Administrative Post 23

Greetings from the road.  The blog is on a holiday while I do more research in the archives.  Return next week for another entry in the Eight Questions series.

Blog CXXXI (131): Eight Questions: Middle Period and U.S. Civil War

The Eight Questions series now turns to the history of the Middle Period and the U.S. Civil War.  Robert Bender is a Wisconsin native who earned a BS degree at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.  He then earned a MA and Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas.  His first book was Like Grass before the Scythe: The Life and Death of Sgt. William Remmed, 121st New York Infantry, 1862-1864 (2007).  He followed that effort with Worthy of the Cause for which they Fight: The Civil War Diary of Brig. Gen. Daniel Harris Reynolds (2011). His articles and reviews have appeared in the Missouri Historical Review, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Journal of Illinois History. West Virginia History, Illinois Historical Journal, Michigan Historical Review and the Wisconsin Magazine of History.  He has been a member of the History Department faculty at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell since 2002.  Here is his essay:

What is the greatest strength of your field? In the history profession?

The greatest strength of the history profession is the way it promotes the ability to evaluate evidence and express those assessments in a coherent fashion. The greatest strength of the Middle Period and Civil War field is the way it promotes thoughtful reflections on how much our population, government, and nation have advanced in relation to the fundamental issues that define us as multicultural population (and what areas exist for continued improvement).

 

What is the biggest issue facing your field? The history profession?

As with all academic fields, there is a trend among politicians to assess education as a commercial product rather than as an intellectual process, and to simultaneously under-invest in educational facilities, equipment, and salaries – supposedly in the name of a balanced budget, but which demonstrate a lack of administrative understanding of pedagogy and assessment. No nation has ever maintained its position in the world through these types of short-sighted policies.

  What is the most interesting work being done in your field? Why?

Scholarship that explores the Civil War years in a way that blends the social, political, and military events as a cohesive national experience (rather than as phenomenon to be separately investigated).

  How valuable is teaching in the professional development of a career?

Extremely important, especially given the number of schools that define themselves as student-oriented or teaching-focused. Graduate schools need to do more to prepare their graduates as teachers, not just researchers (i.e. graduate schools need to prepare their graduates more for the immediate job market needs of those graduates; programs with limited numbers of graduate assistantships need to rotate more of their graduate students through that form of teacher-training to improve their chances on the job market).

  What direction or type of publishing would you advise a new Ph.D. to conduct?

Edit a manageable collection of primary materials for publication; it’s a great way to develop writing and research skills in a project with excellent potential for publication. As much as possible, organize your dissertation in a way that will allow you to initially publish it as a series of related articles.

  What issues affect most the development of a career: family, school resources, popularity of field, reputation of alma mater, etc.?

Popularity of field and reputation of alma mater exert the greatest impact on the starting point of a career, because those factors have the most impact on entry-level job market prospects. Factors such as resources and family have greater impact on the balance between life and career, once that career is underway.

What advice would you give to an undergraduate interested in working on a Ph.D. in history?

Be reflective enough to understand why you want to pursue graduate studies and a career in history. Work on your writing skills as much as possible and try to determine your field of specialty as soon as possible.

What advice would you give to a new Ph.D. unable to find employment in a history department?

Remember that the skills developed through the study of history are transferrable to many non-teaching fields and public history institutions, such as government agencies or museums and archival repositories.

Administrative Post 22

No posting this week due to a research trip.  Return next week for more.

Blog CXXX (130): Eight Questions: South Asian History

Neilesh Bose, an assistant professor at the University of North Texas is the next contributor to the “Eight Questions” series.  Bose earned a BA from the University of Pittsburgh, a MA from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from Tufts University.  At North Texas, he teaches classes in world history, British imperial, and South Asian history.  His research within South Asian history focuses on modern Islam, decolonization, empire, diaspora studies, and theater and performance studies.  His first book, Recasting the Region, Language, Culture, and Islam in Colonial Bengal, will appear on bookshelves in 2013.  It investigates decolonization, nationalism, and political identity in South Asia as represented and discussed in the literature of critics, writers, publishers, and financiers of the late colonial period.  His articles have appeared in South Asia Research and Modern Asian Studies.  He is currently part of a three-person research team, conducting oral histories of intellectuals born in the era of late colonialism and decolonization. This project has been supported with funding from several sources including the National Endowment for the Humanities. This team is exploring the links between ideas, culture, social experience, and urban geography in the age of decolonization in South Asia.  This work focuses on Bengali-speaking individuals across the divide of India and Bangladesh.  Here is his essay:

What is the greatest strength of your field? In the history profession?

Risking the revival of an old cliché, I would say that the greatest strength of South Asian history is the sheer diversity of insight contained in the texts and practices of the South Asian past. South Asia’s diversity of classical and modern languages, religions, literary traditions, artistic styles, philosophical traditions, and encounters with the outside world offer the community of historians an unending array of research topics. As a field with so much material to study and learn from, South Asian history also lends itself to intensive debates about theory and methodology. It truly has something for everyone.

The greatest strength of the history profession comprises its ethical and democratic practices. When historians encounter the seemingly distant world of the past, they must infuse their research and dissemination with an ethical concern for the politics and culture of their present-day society. Also, historians are called upon to approach the encounter with humility and honesty, as the profession allows for any reader to check sources, visit archives, and query the historical interpretations, thereby creating a democratic approach to the creation of knowledge.

What is the biggest issue facing your field? The history profession?

The biggest issue facing South Asian historians working in the United States is the unpredictable and unstable publishing market for specialized historical research. Though the awareness of South Asia as a pivotal region of the world with its own distinctive history is increasing in the U.S. academy, the academic publishing market has not directly followed suit. In a time of economic downturns, South Asian historians must work with grace and imagination to place their work with academic publishers in ways that differ from historians in other fields.

The most important issue facing the history profession is the continual onslaught against humanist and social science education and training in the U.S. Though not a particularly new problem, the relative over-emphasis on fields that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to the detriment of fields like history must be addressed by the community of historians.

What is the most interesting work being done in your field? Why?

There are so many interesting and important works that have appeared in recent works that it is difficult to identify one or two particular titles. In general, recent intellectual history in South Asia, with an emphasis on re-assessing the relations between South Asia and the outside world, is particularly exciting. Also, scholarship that re-assesses South Asia’s place within various regional configurations outside of the national or the imperial, such as using oceanic history frameworks, is also charting new vistas in our knowledge of the South Asian past. I think these two strands of current scholarship are important because they consider seriously not only moving beyond familiar national or imperial boundaries of history, but they actually introduce new frameworks that are relevant not only for South Asia but for the discipline as a whole.

How valuable is teaching in the professional development of a career?

Teaching is doubtlessly essential to the professional development of an historian. Teaching is what connects you to the field in real time through the rough and tumble world out there, outside of your own idiosyncratic desires. It is not only deeply fulfilling, but a definitive component of being an historian. It forces you to continually connect to the ever-changing audience of students. History as a form of knowledge is a living, breathing entity that is always developing into new directions – without students and the teaching component of our professions, such liveliness would be impossible.

Though the requirements and relative emphasis on teaching vary from institution to institution, each and every institution values teachers who bring to the table sincerity, passion, and commitment. If I were to advise current graduate students, I would recommend not only assisting or fully teaching as much as possible for professional advancement, but also for the personal fulfillment that emanates from working through ideas and intellectual issues and problems with students. Often research ideas and insights arise from teaching experiences. Such experiences, especially at the beginning stages of a career, are invaluable.

What direction or type of publishing would you advise a new Ph.D. to conduct?

The scholarly terrain changes quickly, so what is considered “cutting-edge” may change between the start and end of a Ph.D. program. Do what is in your heart but make sure to open your mind to the guidance of those more seasoned in the publishing world than you are. Regarding the dissertation, though the initial audience is small, make sure you cultivate a sensibility for as broad an audience as possible as you develop your ideas and the overall book.

What issues affect most the development of a career: family, school resources, popularity of field, reputation of alma matter, etc.?

There is no magic formula, but unfortunately the profession does work like most others: the name of the alma mater, the reputation of the dissertation advisor, the timeliness and popularity of the research topic all play a crucial role in career advancement. That said, the job market is absolutely unpredictable and it is impossible to identify one factor over all others that would ensure success.

For the first few years of a Ph.D., however, it is crucial to isolate as strong and as marketable a topic as possible. This topic will define you for several very important markers in your career and in many cases will make or break job, fellowship, and publication competitions. This topic also serves as your scholarly identity that will mark your entry into the profession after the Ph.D. Handle the decision about your topic with the utmost consideration. Choose a topic you are comfortable sticking with for several years. Once you are deep into the Ph.D. it will be nearly impossible to change it.

What advice would you give to an undergrad interested in working on a Ph.D. in history?

I recommend thinking seriously about what the path of a Ph.D. in history and then a career in history entails before taking the plunge. There will be several years of intense work with little renumeration and a serious possibility of not finding a job in the field. All this will take place while friends and colleagues in other professions outside the academy are advancing in their own lives. Jobs and fellowship opportunities are strewn across the country and the world. If one is serious about an academic career, frequent and long-term moves will surely be in your future. If after all these considerations you decide you must do it, I do have a few suggestions.

First, get started on language study immediately. South Asian history is quite exciting but the language requirements are severe and particular, regardless of topic or time period.

Second, get immersed in research experiences in South Asia as soon and as often as possible. Unlike many other fields, doing research in South Asian libraries and archives often includes numerous bureaucratic hurdles and obstacles as well as challenges of many kinds unheard of in other historical fields. There are numerous sources of funding for travel as an undergraduate and as a language student. Get immersed not only in South Asia, but in research in South Asia, as soon as possible. This is the only time you will ever have to ease your way into South Asian research and work life – when you are doing dissertation research and research after your Ph.D., you will find that time is not on your side. Do as much as you can beforehand.

Third, discuss with prospective advisors your potential dissertation and path well before you submit your applications. Ensure that your prospective advisor is committed to your project before you embark on your Ph.D. Talk to current Ph.D. students at your designated institution and at other institutions. Trust me—you will learn from everyone.

All this basically means that you need to prepare accordingly and very early for a Ph.D. in South Asian history. It will likely take a bit longer than you think at first.

What advice would you give to a new Ph.D. unable to find employment in a history department?

There are plenty of jobs and career paths for a new Ph.D. unable to find employment in a history department. First, though the academic job market is extremely unpredictable, a few factors are very important for every job search: cover letters, c.v. style, and approaches to interviewing are elements that you should polish and display to both junior and senior colleagues. Make sure to find at least one junior and one senior (tenured) colleague to read all your paper work and listen to your job talk. Also, do not be shy about asking colleagues at other institutions, regardless of rank, about search committee practices and priorities.

With expertise in South Asian history, one is also suited for work in study and travel abroad organizations that specialize in study/travel/language programs in India and other parts of South Asia.

For jobs outside of the university history profession, there are opportunities in K-12 teaching, government agencies (particularly the Office of the Historian of the Department of State), museums, publishing and editing, travel writing, and library science professions. Also, working in advanced administrative professions in the university is another option.

Administrative Post 21

The blog is on vacation this week as I take a research trip for my next book.  Return next week for another posting.

Blog CXXIX (129): Eight Questions: Modern European History

The Eight Questions series now turns to Modern European History.  Margaret Peacock is an assistant professor of history at the University of Alabama, where she teaches courses on both Imperial Russian and Soviet History.  She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Texas.  She is the author of the forthcoming book: Contested Innocence: Images, Childhood, and the Struggle for Cold War Legitimacy.  She has also had articles published in The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Cold War History, and the Russian-language journal Poslednie Obnovleniia.    In 2009 she was featured in a story in The New York Times about the academic job market.  She told the paper that during her job search many hiring committees were worried about making offers before their finances prevented them from holding other searches.   “I also know that many of the offers being made by departments to their chosen candidates are not as generous as they have been in past years, with higher teaching loads and less room to negotiate salary,”she said. “I am becoming increasingly convinced that I got in under the wire.”  Here is her essay:

What is the greatest strength of your field? In the history profession?

The greatest strength of Modern European History, I believe, is the lesson that it offers in revising how people think about the world around them. As any professor of the Modern European History survey course will tell you, in the end, one of the most important lessons that this history can teach the individual is that modernity is complicated and sometimes creates as much destruction as it does progress.

Likewise, the greatest strength of the history profession is its call to each person to see civilization as a fragile thing, filled with people of differing beliefs and social systems, all deserving respect and attention.

What is the biggest issue facing your field? The history profession?

I am a Russian historian, where the Putin administration is slowly increasing its hold over access to information. Archives that were once open are now closing and sensitive documents are disappearing. Many in my field are beginning to see the 1990s as a window of research opportunity that is unfortunately closing.

Regarding the profession in general, I think the recent economic downturn has brought to the fore a problem that has existed in our field for decades. The United States is producing too many graduate students who cannot find tenure track jobs when they finish their Ph.Ds. Many of these recent grads are forced to take low-paying adjunct positions that do not make a living wage and are entirely exploitative. This problem is compounded by the rising culture of hiring adjuncts that has taken place in the United States. Universities that are now driven on cost models have decided that they can save money by simply staffing their courses with adjuncts who get no benefits and make an average of $12,000 a year. It is a travesty and a problem that is, in the long run, going to impact negatively the quality of higher education and the pool of intellectuals who are able and willing to work in the United States.

What is the most interesting work being done in your field? Why?

Every historian will answer this question differently. For me, the most interesting work is being done in the Cold War era by historians who are willing and able to do global, transnational, and comparative research. These new approaches are interesting because they are moving away from the traditional, geographically motivated structures of historical inquiry and are instead interested in seeing global connections that might otherwise be obscured.

How valuable is teaching in the professional development of a career?

Teaching is valuable, without question. I think that the answer to this depends on one’s institution. We all enter the field with the idea that the three-legged stool of research, teaching, and service is what holds academics together. This is more the case at liberal arts colleges and less so at research universities where tenure is largely determined by publication record. I personally love teaching and have found fewer things more fulfilling than working with students who are enthusiastic about learning.

What direction or type of publishing would you advise a new Ph.D. to conduct?

In history, it is all about the book. Try to get a couple articles out, preferably not from chapters of your dissertation, and write a good book that has a broad appeal. In addition, you should write your dissertation as if it were a first draft of a book. Unless you are at the University of Chicago, the days of writing exhaustive, 700 page tomes are over. Write something smart and elegant that will not be too hard to convert for publication.

What issues affect most the development of a career: family, school resources, popularity of field, reputation of alma matter, etc.?

If by this question you mean, what are the factors that determine whether or not you get a job, I can say that the field does matter. Given how saturated the field is with Ph.D.s who cannot find work, I would suggest to anyone thinking about doing a doctoral degree to consider not working in European or American history. I have sat on two search committees and voted on many more searches. The European and American vacancies receive an overwhelming number of applicants, most of whom are viable. In contrast, the fields of Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and to some extent Latin American History are in great demand and are not graduating the same number of students.

I am no expert on career success. Receiving funding and support from my department and from the Fulbright-Hays grant was crucial. I worked under a great doctoral advisor who was willing to give me the attention I needed. It helped, I think, to come from a top-20 graduate program [See Blog LXXIX (79): Hail to the Victor] and to publish some before going on the market. That said, I do not think that one has much control over one’s success once one goes on the market. I have had many brilliant friends who were looked over for reasons that make no sense.

What advice would you give to an undergrad interested in working on a Ph.D. in history?

I hate to sound cynical, but my advice would be to think very carefully about making this decision. It involves a 7-10 year commitment, a serious expenditure of money, a tremendous amount of work that often receives no recognition, and can very likely end with no job. That said, if a student is committed and can see no other future for him or herself, then I would advise the following:

1. Start on your languages three years ago. You need to be able to do research in two languages in order to get past the second year.
2. Pick your grad school carefully. If you cannot get into one of the top programs then you probably should not be doing this. [See Blog LXXIX (79): Hail to the Victor] Moreover, choose your school according to the scholar with whom you want to work. Make sure that your future advisor will actually be willing to work with you and will support your project.
3. Do not go to a school unless they are providing funding. This is not like law school and you will not make enough in the future to pay back loans.
4. Go to a place that you can tolerate. Make sure it is in a city that you can enjoy.

What advice would you give to a new Ph.D. unable to find employment in a history department?

I can only offer sympathy. The standard advice is that you should have friends read your cover letters and listen to your job talk to help you polish it. References from big names in the field are always good and being able to cull connections does not hurt. But the truth is that in the end, hiring choices are impossible to control. Departments will often choose a candidate for reasons that have nothing to do with your publications record or the prestige of your program. I have some bright colleagues who have turned to teaching at private high schools. Others have jumped between one-year appointments and adjunct positions in the hopes that their continued publication with keep them viable on the market. Some have turned to consulting in the private sector. Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that it is not your fault and you should not see your lack of employment as a reflection of your intelligence or your viability as a scholar.

Blog CXXVIII (128): Eight Questions: Gilded Age and Progressive Era History

The Eight Question series turns to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.  Edward Frantz is an associate professor at the University of Indianapolis.  He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 2002 where Willliam Cronon, the current president of the American Historical Association, served on his committee.  Frantz is the author of the The Door of Hope: Republican Presidents and the First Southern Strategy, 1877-1933 (2011). At Indianapolis, he teaches courses on, the Civil Rights Movement, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1877-1917), and the U.S. during the two world wars and Great Depression (1917-1945).  He is a member of the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.  He has an active Twitter account: @EdwardFrantz.  Here is his essay:

What is the greatest strength of your field? In the history profession?

The greatest strength of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is that it continues to remain relevant and instructive to our lives in the present. It was a complicated, confusing, and complex time, but one that contains in it so many fascinating areas for a scholar to investigate.

The greatest strength of the historical profession, I believe, is that we deal with the human condition, which is inherently rich and interesting.

What is the biggest issue facing your field? The history profession?

Perhaps the most significant challenge for GAPE period, as it is often now abbreviated, is its fairly narrow chronological span. As the years go on, it will be interesting how departments define the areas in which they hire. Historians have long argued about the validity of the labels Gilded Age and Progressive Era, which could further contribute to the uncertainty. In turn, this might make it harder to train the next generation of specialists in the area. Because the questions that we ask are so essential, I have confidence scholars will find new and interesting ways to tackle issues in the GAPE period, but those structural challenges are real.

The history profession writ large simply has to deal with its relevance to the academy and to larger society. Too many of us focus our energies so narrowly, I fear, that we miss out on a broader public that tends to be quite interested in what we do. We cannot miss this opportunity. Moreover, we have not done enough to assert our importance in the face of the current emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathfields and other standardized testing that has dominated K-12 education.

What is the most interesting work being done in your field? Why?

This is a tough one, simply because so many people are doing so many interesting things. I continue to find the transition from the end of Reconstruction through about 1900 to be absolutely intriguing. Therefore I find most interesting the projects examining meanings of freedom, restrictions on that freedom, the birth of the modern, and the various clashing world views that took place during that era. Overall, however, whenever I tend to pick up a publication like The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, or attend a conference, I am amazed at the creative things that my colleagues are doing. The financial crisis of the 2007-2010 is causing people to look at economic crises of the Gilded Age with fresh eyes, and those are quite interesting studies, too.

How valuable is teaching in the professional development of a career?

Absolutely indispensible. Teaching is where we test our ideas, our command of subject, and convey our passion. In turn, students — both graduate and undergraduate — help to fuel our own intellectual interests. Although those who read a variety of publications might think that teacher/scholar model is dead, I would submit that it often healthier than people tend to think.

New audiences of students, asking new questions, also keep professors sharp, on their toes, engaged, and relevant.

As a graduate student, I tried to be a teaching assistant in a wide variety of classes. These experiences made me a better teacher, scholar, and historian.

Finally, a dramatic portion of a career (particularly at a medium or smaller sized school) is summed up by the people whose lives we help to change. This component is extremely rewarding.

What direction or type of publishing would you advise a new Ph.D. to conduct?

Any direction they can find. The terrain is shifting so quickly that it is hard to foresee what academic publishing will look like in ten years. Being able to write for a variety of audiences, in a variety of genres or styles, would seem to be particularly necessary.

What issues affect most the development of a career: family, school resources, popularity of field, reputation of alma matter, etc.?

I would be hard pressed to say which of these affects career development most, because a career really is shaped by all of these. I was lucky enough to land a tenure track job right when I finished my Ph.D. That is not true for most people. But if you get on that path, the arc of a career can be quite interesting. I am a decade into my ride, and it has gone in directions that I never would have imagined when I started graduate school.

If we were to focus on the first two to three years upon earning the Ph.D., I would say the things that matter most are the topic that you choose for your dissertation and the support that your institution can provide. Your dissertation, for better or worse, will define you to the rest of the academy for years to come. Thus, it needs to be chosen with the greatest of care. The institutions that can support their junior faculty with lighter teaching loads and plenty of time for research and writing are the ones that help young faculty jump start their careers most successfully. Each of the other pieces, though, is vital, and all deserve scrutiny.

What advice would you give to an undergrad interested in working on a Ph.D. in history?

In pursuing this quest, you will have odds about as long as the 14 year old who dreams of becoming a professional athlete. If you do not know the ins and outs of how the historical marketplace works (and odds are you do not), educate yourself. It has never been easier to find out about departments and professors. Look at websites. Talk to advisers and everyone you can at your current school. Contact prospective programs.

The discipline itself is as rewarding as one can imagine, but it is also an extremely hard slog, where the definition of success tends to be so narrowly construed that even some people who are undeniably successful feel like failures.

As an undergrad, you probably are not aware of how specific and narrow many fields of study are. Each of these contains special opportunities as well as special challenges. Choose a future field extremely carefully.

I would also recommend that you identify graduate programs where faculty members can be strong advocates for you. With the market unlikely to change any time soon, you will need to be shepherded by someone who is deeply invested in your training and will want to help you throughout your whole career.

What advice would you give to a new Ph.D. unable to find employment in a history department?

Look elsewhere! Your skills tend to be the ones that all employers desperately want. Most historians are not particularly good at marketing themselves, but if you can work on this, you should be able to convince a variety of employers that you would be an asset to their company.

There is nothing wrong with a life outside of a history department. Indeed, one can live a life with history and not be a professional historian. In fact, many of my friends from graduate school do so. This also means that there are alternatives within academia that you should not rule out, either.

You can still publish, write, and research, without a job in a history department. Public history is thriving, and there are so many alternative careers now that you should not dismay.