<p>Hi. I hate for my first post on the forums here to be a little bit annoyed, but my situation right now is frustrating. I would like to find a graduate program in 19th century American and British history, preferably a PhD program. My aspirations are to eventually teach at the university level in this area, and as such, I will eventually have to pursue a doctorate. Right now, though, I am having a very hard time doing this because virtually every PhD program requires proficiency in one foreign language for any field of study in history.</p>
<p>I'm not entirely certain that I understand why I need to learn a foreign language to study what amounts to the history of English speaking America and Britain, but evidently I do, and right now I'm very concerned. I believe that I could get into a fairly high ranking MA program and learn a language at that point, but financial concerns will make that difficult and might make it impossible for me to pursue a PhD afterward (which would really just mean that I would be incurring a lot of debt for no apparent reason). I am a first generation college student and as such, my family doesn't have a lot of money. I'm really concerned because, quite frankly, I feel like I really messed up by deciding to major in history at this point, but I don't have the time to change it since I will be graduating early (this is also why I'm not going to be able to learn a second language before applying for graduate school). Frankly, I'm not sure what I would change it to, anyway. I have a minor in business which might get me into a low-level management position in a store or restaurant, but I'm not good with people and I have literally no desire to go into management. It's not an "I'm sour or annoying and just don't like others" kind of not-good-with-people that I can work on or change, it's an "I have a diagnosed mental disability and am not good with interpersonal communication" kind of not-good-with-people that would make it next to impossible for me to have the sort of skill necessary for management work or to know if someone were trying to manipulate or deceive me.</p>
<p>I would like a job working in academia and could excel in both research and in lecturing others (I am good at conveying information in a simpler setting where I do not have to manage individuals in an organizational capacity), but I'm frightened about the prospects for myself there now. With the GPA that I have currently, I should be graduating magna cum laude and I'm going to be able to receive strong letters of recommendation from many of my instructors. It's annoying and more than a little disturbing that something which seems trivial and almost otiose in context might make the rest of my life considerably more difficult, or even make it impossible for me to get a job that pays more than $20,000 a year for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>Do any of you know of any MA programs in American history for the time period I'm interested in that would offer good funding, or of anything else that might be helpful? Right now, I see that as being pretty much my only gateway into a PhD program, which is frustrating. The only other option is finding myself with massive amounts of student loan debt, which might make it difficult to pursue a PhD at all.</p>
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<p>There are a wide variety of 19th century sources you may want to use that talk about Britain and America from a non-English-speaking perspective. (For instance, if you’re writing about the Mexican War, you couldn’t possibly ignore Mexican accounts written in Spanish.) Requiring language ability ensures that you would be able to include those perspectives in your research.</p>
<p>The English-speaking perspective is (in recent historical terms) dominant - but that does not make it the only valid perspective. So, the language requirement sort of enforces that a good historian understands that.</p>
<p>Okay…sorry if I made it sound like it was a completely stupid requirement. I know that, to at least some extent, it’s logical (although I still doubt that I’m going to encounter sources other than those in English on a regular basis, since my primary interest isn’t in conflict or international relations). I’m frustrated, though, because this still relatively unimportant requirement is going to cause me very serious problems.</p>
<p>I’m more asking for advice right now, because there’s not exactly a lot that I could do to change that requirement. I’m graduating in eight months, and I’m going to have to start applying for graduate school pretty shortly, so it’s probably more practical for me to try to figure high quality MA programs which offer some degree of funding and would be willing to offer training in one or more foreign languages.</p>
<p>The problem is that you keep viewing it as a “relatively unimportant requirement” when it is not. Remember that the people who design history programs are historians themselves, often with years of experience in the field. They know what’s required and useful for professing as a historian, and if they require a language, then it’s probably not unimportant. History is not my field and even I can think of non-conflict, non-international reasons you might want to know a foreign language. Assuming that by “Great Britain” you mean “England, Scotland, and Wales,” you may be interested in some Welsh accounts of life in Britain in the 19th century. There may be some scholarship in French written about British history that’s not about conflict or international relations. Or you may find your interests shifting a little bit and maybe become interested in colonial literature, in which case you may be interested in a language of a colonized nation the British held during the 19th century.</p>
<p>In any case, try to see it as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. History is an extremely competitive field; you will be competing with people who already hold MAs and can read two additional languages, perhaps even three. History PhD students I know tend to take learning additional languages (reading ability, at least) as a matter of course. So yes, applying to MA programs could be the money (although you are unlikely to find many funded MA programs in history).</p>
<p>However, you can also consider taking some time “off”. You could see if you can find a history-related job with your postdoc (assisting at a historical museum? Working for a historical or cultural society?) and start taking some language classes part-time at a local university. You may even be able to get a job at a university - perhaps in an institute or center that focuses on historical or cultural issues, even if only as an administrative assistant. Or perhaps as a library assistant or clerk. Then the university may even pay for you to take a class or two for free, which you can use to take foreign language classes and build your reading skill in that area. You could take two simultaneously, and could probably build reading proficiency in two or three years.</p>
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<p>I would suggest that the strongest thing you could do is not apply and instead, pursue what julliet suggested - jobs in the field, even low-level positions such as curatorial assistant, collections cataloguing, etc.</p>
<p>The year that I took to pursue jobs and internships between finishing my bachelor’s degree and starting my master’s program completely changed my career path and my graduate studies.</p>
<p>I’ll be honest, my first post was when I was tired and more than a little frustrated and frightened. When I think about it, I can see the value of knowing another language for the work that I want to do, but it’s still terrifying.</p>
<p>I totally sympathize with you. I had to take a research statistics course my first semester as a graduate student… and math in general is my absolute worst, most hated and feared subject. My quant GRE is flat-out embarrassingly bad and I was terrified that I’d fall flat on my face.</p>
<p>The class was a real struggle to get through and I had to study my ass off to just get a B. But even though my specialty is qualitative research, I do feel like that course helped me understand how things work in the field. I will, God willing, never, ever have to do a Cohen’s d on anything in my life. But I got through. You can get through a language, I’m sure! :)</p>
<p>The first post implies that you believe that this language requirement is your only obstacle blocking you from an academic career.</p>
<p>Realistically speaking, the major obstacle is the fact that there are very few positions and immense competition in history. Whether you speak one language or a one hundred languages, the odds are still heavily against you in terms of becoming a professor. This requirement is the difference between odds of 1 in 100 and 1 in 1000. Either way, you’re unlikely to get there. Of course, if you enjoy the work, it might be worth trying anyway. </p>
<p>No matter what you choose to do, you should seek out some alternative non-academic paths. It doesn’t have to be management, but you’ll need something.</p>