Switching Regions/Fields (history phd)

[anxietygirl]

Hi all, 

I am in the process of trying to move from European history to U.S. History as my main field. This is, in part, because the prominent British historian in our department recently left the university and also because I have been interested in US and considering switching for a long time. However, departmental politics have made it really hard for me to leave my current advisor (she has a lot of pull on the tenure committee and Americanists don't want to "steal" me from her).  I have spoken with my advisor and she has given me the all clear to take U.S. coursework and make that my primary field, but others are still hesitant to work with me. How do I navigate this situation without stepping on any toes? I hate politics and red tape, and I've been in advisor limbo for the entire semester. I need to get this sorted out, so I can go on with my life. 

Edit: Also, I am still in my first year, so things are early for me. I know I don't have to declare an advisor and major field at least until May. 

Has anyone else been in similar situations? What should I do? Help! 

Edited February 9, 2017 by anxietygirl

[AP]

The best way to make argument for switching fields (other than the geographic argument) is to think of theme that attracts other professors. For example, my department's Americanists are all historians of labor and slavery, so it is fairly expected that anyone working labor or slavery will, at some point, approach them. One of the East Asianists has a great eye for the subaltern, untold history, difficult archives, memory, and the like, so basically all of us working on dictatorship, authority, and state terror go to him for advice. This is, as you said, department-dependent. 

If your advisor supports you, you can ask her to help you in this process, or you can even bring in the DGS and have the conversation among the three of you. Taking classes with the Americanists is a great start. Also try to attend workshops and small conferences around campus where they might be. In the Fall, ask them to register you to the AHA as their student (I mean, you will have built a relationship with them by then). Write your papers thinking of your comps and meet with the 'new' professors for advice. Do you have to TA/RA? Build rapport with them to serve in their courses. 

Our profession is 40% public relations and self-marketing, so go around knocking doors until a not-so-coward professor takes you in  

[Sigaba]

On 2/9/2017 at 0:07 PM, anxietygirl said:

Hi all, 

What should I do? Help! 

My recommendation is somewhat similar to @AP 's.As your current advisor has given her blessing for you to take courses in American history, start taking courses in American history. Put your head down and work your tail off to build rapport and to earn trust among the Americanists. Be a very active participant in seminar, write essays and papers as well as you can, then rewrite them. Be a frequent visitor to office hours.

Here's where I differ with AP.  Do what you can to figure out everything else on your own. While you might check in with DGS and your current advisor, do not enlist their aid in ironing out issues unless it becomes absolutely necessary.

Along the way, do what you can to get a better read on the apparent reluctance. To what extent are professors really intimidated by your current advisor and to what extent are they just blowing smoke so they don't have to work with another graduate student? Try to get a better sense of precisely why are the Americanists intimidated. Is she that ferocious intellectually or is she a determined political infighter? To what extent is gender an issue? Were she a man, would her peers be addressing their trust issues the same? (She says it's okay for you to leave, her colleagues, through their reluctance are indicating that they don't believe her. That's them calling her a liar. Moreover, her colleagues seem to think that she views graduate students as property they believe that she'll accuse them of "stealing" you. Behind it all, there's a lurking suspicion that she'll screw them over when it comes to tenure. There's something weird going on here and you may benefit from knowing the straight dope. (Is she being blamed for someone not getting tenure when, in fact, the professor who didn't get tenure was well liked but just didn't work hard enough?)

One other thing you may want to find out but you may not like the answer. Does the Americanists' reluctance to work with you reflect their first impression of you? Don't drive yourself nuts thinking about this question. If there's a possibility that you got off on the wrong foot with someone, figure out what you need to tweak, figure out if it is an adjustment worth making, and go from there. FWIW, my hunch is that the way you explain your desire to change fields may be the issue. You may have inadvertently earned a reputation for being dedicated, not committed.   If such is the case, finding ways to elaborate upon your explanation may be in order. If such is the case, and you need support elaborating/rephrasing your explanation try to find an ABD in your department who has traveled a similar path.

#HTH

[Deadwing0608]

13 hours ago, Sigaba said:

 

 FWIW, my hunch is that the way you explain your desire to change fields may be the issue.

 

So, I am an advanced PhD candidate in history who did exactly what you hope to do, except I went the other way from America to Europe. I did not have to deal with the political issues that you are describing. In many ways my decision to change fields was (I think) somewhat of a relief to my initial advisor, but that's a whole different conversation (feel free to PM, or I am happy to elaborate here).

I would just like to emphasize (and I cannot emphasize enough) the part of Sigaba's post that I quoted. Just saying "I have been interested in U.S. history for a long time" or "hey this person I like left" will satisfy no one ( I am sure you have more to say than that!). What you need to do, and what I did not do and so learned the hard way, is have a clearly articulated way of framing how and why your interests shifted. You need to be able to explain how the questions that animated your earlier work do in fact come into the new project, and you need to be able to connect up the path you are traversing from European to American history. It is there. I did not see the long-term development of my work toward Europe until much later on, and I think if I could have articulated it sooner the transition would have been smoother. So, sit down and really have a think about how you will address those questions. Setting aside the political issues that I can't comment on without knowing more, it will be your answers to those questions that do (or do not) get your new possible advisors excited about you and your research.

 

[TMP]

@anxietygirl

Also, consider the "crowdness" of US history.  How large is the American history field in your department?  The professors *may* also be thinking about the very difficult job market for US historians.

I agree with @Sigaba and @Deadwing on "first impressions."  I have done the same ("I've been interested in X") but have to follow up with a specific intellectual question.  For example, I TA-ed for a Russian historian last semester and Russian history is my pet interest.  At the beginning, I said, "If I had stuck with my Russian language training, I would be a Russian historian."  That only made him nod and smile.  The next time I brought up the topic, I said, "If I'm not doing my field right now, I would be doing Russian women's history.  I wrote a paper on [a feminist] in undergrad and loved reading about her."  He said, "Oh?" [invitation to say more] and then I explained the big topic I'd really like to investigate.  Then we started talking and he said, if you had needed gender history books for Russian history, you should have come to me!"  Now we can talk about all things Russia.

Also, since you are a first year, please do talk to your older graduate colleagues.  They have a much clearer idea of the faculty politics than you do. They have departmental collective memory of various committees and who played well with who and who would fight with who.  See if you can find out if your adviser has sat on dissertation/exam committees with any of the Americanists and how that went.  

I would also hope that none of the Americanists you seek for an adviser is an assistant professor.  If someone is, you'd need to find a tenured faculty to be your co-adviser.

Edited March 7, 2017 by TMP