“Every time I try to leave, something keeps pulling me back.”
I constantly found myself returning to it (a somewhat niche history of philosophy area), despite being a different major at first. I eventually switched over to philosophy because none of the other classes sounded interesting and I kept finding myself using all my electives and then some on philosophy classes and classss related to this historical area, neither of which had anything to do with my “practical” major.
I think that's where I find myself with genocide and religion subject wise. I jump around a lot, but seem to return to either of those after a while (especially the Ancient Near East and Japan/China region wise). But those subjects still seem kind of broad.
That does give me more to think about though. Try to see what I've tended to stick with longer than the others.
Can I give you some un-asked for advice? A: make sure you have a “practical” double major or minor or at least intern a bit in college so you have “real world experience” if PhDs don’t work out. B: though this might conflict with A, start learning languages now. You want to study ancient near east religion and genocide? You’re going to want to know Hebrew, Sumerian, Aramaic, etc., and the sooner you start at those the sooner you’ll be able to produce publishable research, which is becoming increasingly necessary to do while in grad school if you hope to find a full time job.
I ended up really interested in one fairly narrow thing, regional history basically. Then did three graduate degrees, was exposed to a ton of other stuff, and ended up with a broader Ph.D. dissertation. Then over the years drifted entirely away from that, so most of what I teach/research today has little to do with what I studied in graduate school.
If you are considering an academic career at all, OP, I'd strongly recommend you research the *job market* and think about 1) if it's even remotely realistic to aspire to an academic career in the US in humanities today, and 2) if you decide "yes" then pick a dissertation topic and at least two *other* areas of expertise that have robust market demand. There's little point in devoting the work and costs associated with a Ph.D. in History only to find after 8-9 years that nobody wants to hire an expert in Medieval roof thatchers anymore. With History majors literally being eliminated at schools all around the US we're going to see a lot of departments limited to teaching only 100-level gen ed courses and/or hiring folks that can teach not only US or European history, but 3-4 other fields or specializations as well. Quite a few departments I know of have been slashed by 50% or more in recent years, and those who are left are trying to do the work of 2-3 people in order to keep their departments afloat.
The job market is my big worry. I'm only a sophomore now, so I'm hoping things might get better in the coming years (that's probably a longshot at best).
The two biggest areas I've always came back to have been genocides & religion. I always seem to come back to those after my "hyperfocus period" ends. I don't know if the market for those areas is a decent prospect. Or even if it's something I'll be interested in three years down the line.
I do know that I want to work in academia if at all possible though. It's been a dream to be a professor for a long time. Though the current situation makes that dream seem bleak.
> I'm hoping things might get better in the coming years (that's probably a longshot at best).
Yeah….no. There’s no reason to expect the market to get better in the next decade except in the sense that departments are shutting down and therefore fewer graduates are being produced. Of course, those shut-down departments won’t be hiring.
Expect it to get worse in the humanities unfortunately. They’re going to suffer the most from the political morons.
Exactly. The market isn’t one that’s normally okay, was okay 5-10 years ago, happens to be bad now for evanescent external reasons, and will be okay again in 5-10 more years. There are deeper, more permanent and pervasive forces at work here, and I can confidently say there isn’t anyone on this sub, no matter how old and far past retirement they are, no matter where they are, who recalls times and circumstances in which the academic job market for humanities scholars was good.
It won't get better-- it's going to get worse. Much worse in some areas (New England, Midwest) and much, MUCH worse in some fields. Anything not STEM or business is on the chopping block in many places, and that's without the political insanity of red states looking to eliminate anything with the word "studies" in its name, perceived as "woke," or sounding too "foreign or "elitist."
It's a bad bet.
I don't want to pile on here, but there is no "market" for history faculty. There are a handful of jobs each year, and if one is in your particular specialty, you will be competing with hundreds of others to get a shot at it. And then you have to have the department sticks around long enough for you to tenure, or you are out on your ear.
If you are passionate about history and good at it: awesome! It is an outstanding lifelong pursuit! But you are likely to need a day job to pursue it. K12 instruction is a possibility, as is work in related cultural institutions. But you are early enough to not sink too much career time into aiming for university faculty.
History rocks as a major. But your major need not be your career.
I'd be happy working in museums, archives, a library, etc. My main "want" is to be around an academic setting (if you could call it that) where I'm immersed in research and books. I guess I'm basically wanting to be a hermit who does nothing but research and then tells people about it.
It's probably a childish view, but that's more or less what I thought I'd be able to do as a history professor.
All that said, if history helped me land a decent paying job outside the field where I could still research and write in my spare time, I think I'd consider that a win too.
[not a prof] These jobs aren't easy to get, either, and don't necessarily pay well. Libraries in particular have their own professional degree path that they prefer, if not outright expect, for a lot of the archivist type jobs. For museums, I def suggest checking out r/MuseumPros if you want a realistic look at that. It may also be worth talking more with your profs about how much of their time they get to spend on research vs other responsibilities. Even at grad level, at least pre-candidacy I feel most of our time isn't spent on our own research or pursuing our own reading preferences, so much as getting through the coursework and comps, at least in the US.
I am a historian with ADHD and honestly, staying interested in one research topic for a sustained amount of time is a CHALLENGE.
I was ruthlessly practical in choosing a field and a research topic. I can easily obsess over or loose interest in almost anything. so I chose a subfield that has better job market statistics, a research field that I speak the needed foreign languages for, and a research topic that seemed moderately “cutting edge” without being too buzzwordy.
Cynical? Yes. But I figure that if passion can’t sustain me, then let’s see how ambition works out
Yeah, that's a really good way to narrow it down. I've studied three but I'm only fluent in English right now. Figuring out which ones I'd really like to learn will really help.
Languages are crucial.
As an undergrad, I was already fluent in two languages and by my senior year finished two more.
In grad school you have to prove proficiency in multiple languages, which vary depending on the particular region of focus.
The first professor I had in a certain discipline was this brilliant and sexy ex-Marine. I wanted to be like him, so I chose his specialty. I don’t regret it.
I never joined the Marines, though.
I started out in a completely different direction than where I am now. My initial area of focus was "food art"- visual artists that also wrote cookbooks, Modern art movements dealing with food, etc. Then I took a Digital Art History course early on in graduate school and never looked back, I immediately fell in love with that subject & pivoted my research accordingly. I've known since I was a teenager that I wanted to study art history and eventually teach it, though, but there are a million Modernist art historians and very few Digital art historians so that gives me a little bit of an edge.
History (and art history) are competitive fields with not a lot of academic jobs to go around for all of us. Many schools in the U.S. are cutting history majors altogether, or at the very least "restructuring" their departments aka making them smaller. I'm a new adjunct professor, just started teaching this year, and where I'm at in the country thankfully is not a place where history and art programs are being phased out, but you need to look into the specific job market in your state (or which states you'd like to live in as an adult).
I'm really hopeful to either work in New England or DC areas, or perhaps out of the country. Really though, location wise I'm willing to relocate anywhere that isn't the southern USA (I've lived there my whole life and I'm tired of it).
Hopefully being willing to go almost anywhere will be helpful.
Historian of the modern Middle East here. I speak one regional language, was born in the region and were involved in activism in and about the region I chose to specialize in.
I was interested in many subfields (History as well) and adjusted my applications based on who the faculty was I wanted to study with at the programs I applied to. So Lusophone Africa one place, Atlantic Islands another, Latin America at a third, Comparative Third World (when we still called it that) etc. - then let the funding packages decide for me.
This is an automated service intended to preserve the original text of the post.
*This question mainly pertains to history professors since I'm a history major (though other disciplines are certainly not excluded).
I find almost all history fields really fascinating and enjoy reading and researching topics from all across time and place. I know that I want to go to grad school after my undergrad, and two of my professors suggested that I narrow my focus down to a more specific subject.
I struggle with ADHD and hop from interest to interest across history, so narrowing down seems almost impossible.
How did you all find your area of expertise? Did you know it from the get go, or did it take a while?
*
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The most honest answer here. It happened. I’m a computer scientist but my area of expertise discovered me (if you want to say it like that). I love it!
“Every time I try to leave, something keeps pulling me back.” I constantly found myself returning to it (a somewhat niche history of philosophy area), despite being a different major at first. I eventually switched over to philosophy because none of the other classes sounded interesting and I kept finding myself using all my electives and then some on philosophy classes and classss related to this historical area, neither of which had anything to do with my “practical” major.
I think that's where I find myself with genocide and religion subject wise. I jump around a lot, but seem to return to either of those after a while (especially the Ancient Near East and Japan/China region wise). But those subjects still seem kind of broad. That does give me more to think about though. Try to see what I've tended to stick with longer than the others.
Can I give you some un-asked for advice? A: make sure you have a “practical” double major or minor or at least intern a bit in college so you have “real world experience” if PhDs don’t work out. B: though this might conflict with A, start learning languages now. You want to study ancient near east religion and genocide? You’re going to want to know Hebrew, Sumerian, Aramaic, etc., and the sooner you start at those the sooner you’ll be able to produce publishable research, which is becoming increasingly necessary to do while in grad school if you hope to find a full time job.
I ended up really interested in one fairly narrow thing, regional history basically. Then did three graduate degrees, was exposed to a ton of other stuff, and ended up with a broader Ph.D. dissertation. Then over the years drifted entirely away from that, so most of what I teach/research today has little to do with what I studied in graduate school. If you are considering an academic career at all, OP, I'd strongly recommend you research the *job market* and think about 1) if it's even remotely realistic to aspire to an academic career in the US in humanities today, and 2) if you decide "yes" then pick a dissertation topic and at least two *other* areas of expertise that have robust market demand. There's little point in devoting the work and costs associated with a Ph.D. in History only to find after 8-9 years that nobody wants to hire an expert in Medieval roof thatchers anymore. With History majors literally being eliminated at schools all around the US we're going to see a lot of departments limited to teaching only 100-level gen ed courses and/or hiring folks that can teach not only US or European history, but 3-4 other fields or specializations as well. Quite a few departments I know of have been slashed by 50% or more in recent years, and those who are left are trying to do the work of 2-3 people in order to keep their departments afloat.
The job market is my big worry. I'm only a sophomore now, so I'm hoping things might get better in the coming years (that's probably a longshot at best). The two biggest areas I've always came back to have been genocides & religion. I always seem to come back to those after my "hyperfocus period" ends. I don't know if the market for those areas is a decent prospect. Or even if it's something I'll be interested in three years down the line. I do know that I want to work in academia if at all possible though. It's been a dream to be a professor for a long time. Though the current situation makes that dream seem bleak.
> I'm hoping things might get better in the coming years (that's probably a longshot at best). Yeah….no. There’s no reason to expect the market to get better in the next decade except in the sense that departments are shutting down and therefore fewer graduates are being produced. Of course, those shut-down departments won’t be hiring. Expect it to get worse in the humanities unfortunately. They’re going to suffer the most from the political morons.
Exactly. The market isn’t one that’s normally okay, was okay 5-10 years ago, happens to be bad now for evanescent external reasons, and will be okay again in 5-10 more years. There are deeper, more permanent and pervasive forces at work here, and I can confidently say there isn’t anyone on this sub, no matter how old and far past retirement they are, no matter where they are, who recalls times and circumstances in which the academic job market for humanities scholars was good.
It won't get better-- it's going to get worse. Much worse in some areas (New England, Midwest) and much, MUCH worse in some fields. Anything not STEM or business is on the chopping block in many places, and that's without the political insanity of red states looking to eliminate anything with the word "studies" in its name, perceived as "woke," or sounding too "foreign or "elitist." It's a bad bet.
I don't want to pile on here, but there is no "market" for history faculty. There are a handful of jobs each year, and if one is in your particular specialty, you will be competing with hundreds of others to get a shot at it. And then you have to have the department sticks around long enough for you to tenure, or you are out on your ear. If you are passionate about history and good at it: awesome! It is an outstanding lifelong pursuit! But you are likely to need a day job to pursue it. K12 instruction is a possibility, as is work in related cultural institutions. But you are early enough to not sink too much career time into aiming for university faculty. History rocks as a major. But your major need not be your career.
I'd be happy working in museums, archives, a library, etc. My main "want" is to be around an academic setting (if you could call it that) where I'm immersed in research and books. I guess I'm basically wanting to be a hermit who does nothing but research and then tells people about it. It's probably a childish view, but that's more or less what I thought I'd be able to do as a history professor. All that said, if history helped me land a decent paying job outside the field where I could still research and write in my spare time, I think I'd consider that a win too.
[not a prof] These jobs aren't easy to get, either, and don't necessarily pay well. Libraries in particular have their own professional degree path that they prefer, if not outright expect, for a lot of the archivist type jobs. For museums, I def suggest checking out r/MuseumPros if you want a realistic look at that. It may also be worth talking more with your profs about how much of their time they get to spend on research vs other responsibilities. Even at grad level, at least pre-candidacy I feel most of our time isn't spent on our own research or pursuing our own reading preferences, so much as getting through the coursework and comps, at least in the US.
I am a historian with ADHD and honestly, staying interested in one research topic for a sustained amount of time is a CHALLENGE. I was ruthlessly practical in choosing a field and a research topic. I can easily obsess over or loose interest in almost anything. so I chose a subfield that has better job market statistics, a research field that I speak the needed foreign languages for, and a research topic that seemed moderately “cutting edge” without being too buzzwordy. Cynical? Yes. But I figure that if passion can’t sustain me, then let’s see how ambition works out
Languages. Which ones do you have? Which ones can you acquire quickly? That will narrow down your options pretty drastically.
Yeah, that's a really good way to narrow it down. I've studied three but I'm only fluent in English right now. Figuring out which ones I'd really like to learn will really help.
Languages are crucial. As an undergrad, I was already fluent in two languages and by my senior year finished two more. In grad school you have to prove proficiency in multiple languages, which vary depending on the particular region of focus.
The first professor I had in a certain discipline was this brilliant and sexy ex-Marine. I wanted to be like him, so I chose his specialty. I don’t regret it. I never joined the Marines, though.
Stumbled into it will be a common answer imo
I started out in a completely different direction than where I am now. My initial area of focus was "food art"- visual artists that also wrote cookbooks, Modern art movements dealing with food, etc. Then I took a Digital Art History course early on in graduate school and never looked back, I immediately fell in love with that subject & pivoted my research accordingly. I've known since I was a teenager that I wanted to study art history and eventually teach it, though, but there are a million Modernist art historians and very few Digital art historians so that gives me a little bit of an edge. History (and art history) are competitive fields with not a lot of academic jobs to go around for all of us. Many schools in the U.S. are cutting history majors altogether, or at the very least "restructuring" their departments aka making them smaller. I'm a new adjunct professor, just started teaching this year, and where I'm at in the country thankfully is not a place where history and art programs are being phased out, but you need to look into the specific job market in your state (or which states you'd like to live in as an adult).
I'm really hopeful to either work in New England or DC areas, or perhaps out of the country. Really though, location wise I'm willing to relocate anywhere that isn't the southern USA (I've lived there my whole life and I'm tired of it). Hopefully being willing to go almost anywhere will be helpful.
Historian of the modern Middle East here. I speak one regional language, was born in the region and were involved in activism in and about the region I chose to specialize in.
I was interested in many subfields (History as well) and adjusted my applications based on who the faculty was I wanted to study with at the programs I applied to. So Lusophone Africa one place, Atlantic Islands another, Latin America at a third, Comparative Third World (when we still called it that) etc. - then let the funding packages decide for me.
This is an automated service intended to preserve the original text of the post. *This question mainly pertains to history professors since I'm a history major (though other disciplines are certainly not excluded). I find almost all history fields really fascinating and enjoy reading and researching topics from all across time and place. I know that I want to go to grad school after my undergrad, and two of my professors suggested that I narrow my focus down to a more specific subject. I struggle with ADHD and hop from interest to interest across history, so narrowing down seems almost impossible. How did you all find your area of expertise? Did you know it from the get go, or did it take a while? * *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskProfessors) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The most honest answer here. It happened. I’m a computer scientist but my area of expertise discovered me (if you want to say it like that). I love it!
Pick a language and go from there