be said about antiquity has basically been said (absent of actual new physical discoveries, i.e. archaeology, etc.).

In addition to the 'go to your professors' advice, I want to pick on @pro Augustis thread. As historians, we know that our questions arise from different ways of looking at the past. Your statement implies there is a truth that we can know completely. If this were the case, many of us would be without questions. Our research questions speak to the way we see the world and we experience it. That's also why you have so many 'versions' of the French Revolution. My undergrad training in Ancient History was very teleological: we studied the making of Greece and Rome. But only now, when I have friends that do Ancient History at PhD level, I realized that there's more to it. I'm sure you can bring fresh perspectives and new questions.

[Sigaba]

FWIW, I recommend following @Neist's and @rising_star's guidance before (but not instead of) @NoirFemme's and @TMP's advice. "Here's what I've done..." as an opening comment may strike a different chord with a professor than "What do I do?"  My $0.02/YMMV

[TMP]

I should also add that your professors' offices are perfect for looking to see what's out there (and what they're focused on).  I've always loved taking a moment to look at the bookshelves while my professors were distracted with something (like finishing up an e-mail or reading over my paper).  I always make observations or ask questions about the books' titles and authors.