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graduate school in history

Can “secular liberal historians” teach Christians about the Gospel?

John Fea   |  April 26, 2022

Dan Williams is a Current contributing editor, an Anxious Bench contributor, and a professor of history at the University of West Georgia. In recent piece at the Anxious Bench, Williams reflects on all he has learned about his faith from...

*U.S. News & World Report* ranks graduate programs in history

John Fea   |  March 31, 2021

I always tell history students that doctoral advisers are more important than doctoral programs. When I look at the U.S. News & World Report rankings I tend to focus less on which program is ranked in the top five and...

Ph.D. program in history at the University of Minnesota will not take students this year

John Fea   |  January 18, 2021

Here is Ryan Faircloth at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: The University of Minnesota will not accept new students into many of its liberal arts doctoral degree programs this fall, pausing admissions to save money during the pandemic and to focus on...

What Do You Wish You Had Learned in the First Semester of Your History Graduate Program?

John Fea   |  July 10, 2019

Recently, Baylor University history professor Andrea Turpin asked her Twitter followers a question about her upcoming graduate-level historiography class: Historians: I am teaching graduate historiography in the fall and would love to know: What is something you wish you had...

Gutting Academic Books

John Fea   |  July 26, 2018

Douglas Hunter has published a really interesting piece at Slate about the practice, common among graduate students in history, of understanding the argument of a book without really reading it.  This process is often described as “gutting.”   Hunter explores the implications...

Digital Humanities and Your Vita

John Fea   |  June 13, 2018

Will experience, expertise or interest in digital humanities help you land an academic job?   In the Fall, my department will be conducting a search for a public historian.  While the ability to do digital history will not be one of...

Should Applicants to a Ph.D Program Have a Fully-Formed Dissertation Idea in Mind When They Apply?

John Fea   |  June 2, 2018

I often counsel undergraduates and M.A. students, both my students and others, about applying to Ph.D programs.  I talked a bit about what I sometimes say to them in Episode 37 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. Every...

OAH Dispatch: Sometimes “I just need to listen”

John Fea   |  April 14, 2018

Here is Mary R.S. Bracy‘s latest post from the Organization of American Historians meeting in Sacramento. Click here for Mary’s previous OAH post: “She Persisted: A New Assistant Professor Tells Her Story.”  Enjoy! As is usually the case when I...

How to Advise Ph.D Students

John Fea   |  April 10, 2018

Many of you recall Erin Bartram‘s viral post about her decision to leave academia.  We blogged about it here and will be talking to Erin in a forthcoming episode of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. Her recent piece...

Ghost Dissertation Advisers

John Fea   |  March 7, 2018

I am thankful that I had an excellent dissertation adviser who cared about my work.  Katrin Schultheiss, the current chair of the Department of History at George Washington University, did not have the same experience.  She described her experience (at...

Some Advice for Prospective Graduate Students in History

John Fea   |  March 6, 2018

This is a very helpful piece at AHA Today from Christina Copland, a graduate student in history at the University of Southern California.  If you are an undergraduate who is considering graduate school I think you will find Copland’s article...

Reading as a Graduate Student

John Fea   |  February 15, 2018

Karen Wulf of the Omohundro Institute has a nice post at the Vast Early America blog on “reading” in graduate school.   If you are studying for your comps and find yourself awash in a sea of monographs, this piece is...

What Might a Ph.D in History Look Like in 2022?

John Fea   |  August 28, 2017

Jim Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, has a vision.  In his recent piece at The Chronicle of Higher Education, he imagines what an orientation for new doctoral students might look like in 2022. Here is a taste:...

New Summer Online Graduate Courses Through Gilder-Lehrman

John Fea   |  March 27, 2017

The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History has just announced their summer graduate course offerings.  These courses can be applied to an M.A. in Humanities (American History concentration) at Adams State University. They are: America in an Age of World Wars:...

Nancy Tomes Wins the Bancroft Prize

John Fea   |  March 14, 2017

I can now say that I am a student of a Bancroft Prize winner! I am very excited to learn that Nancy Tomes, one of my graduate school mentors and one of my favorite people in the profession,  is one of...

In Defense of Faculty Scholarship at Small Christian Colleges

John Fea   |  February 24, 2017

In the last six months I have had conversations with at least four different professors at four different small Christian colleges in the United States.  These professors were all lamenting the fact that the administrations at their colleges had recently...

How Does and Undergraduate Course in History Differ From a Graduate Course?

John Fea   |  January 24, 2017

Philip Jenkins, writing at The Anxious Bench, discusses the differences. A taste: So how does a graduate course differ from an undergraduate? To some extent, this is a question of degree (pun intended) or proportion. By the time you are...

#1stGradSchoolReading

John Fea   |  September 20, 2016

What was the first book you read in graduate school? Historians are weighing in on Twitter at #1stgradschoolreading. If my memory serves me correctly, my first reading was James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America....

David Barton and Christians in Graduate School

John Fea   |  September 13, 2016

Over at The Pietist Schoolman,  Chris Gehrz, a Ph.D in European history from Yale, responds to David Barton’s “mini-tirade” against my supposedly pagan training in a secular graduate program. Here is a taste: …But in the spirit of seeing logs instead...

Applying to Graduate School in History: A Guide and Timeline

John Fea   |  August 12, 2016

Yesterday we did a post on choosing a public history graduate program.  Today I want to call your attention to Michael Hattem‘s excellent “Applying to Graduate School: A Guide and Timeline.” Hattem is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Yale...

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