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overloaded
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« on: October 27, 2005, 08:02:23 AM » |
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can anyone please let us know what this means? A couple of TT jobs are requesting this in addition to CV, cover letter, teaching philosophy, and writing sample. As an ABD, what could I possibly say that isn't in my cover letter? And do they refer to what I've done or what I plan to do? How should it be written - as an outline with bullet points etc., or as a statement of future interests?
Thanks!
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A
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« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2005, 08:43:52 AM » |
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Almost all departments in my field require an outline of research program, or what we call a statement of research interests. It's usually a 2-3 page (single-spaced) document outlining the areas of inquiry you plan to pursue in the next 4-5 years. You should specifically relate your future plans to your past research, but should focus on what lies ahead, not behind (i.e., 2-3 paragraphs explaining the contributions of your dissertation is fine, but this is NOT supposed to be a dissertation abstract). You should describe specific research areas you plan to work within/literatures you hope to speak to, and identify specific research questions. In some fields (especially the hard sciences), it may also be appropriate to identify potential funding sources. If you have any friends who recently were on the job market (or new hires in your own department), contact them ASAP to get samples. This statement goes well beyond what you might say in a cover letter in terms of the level of detail about your future research plans.
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trying to help
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« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2005, 08:46:08 AM » |
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Ok, as an ABD you do have a research program...it is your dissertation research and dissertation. So extend that beyond to include future interests. If you can't do that I would seriously doubt your capability as a candidate.
Most universities these days are interested that you have a research program...they aren't as interested in what it is as that you have some agenda for future research.
What is your field? That would also help us to help you.
And the program should be written as a narrative statement (2-3 pages). No bullets please.
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Tenured Feminist
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« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2005, 10:04:14 AM » |
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Definitely try to get field-specific norms. In my field, an ABD would probably not write much more than a page and a half, in which s/he would lay out the dissertation's situation in the field (i.e., not the abstract) and some plans for future projects. Last time I wrote up one of these (as a tenured prof), it wasn't much longer, and I've been out for a while.
Don't get too much into the minutiae and really address the big questions that draw your research together thematically if you are a social scientist.
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overloaded
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« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2005, 10:21:48 AM » |
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Thanks all for the replies so far. I'm in the humanities (history) and have a decent idea for a major project after the dissertation (a comparative study that builds a lot on my dissertation researh), but not much beyond that. I guess it's hard for ABDs to have research plans far beyond revising the diss for publication and beginning another project. it's true that all ABDs are at a disadvantage, but the job seems otherwise a good fit for me and I'd like to take a shot...
I hope this makes my request for help more specific! Thanks.
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wondering
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« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2005, 11:27:47 AM » |
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This is a side question, but why is history considered humanities and not a social science?
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Tenured Feminist
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« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2005, 12:23:32 PM » |
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Depends on the institution -- here history is a social science.
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wondering
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« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2005, 12:53:15 PM » |
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Thanks TF. I am also wondering how it is important whether a subject is humanities or social science...is it about placement in certain faculties? or status? If history is in an arts faculty, how one would know what it is classified as?
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Zarkov
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« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2005, 06:25:58 PM » |
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A German historian who worked about 100 years ago, Dilthey, catagorized learning into natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities (or human sciences in languages other than English). The professions would be in a separate domain.
I'm a social scientist, but my advisor was an historian, and she claimed that history was "the mother of the social sciences." And one of the humanities.
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geobabe
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« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2005, 10:25:16 PM » |
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I think science (natural or social) is used to denote an avenue of study thought to have quantitative and/or predictive powers. Social science techniques certainly apply to historical studies. I would place history among the humanities when it is purely descriptive/documentary.
Now if you ask me what I think of the predictive powers of the social sciences, that's another story altogether!
Sorry it's after midnight, must be my troll alter ego
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