Exploring Mormon Thought, Culture, and Texts
This spotlight features Carl Cranney, who did an MA at Yale’s Divinity School and is now pursuing a doctorate at the Catholic University of America. Carl is also doing an excellent series at Juvenile Instructor on teaching Mormonism. Thanks, Carl. [Read more...]
We’re expanding the Tips on Applying series to move beyond applying to graduate programs in religious studies. The next series of posts will focus on applying to tenure track positions in religious studies (or related) departments. To start I’d like to point out some useful resources:
This spotlight comes from Ariel Bybee Laughton, who graduated from Duke in May 2010 with her Ph.D.
Dr. Laughton, take it away… [Read more...]
Most PhD applications and some master’s applications require a 10-20 page writing sample. Personally I’d say that this was the weakest part of my application. Not because I didn’t have a decent writing sample to provide, but because what I did submit was not directly related to the interests of some of the programs I applied to. In retrospect, this probably disqualified me from a few places.
Some guidelines to choosing a writing sample are as follows:
1. Choose an ‘A’ paper. In other words, select a paper you got high marks on. This paper may have to be re-written with a broader audience in mind. All too often papers handed in for a class are part of a conversation shared with one professor and a few classmates. The writing sample, however, will need to appeal to those on the admissions committee; some of whom may not be familiar with the topic of your paper. In aiming for a broader audience it may help to have the professor who originally graded the paper re-read it, now thinking about how an admissions committee would view it. This strategy is particularly helpful if this professor is also writing one of your letters of recommendation since s/he can talk about the strength of your work with regards to this paper in his/her letter of recommendation. You may also want to have others read through this paper as well.
2. Choose something that relates to your interests. This doesn’t need to be the future topic of your dissertation (most admissions committees do not want your interests to be that narrow at the admissions stage), but it should represent the kind of thinking you want to continue to pursue in a graduate program.
3. Choose something that relates to the interests of the program you are applying to. If you’re applying to a program in early Christianity, the writing sample you submit should be about early Christianity (although there’s more leeway on this if you’re applying to a master’s program). You need not directly engage the scholarship of those in the program you’re applying to; however you need to demonstrate that you can be a part of the same conversation that they are a part of. This might entail focusing on similar topics or texts, situating your argument in the same secondary scholarship that they situate their argument in, or utilizing similar methods or theorists in making your argument. Your writing sample should paint a picture of you participating in and contributing to the intellectual life of the program.
Certainly academic cultures vary. Some admission committees may read every writing sample. Most, though, will only read those on the “short list”–those written by candidates who are real contenders for admission. Within both of these groups, some will read them very carefully, others will only read a few pages. The writing sample, I believe, is not the most important part of the application. However, it may be the defining part of your application after you’ve wowed the admissions committee with your statement of purpose, and floored them with your letters of recommendation. The writing sample can situate you at the top or the bottom of the short list.
[Editors note: My apologies to The Yellow Dart. This post has been two and a half years in the making--see comment 31]
In this post I want to address the question of whether one should first apply to master’s programs in religious studies, or whether it’s possible to be directly admitted into a PhD program without obtaining a master’s degree. Below are some quick thoughts. As always, feel free to chime in since I’m speaking more from my own experience than any comprehensive study I’ve done on. [Read more...]
These last 18 months have been brutal. Since April of 2009 I have prepped and sat for 4 language examinations and I am two to four weeks away from sitting for my last one. First French, then five months later Greek, then two months later Latin, then five months German, and now Hebrew. I have actually enjoyed studying for each of the exams and I have relished adding further linguistic/academic implements to my tool-belt. But I am getting a bit weary. I stare at Hebrew words and my mind refuses to register the morphology or determine what word these three consonants are making–they all look the same. But the end is in sight and just today I was looking at the reading lists of some of my senior classmates’ comprehensive exams and I got a sick nervous feeling but also a thrill of excitement–soon I will be forming and reading my own lists about stuff in which I am interested. Praise Yah!
So, for all of you readers who are interested or curious about doing PhD work in NT and Ancient Christianity, I give you a breakdown of language exam requirements for my particular program (others’ programs are sure to differ, however).
French
Three passages covering two pages to be done in two hours. This test was easier than the German exam but it had its own tricks. One passage was on modern methods of high-speed travel, including a paragraph on hovercrafts and hovercraftery (as all of us being examined hit the passage within a few minutes of each other, it was amusing and distressing to watch those around me freak out when the word didn’t appear in their dictionaries–luckily, my dictionary had it, hats off to the Robert Collins Unabridged!). This test is administered university wide so the topics are almost guaranteed to not be one’s field.
German
Two passages, slightly shorter than the French exam. This was one was especially tricky since the first passage was an op/ed piece about the Austr0-German conflict (or something like that) from a 19th century German newspaper that included a patchwork of half a dozen quotes from contemporary politicians and pundits. Painful. This was also a university wide exam, so again neither of the sections was in my field. Dictionaries allowed.
Greek
This is the grand-daddy of them all for my program and it is a beast. The exam contains two sections with two passages in each section. Each section is budgeted 2 hours for a 4 hour total. The first section is the harder of the two. It covers the entire NT–no exceptions. And no lexica. All 650 odd pages of the Nestle-Aland Edition. The two passages that appeared on my exam (both of about average chapter length) came from the latter part of Acts (during one of Paul’s trial scenes, I can’t remember which now) and the other from Hebrews 5 and 6. If you are wondering how one studies for this, here was my method: I read the NT cover to cover 5 times and re-read a 6th or 7th time the hard passages like Hebrews, 2 Corin, Petrine epistles etc. The second section covers 50 Oxford Edition (or equivalent) pages of Greek ranging from Classical to Late Antique chosen by the student in consultation with the examiner. My selection included Plato (Statesman), Corpus Hermeticum (Poimander), Origen (Treatise on Prayer), and an epistle of Ignatius. For this section we are permitted the use of a lexicon. On both sections there are about 15-20 questions on parsing, syntax, style, and rhetorical devices.
Latin
This was the least awful of the five for me since it only covered 50 pages of Oxford Edition Latin agreed upon with the examiner. The exam is two hours long but with no lexica. 30 of my pages were drawn from one of Cicero’s defense speeches (pro sulla) and the other 20 were from Lucretius’ de rerum natura. There were about 20 questions total on parsing, syntax, and grammar. The test was challenging but enjoyable since reading Lucretius is one of my joys in life and since I love/hate Cicero.
Hebrew
This exam covers the least material but has been a hard one for me since I do not have any training in Semitics beyond basic Hebrew Bible grammar. The exam is two hours long with two passages culled from a pre-set list of 30 chapters from the HB. I have not yet taken this one but so far the preparation has been tough but somewhat enjoyable. I struggle with prophecy chapters (esp. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel) and with poetry (esp. Psalm 22, Song of Songs 1) but the narrative chapters are not so bad. I have gotten through all 30 chapters 3 times as of today, and I think that after one more time through, I will sit for the exam. The exam, from what I have heard, has several questions on morphology and a few on poetic structure. No lexicon.
So there you have it. This is what my life has been dedicated to for the last year and half (aside from coursework) and this is what you have to look forward to if you are self-hating enough to sign up for a PhD program in this field. Perhaps the most depressing part about all of this is how fast one language fades as others are bolstered. At one point last year I could cruise through a French article in my field–not so fast now. But luckily, all of these seem to come back just fine with a little polish.
Next up, and perhaps the last for a while, is Taylor P.
He writes:
I received a ThD in New Testament and Early Christianity from a divinity school that works within a “religious studies” paradigm. I have been hired in a tenure-track position in a Religious Studies department at a private, secular, liberal arts college. The year that I went out on the market, there were two jobs in my immediate field at secular schools, and three at religiously-affiliated schools. I applied to those and a few more that were focused more broadly (e.g., anyone in “Christian Studies”), but overall it was a pretty terrible year and I am incredibly fortunate to have landed the job that I did. One thing that I will say is that there is no “formula” for securing a job. There are many different ways. I will sketch out my own experience and share the advice that I received and that seemed to work in my case. To any who are involved in this process, I wish you the best of luck!
[Read more...]
So you managed to get into a graduate program. Now what? As a continuation of the Tips on applying series, we’re asking recent PhDs and ThDs in religion and related disciplines to share their experience in preparing for and succesfully making the transition from student to faculty. We’ve posed a few questions, and you may have some of your own to ask. Perhaps our respondants will hang around to reply. No promises, though.
First up, Lincoln Blumell’s advice to LDS Graduate Students in Biblical Studies and cognate fields is as follows:
[Read more...]
Our next spotlight comes from Benjamin Park. Ben is a master’s student at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity, studying historical theology in the 18th and 19th century. He also blogs at the Juvenile Instructor.
As much as graduate school offers up the chance for one to delve deeply into a particular topic of interest and, in many regards, devote several years of one’s life to studying these interests; it is also a means to an end. In other words, success at graduate school (on the PhD level) entails not only producing a respectable dissertation, but also entails securing “good” employment after graduation. For most of those going into PhD programs in religious studies, this means landing a tenure track professorship. [Read more...]
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