<p>I was wondering if anyone had any experience with or was planning on attending an American Studies/cultural studies interdisciplinary doctorate program. I'm very intrigued by a number of these programs, including the American Studies & Ethnicity program at USC, the Ethnic Studies PhD at UCSD (at the moment, my dream school purely in terms of faculty and ethos), and the Ethnic Studies PhD at Berkeley. </p>
<p>I recognize, however, that these are extremely lofty aspirations, and I'm also trying to find programs that I have a more reasonable shot of getting into, but I'm very hesitant to put any PhD program in the "safety" slot. I'm somewhat exclusively interested in PhD programs, as I'd like to teach, both during and after grad, and funding is important to my situation. My areas of focus are Asian American identity formation, masculinity, and literature. These criteria are pretty much limiting me to a very small set of programs on the west coast as it is; with a seeming dearth of info online about these programs, I feel like I'm fumbling in the dark. Any info (great programs, overlooked programs, admissions difficulties) would be really appreciated.</p>
<p>PS if it has any bearing, my GPA will be 3.4-3.5 at the time of application (major GPA ~3.7) and my GRE scores are 740V/760Q. Thanks!</p>
<p>getting a degree in _____ studies will make it extremely difficult for you to find work as a professor afterward. many schools are starting up area studies and ethnic studies programs, and they’re employing some very talented academics there, but those academics almost always received their degrees in literature, history, anthropology, political science, sociology, or something else.</p>
<p>if you’re interested in asian american identity formation, and interested in utilizing literature as part of that research, i’d suggest looking to history or literature PhD programs and finding a professor within one of those programs that specializes in asian american history or asian american lit.</p>
<p>a friend of mine applied last year to study asian american identity history and migration. columbia has a specialist in their history department (listed under US history) and cornell has one in their program as well (considered an asian historian). this will probably double the amount of research you have to do trying to find a program, but if your goal is to teach after grad school, history or lit programs will be your best bet.</p>
<p>you can certainly apply to USC, UCSD, and berkeley as well, but i’d recommend going for their lit or history departments and simply bringing on those ethnic studies professors as advisors on your dissertation committee. further, many professors (particularly the “superstars”) are willing to serve on dissertation committees for students attending other universities. you could still work with some of those professors at UCSD while attending a different school if need be.</p>
<p>StrangeLight is absolutely correct – an Ethnic Studies or an American Studies PhD will make employment in academia difficult to find. History or Literature would be better choices, although I am compelled to add that the markets in contemporary American History and contemporary American lit are completely glutted, and many recent PhDs in these subfields (from the very best programs!) cannot find any work whatsoever.</p>
<p>An example of an ABD in American Studies… hopefully he got his PhD by now:
[American</a> Studies PhD but now what? A History MA?](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,34235.0.html]American”>http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,34235.0.html)</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies-- I do notice that most of my tenured professors have history and lit backgrounds. One of my instructors does have a PhD from Stanford’s Modern Thought and Lit programs, and my department chair is also a graduate of that program-- I’m planning on meeting with both-- but it does seem like history PhDs make up the majority of my professors.</p>
<p>Thanks again-- I really would never have looked at explicit history programs. One question: I feel as though my research work (conducting undergrad studies of AsAm youth on my campus and examining popular media for depictions of young AsAm men) and job experience (working with diversity resource centers on campus) are tailored toward more contemporary issues, and indeed I’m also very interested in activism and progressive movements. Do you think history departments would look favorably towards this? In other words, I do not simply want to research AsAm history and migration, but also want to combine some kind of activist or progressive ethos into my study.</p>
<p>With your interests, sociology or social psych programs might be a good fit.</p>
<p>I understand the warnings regarding interdisciplinary doctorates, but then why do they even offer them? Interdisciplinary departments seem to be growing, especially at prestigious schools. Is there a market for American Studies PhDs outside of academia?</p>
<p>They offer them because they need TAs for Intro to American Studies.</p>
<p>And no, there is no market outside of academia.</p>
<p>In other news, I believe that the new Dean of Yale Law School is a graduate of Harvard’s American Civilization Department, though I’m too lazy at the moment to double check that. Sorry.</p>
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<p>They should offer more MAs and less PhDs… let the unfunded heathens fight for assistantships.</p>
<p>harvard and princeton have been two of the only schools i’ve seen with really successful area studies programs (both east asian studies programs), but even then, most students will get their masters and move onto another discipline (or rather, a single discipline) for their PhDs.</p>
<p>and these degrees get offered for the same reason journalism school exists at the graduate level: to bring in money for the universities.</p>
<p>regarding kingjames’ question about incorporating some current issues and social activism into your work, that will depend somewhat upon your department and your advisor. it’s pretty common amongst the history PhD students (and professors, frankly) that i know to get very involved in social issues and activism related to their fields of study, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that interest makes it into their dissertation topics. that said, i myself am a student of political protest, social movements, and labour history. it really just depends on where you end up.</p>