Can I have some help finding PhD programs in Middle Eastern & Israeli History?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hey, so I'm a freshman at Tulane University triple majoring in Political Science: International Relations, History, & Jewish Studies, with minors in French Language and Literature & U.S. Public Policy.</p>

<p>I'm interested in eventually pursuing academia - yes, I know I'm "just a freshman" but I just want to get acquainted with things so I know how to prepare myself. I'm a first-generation college student, so I don't know a ton of things off the top of my head. But yes, I have still done some research. I have some contacts I'm friendly with: an NYU joint PhD in History & Judaic Studies, a Tulane PhD in Political Science: International Relations, and another Tulane (soon to be Oklahoma) joint PhD in History and French Studies. However, they only know so much about what I want to pursue, given their fields. Additionally, my major advisers only seem to know so much about what I want to study, given their areas (and one is on leave too, unfortunately).</p>

<p>So, I want to be a Middle Eastern Historian/ Israeli Historian. That sounds pretty simple, right? Well, not quite. You see, most people who study the history of a Middle Eastern country - like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or the U.A.E. - tend to get a PhD in History (focusing on the Middle East) or perhaps a joint PhD in History (focusing on the Middle East) and Middle Eastern Studies. However, people who tend to study Israel - no matter the discipline - tend to study Jewish Studies. Well, at least that's how it is with the academics in Tulane's Department of Jewish Studies and the people I've talked to at NYU. They tend to have joint PhDs in Jewish Studies and something else. For instance, Jewish historians at Tulane tend to have joint PhDs in History and Jewish Studies and Jewish political scientists (specifically ones who study political theory) tend to have joint PhDs in Political Science and Jewish Studies.</p>

<p>However, I want to be a historian of the Middle East. So, it seems like I would get a PhD in History. However, I want my focus to be on Israel. So, that seems to point towards Jewish Studies. However, I do not want to be a Jewish historian, I want to be an Israeli historian (or - in other words - a Historian of the Middle East with a focus on Israel).</p>

<p>Ideally, I would probably like to get a joint PhD in History (with a focus on the Middle East) and Israeli Studies. However, I cannot seem to find any places where that would be possible. All the Middle Eastern History programs tend to be "Middle Eastern & Islamic History" and then have next to nothing on Israel, just like my contact at NYU warned. Additionally, I have found only one program on Israeli Studies - it was at NYU, under the Hebrew & Judaic Studies Department, and it appears tiny and possibly discontinued (and not joint with History). Additionally - on a separate note - I have discovered many History PhD programs do not have Middle Eastern History - that kind of shocked me. Why are people not studying the history of one of the world's most complex and least understood regions? (I'll save that rant for a different time, I suppose).</p>

<p>So can anyone give me any directions with finding PhD programs for someone who wants to become a Middle Eastern historian with a focus on Israel? I would greatly prefer ones in the United States and Israel, but I'll definitely listen to suggestions for ones in the United Kingdom, Canada, or anywhere else that someone can think of. By the time I'm done my four undergrad years at Tulane, I hope to have proficiency in both French and Hebrew - specifically, I'll have 8 semesters of French and four of Hebrew. I greatly thank everyone for their assistance in this process.</p>

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<p>I see that Brandeis University calls its Ph.D. program “Near East and Judaic Studies.” </p>

<p>If you’re trying to study the political history of the modern nation-state of Israel, it’s only 70 years old. Since it was established in the context of much older Jewish history and culture, a program called “Jewish Studies” makes sense, if your goal is to study Israel. </p>

<p>Don’t get hung up on the program name. Study the catalogue and professors, according to what they publish and names of courses, to determine how many of them also share your interest in modern Israel. Perhaps everything you hope to study about Israel is there under the “Jewish Studies” or “Judaic Studies” nameplate. Within those departments, look for the Professors whose main focus is on modern Israel. There are plenty of them.</p>

<p>If you want a rounder picture, to look at Israel from the perspective of the many cultures that reside there today, including Arab, Druze, Christian, Eastern Orthodox… it sounds as though you’d find some of these communities represented under the Middle East Studies program. You’ll find more coverage of migrations of Iranian or Iraqi Jews to Israel in a Jewish studies program than Middle Eastern History.</p>

<p>By studying both Jewish Studies and Middle Eastern History, you can put the big picture together. </p>

<p>By analogy, if someone wanted to study U.S. History but only after World War I, they might land in a graduate program called “History of the United States” because there’s not a graduate program called “20th Century History of the United States.” </p>

<p>Adding: I know someone who got a B.A. in the U.S., then took a Masters degree in International Relations at Hebrew University in Israel. Based on that, he’s applying to Ph.D. program in the U.S.</p>

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<p>I get what you’re saying, but the skills and methods learned for a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies would be different from those used for a PhD in History (with a focus on the Middle East). I may do a one year Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies, but I want to be a historian (of the Middle East), not a PhD trained in the multidisciplinary field of Middle Eastern Studies (or Jewish Studies).</p>

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<p>Also, I have another question: let’s say I get a PhD in History (focusing on the Middle East) - perhaps joint with Israeli or Middle Eastern Studies. </p>

<p>Does my specialty have to be so specific so that it is always of just one country? For instance, could I focus on say Israel at some point, then Bahrain at another point… and so on - or do I really have to narrow down to one country usually?</p>

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<p>For now, take a look at the University of Minnesota. They have a History of the Middle East program, although I see that their one professor with a Jewish course is currently teaching about Jews in Morocco… interesting, but not quite what you wanted re: Israel. </p>

<p>Ultimately I think you’ll need to talk with professors at Tulane for guidance towards which scholars and programs might suit you.</p>

<p>For right now: I can’t imagine how any undergrad does a triple major with 2 minors. I don’t doubt you’re a hard worker; it’s the question of scheduling in all the required courses x5. Start by getting some academic advice, if you haven’t yet, on whether you can complete the requirements of all these situations, getting in all the sequences demanded by each major. Have you mapped this out yet? Watch out for courses offered only every two years. You also wwant to be careful not to spread yourself so thin that it’s hard to make good grades during college. Remember that you’ll have a
transcript with courses; everything doesn’t have to be in a minor or major. </p>

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<p>If you plan early (i.e. freshman year) it is not that difficult to complete 2+ majors in 4 years. Additionally the OP’s 3 majors are in semi-related fields (most likely it will be a single B.A. with 3 majors listed) which make it more doable. However, as with most freshman, it is highly likely that the OP will drop at least one major by graduation.</p>

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<p>Just for the record: I have planned out my three majors and two minors at Tulane. I even had my academic adviser look over the plan.</p>

<p>You have to understand: at Tulane, everyone at least double majors with a minor. It is so easy to do. My Political Science: International Relations major in only 13 classes, History is only 10, and Jewish Studies is only 10. The French minor is only 9 or so and Public Policy is only 5. Additionally, many of these areas overlap and I am taking classes this upcoming summer.</p>

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<p>OP, most people take ~40 classes in college (assuming 3 credits per class). 10+10+13 = 33 + 14 = 47 courses, or around 140+ hours. That leaves you with no room in a regular 120 hour program to complete divisional and general education requirements - unless the majors have so much overlap that they’re essentially meaningless. Given that, I’m not really sure how you can actually complete three majors and two minors. But besides that, I think it’s way overkill. But if your academic adviser looked over it…<em>shrug</em></p>

<p>In any case, I definitely do not think it’s too early to think about the PhD. You want to start thinking about it early so that you can prepare! So kudos on that.</p>

<p>Second - what do you want to do with the PhD? You say you want to be a historian; do you want to be a history professor at a university or college? If you do, then it is important that you get a PhD in history. People with PhDs in area studies programs (Near Eastern studies, Middle Eastern studies, Jewish studies) have a much harder time getting a job; they don’t typically get hired in history departments. History departments typically hire people with PhDs in history. So you do want to find a program where you can get a PhD in history, but concentrate on the Middle East and Israel specifically. BUT you may want to go to a university that has a Near Eastern or Judaic Studies program, because then you can take classes in that department.I’m not in history myself, but I’ve heard that in the humanities it’s not quite as important to have a professor who does exactly what you want, just something similar.</p>

<p>Brandeis immediately came to mind, but their history department actually doesn’t have many people doing the history of Israel - more the history of Jewish peoples and the disapora. There was one that I saw that does the history of Jewish refugees in Israel. Columbia might also be a place to look; they have a history department with a focus area in Jewish studies, an MA in Jewish studies, and a relationship with the Jewish Theological Seminary. Yale could be a good place, with a department of Judaic studies and decent representation in Middle Eastern history in the department of history.</p>

<p>You might take a look at this list of Jewish Studies programs (<a href=“http://www.ajsnet.org/programs.php”>http://www.ajsnet.org/programs.php&lt;/a&gt;) and then check out the history departments at some of those schools to see if there are scholars that can supervise you.</p>

<p>In every field, there are understudied areas. Some of that has to do with, sadly, historical and institutional racism/prejudice against a particular area. That’s the case for the Middle East - why it’s so easy to find people in North American (especially U.S.) and Western European history, and why these days it’s so difficult to find good scholars in certain areas of Middle Eastern and African history. But part of it is also, simply, that Israel is a young country and much of the scholarship may be done in Israel itself or abroad.</p>

<p>To answer your other question - yes, I think it’s quite common for scholars in general to have more than one substantive area of interest. I think it’s also pretty common for historians to be interested in more than one country, especially some that share similar regional locations and/or cultural practices.</p>

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<p>Hey everyone, thanks for the insight and varied viewpoints helping me with this!</p>

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<p>Juillet - That’s part of what I was getting at. I want to study history, but not an interdisciplinary field like Middle Eastern Studies or Jewish Studies. I mean, maybe a joint PhD with that and then History, but mainly History.</p>

<p>By the way, I want to be a professor at a university. Additionally, I think that’s basically the only thing I could do with a PhD in a liberal arts field. If anyone feels there are alternative pathways though, I’d love to hear your thoughts.</p>

<p>And about there being more research on the U.S. and Europe but not other regions of the world - I just found that so interested. Why are there not more MENA or Asian historians in a country so involved with those regions? I don’t get it.</p>

<p>And for the doing a History PhD at a school with a strong Jewish Studies Department: that’s a good idea.</p>

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<p>Do historians work at the U.S. State Department, Brookings Institute, or various think tanks? That’s worth investigating, if you are looking for something in addition to, or outside of, university work.</p>

<p>In my perfect world, there’d be a resident Middle East Historian sitting in every news broadcast office, to consult with reporters before they write their nightly news reports! I say that because so much news about the Middle East is reactive and without historic depth. That’s been going on for awhile, however, as evidenced in this article from the late 1980;s <a href=“http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/boisi/pdf/s12/thstudyofmehistoryinus.pdf”>http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/boisi/pdf/s12/thstudyofmehistoryinus.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Hey WildCat, for ideas about what you can do with a humanities/social science PhD, visit VersatilePhD.com (heretofore referred to as VPD). Generally no, it’s definitely not true that being a professor is the only thing you can do with a PhD in the humanities. Yes, indeed, historians do in fact work for the federal government (VPD has a profile of a historian who works with the Parks Department), state and local governments, NGOs, think tanks and policy institutes, nonprofits, probably news outlets and even private for-profit firms. On VPD there’s a historian who works for a hedge fund/securities management firm in the financial sector. His job, as I understand it, is helping wealthy families preserve their intergenerational wealth by researching the reasons why most intergenerationally passed down wealth is spent/vanishes very quickly. Another humanities PhD who works at a financial firm helps their firm find wealthy families to invest in their firm (that one’s either an anthropologist or a historian).</p>

<p>The key is developing skills in graduate school that are valued in the non-academic work, and perhaps doing a non-academic internship if you can during your grad school years.</p>

<p>As for your other question…this is pure speculation. But, it takes on average 10 years to make a historian, and that’s if you only count the graduate school phase. (Yes, the average history PhD takes 10 years to get these days.) I would wager that most historians actually take between 6 and 10 years to finish. But the U.S.'s regional priorities shift much more quickly than academia does. Most of today’s tenured senior professors were hired pre-2001 - probably in the late 1990s. The Middle East wasn’t the hot new area then; it was East Asia (the “Asian Tiger” phase of economic development in the mid to late 1990s). That may be why East Asian cultures and languages, as well as histories, became more prevalent at the time. (Many of the departments I perused for you had more East Asian historians than ME historians). Even a more junior professor who’s been a department only 5 years this year was hired in 2009, which means that they may have begun their PhD between 2001 and 2003 - still after the September 11 attacks but not long enough to perhaps realize how long we’d be in the ME and how our relationships have changed in that area. In 2001, East Asia may have still seemed like the “hot new field”.</p>

<p>So now, of course, Middle Eastern history, culture, and language is in demand and the next generation of historians is going to be more interested in that, as they begin their PhDs let’s say between 2009 and <em>shrug</em> 2017? 2020?. The ones who started in 2009 and finish quick (6 years) may get lucky, as they’re going to be on the market soon. But the ones who begin later in the decade - if they don’t finish until 2025+ - perhaps as a country another region is the hot new field by then (my guess is South Asia and South America).</p>

<p>You may want to lurk around on the forums over at the Chronicle for Higher Education. Many, if not most, of the posters are scholars in the humanities and there are many historians. They drop some pretty good knowledge on a regular basis just from lurking around.</p>