Cultural Anthro PhD after BA -- SoP Tips?

[Longing for Learning]

Hi everyone, I'd love to get some input on statements of purpose for cultural anthropology PhD programs, specifically for those without (related) graduate degrees. I understand that some of this has been discussed before, but I don't feel it's been touched upon for those with unrelated BAs, and how expectations may differ for them.

I earned a B.A. in East Asian studies around 10 years ago, and have been living and working in Japan since then. I have a fairly defined research area that I'd like to explore (within Japan), have acquired proficiency in Japanese, had very high undergraduate grades, and did well on the GREs (166V/160Q/6.0). I've spoken with POIs at a number of institutions, and received encouragement from a couple of faculty (and just "feel free to apply" from a couple of others). To this point, I feel like things are fairly encouraging.

However, I'm getting mixed messages on this forum when reading about the statements of purpose. I'm able to explain what I want to explore, why I want to do so, and the basic way I'd like to approach my investigation, but I have very little theoretical training that would inform my specific methodology (such as applying a political economic approach, a structuralist approach, a cultural materialist approach, etc.). A poster in one of the sticked posts on this forum frames theory as absolutely essential in SoPs, and mentioned that he had several references cited in his.

I'd like to ask those who are planning to apply, and those who have been accepted to PhD programs: how much theory was in your SoP? Did you come from an unrelated field, and how did this affect it? Is applying to PhD programs with very little grasp of anthropological theory basically futile in my position?

[hats]

Your background sounds absolutely standard for an anthropology PhD student in my program, at least—and I even know one student who won an NSF GRFP that way. That said, you do need to show signs that you're thinking about theory and that you will eventually develop a coherent theoretical approach. I would strongly advise you not to frame your theory in broad terms you don't understand very well ("cultural materialist approach"). Rather, what books or articles of anthropology tackle problems or issues that are interesting to you? Can you tell what approaches they use? If you can figure out that your topic could be usefully approached using analytical frameworks from kinship and bioethics, say that. If you can break it down further and discover that works on some of the topics that interest you use diverging models of kinship, all the better. Are you more sympathetic to one or the other? Are you interested in both until you've learned more? Both of those are fine to say.

In general, for students (like myself) who come into another field without much background in it, I advise a more exploratory tone than somebody who has a master's degree in the field. (If you want examples of the ideal master's degree kind of application, check out the Duke anthropology website. They are useful in general, although I did not try to emulate that degree of mastery of theory. I didn't have it!) So you can say, I am interested in the ethics of wildlife management in Japan's southernmost islands, which I am interested in approaching through theories of kinship and bioethics, especially as explored through multi-species ethnography. So-and-so's book is a touchstone for my approach because of this interesting stuff it does, although I would be especially interested in using this different perspective to look at the issue. I have also been interested in the transmission of these ideas at different scales, which I could explore through media theory.

Note how all of that is rather broad, and uses "could" more than "will." In theory, you don't have to follow up on any of it at all, although I will say that you'll probably end up at a program with a better fit if you do pursue at least one of the themes you mention. (For a personal example, I threw in media theory at the end of mine and spent all my visit weekend at my current university talking excitedly about its possibilities—turns out it is basically not relevant to any of the problems I want to tackle. Oh well! They still admitted me and now I'm not using media theory.) However, even if it has a bit of a brainstorming quality to it, it shows that you've read enough of the literature to have identified some promising paths you'll investigate.

It sounds like this is going to take a lot of reading for you. Is that right? I would advise that you start reading in the anthropology of Japan and see what catches your eye, so you can shove some of the bigger themes in the literature into your brainstorming-type theory paragraph. What made you decide that anthropology was the field you wanted your PhD in? Was it anything you read? If so, it would be smart to return to those books or articles and try to see what approaches they're taking and, especially, who they cite. A key thing to look for is which, of the works they cite, they agree or disagree with. That'll be a clue to current topics of interest and inquiry in the field.

If you don't have access to a good research library right now, FYI, you can start cobbling some reading material together using JSTOR's three free articles a month, as much as Google Books' preview feature will let you read, and articles scholars you're interested have posted on their pages on academia.edu. 

[Longing for Learning]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! That gives me some direction for my statement of purpose.

Your explanation also made me realize that I'm already familiar with a fair amount of anthropological work on my topic of interest--I just didn't consider it "technical" enough since it didn't explicitly use the broad terms I'd mentioned earlier. That said, I have several articles/book chapters from Japan anthropologists discussing related topics, so I'll start by giving them a closer look to gain a better understanding of their approaches and how they might apply to my situation.

Thank you also for your advice to take a more exploratory tone. The idea of competing with MA holders to gain access to programs with acceptance rates in the (sometimes low) single digits is intimidating, but your words have given me some perspective.

[time_consume_me]

If you take a MEXT scholarship, getting into a Japanese uni get much easier. How about TouDai? You get full ride and guaranteed stipend for the duration of your programme - it carries through from an MA to a PhD, both of which the university would have you complete.

The MEXT application process includes a research proposal.

Apply for it through a JP embassy in your home country.

There is also the 'university route,' but that is a little more complicated and the particulars seem more of the 'case-by-case' variety.

Alternatively, where did you have in mind?