I'm back on the search for a PhD program in History. After reviewing the wesbites of twenty departments around the country, I am faced with a single, glaring weakness: no language skills.
It seems that in a lot of places, programs have changed the way they approach language requirements for PhD students. Almost all require passing standard translation tests for either on or two languages related to your field. That hasn't changed any. What has changed is that many of the departments are requiring PhD students to pass one, or both, of the language tests the first year - with dismissal, or revocation of funding, the penalty for non-compliance.
I knew I should have taken French this summer.
This presents a conundrum for me. The obvious move is for me to start working on language skills, focusing on reading and grammar. The question is which languages, and in what spare time to do it?
Which languages I need is highly dependent upon what I decide on as my major area - if I pick U.S., Modern Europe, Military, or Diplomatic, French is just about required. So what about a second language? For European History, German might owrk, but so would Russian, Latin, Italian, Greek, etc... For U.S. History, I think the choice comes down to Spanish or German.
Of course, some of my research focuses on Ancient History, which means that Latin and Greek would be useful. Those would also be required for any serious inquiry into Byzantine, Medieval, or Early Modern Europe. What is a hopeful scholar to do?
This definitely changes the dynamic for my decision-making regarding NWSU. Even if I could maintain my marriage and sanity while teaching two CCCOnline courses, teaching one at NWSU, taking two LIS courses, and working full-time, there's no way I could do all that, and also learn a new language.
What is an aspiring Historian to do?
*sigh*
Yesterday afternoon I received an email offering me an online adjunct spot an Northwestern State University in Louisiana. As far as I can tell, I'll have the opportunity to teach World Civilization, U.S. History, and (maybe) U.S. Military History. There's no course development involved, which is both blessing and curse.
I'm not sure what to do with the offer, though. I expect to teach two sections of Western Civ I at CCConline this Fall, I hope to be taking two LIS classes at Florida State, and I work full time. I also would like to have a little time to spend with my wife. Ill also be sending out the new round of PhD applications, which means writing samples, personal statements, etc...
There's also the issue of compensation - NWSU pays $525 less per class than I get a CCConline. At what point does it become financially unfeasable to teach another course? I'm thinking that there has to be a point of diminishing returns, at which is just doesn't make any sense to take on another course...
On the other hand, more experience could lead to other teaching positions. The NWSU gig would also provide some additional supplementary income when it comes to to quit the day job.
Any ideas?
CNN reports that Shelby Foote died last night.
As much as any other professional Historian, Shelby Foote's example drove me to become a Historian myself. In addition to his compelling three-volume History of the Civil War, Foote provided a sophisticated an personal touch to Ken Burns' Civil War documentary.
I will genuinely miss his cultured Southern drawl, and his insight into the War Between the States.
UPDATE: MSNBC has a much longer, more apt obituary of Mr. Foote.
I recently splurged and bought some completely new computer gaming accessories for my PC. The standard mouse and keyboard work just fine, but I wanted something new. Here's what I got:
Do I think these things will significantly improve my game? Maybe, but they look really cool. Especially the keyboard, which is back-lit with blue LEDs.
I've added all three new devices to the system. The Rumblepad is going to take some adjustment - I downloaded a game profile for Starwars: Battlefront and gave it a whirl - but it shows that the guys who created it don't spend much time playing some of the games. The buttons are programmed ina a fairly unintuitive way, which means I'll have to change several of them.
Not only do the keymappings need to be altered to make more sense, but the thing is just different to use.
*sigh*
I have zero tolerance for suicide bombers willing to blow up little kids. I'm pretty sure the Koran has some fairly negative things to say about that...
from msnbc.com
Name: Major Bob Bateman
Dateline: Baghdad, Iraq
Gifts for the Children
Baghdad does not really have suburbs. Drive out of the city in any direction, and very suddenly you find yourself in the middle of the desert. This is not unusual, given the physical environment. In times past, permanent human habitation in this land between the rivers was limited to the extent of the viable range of cultivation determined by the irrigation system.
As in the United States, inroads of humanity now thrust out along the new rivers of asphalt mankind sets across the desert. As affluence is also directly proportional to distance from the city-center, one does not need to travel far to find the lowest common denominator. Forty kilometers will do.
This far out from the city one finds very few large buildings, and certainly none in the village our small convoy approached. There are no towering minarets from which the calls to the faithful emanate. There are no large buildings at all. The majority of the buildings are made, literally, of dirt. Earthen bricks created at the site. Poverty is sufficient to contain the proliferation of cars beyond the bare minimum needed to sustain life this far from water and food sources. My convoy was in a village like this recently, a village without a name on my map. It is a village through which I have passed before.
America is generous to a fault. Our armed forces are well equipped, trained, and supplied. On top of that our friends, families, and a host of strangers send us their expressions of love and gratitude, literally, by the ton. We have more ‘comfort food’ here than a convention of jilted lovers (minus the Haagen Daz, which does not travel well). All mailed from home. Too much, in fact, for us to consume.
The attack came almost as soon as our two HMMWVs pulled off the road and rolled to a stop. We found ourselves assailed not by bullets or rocket-propelled grenades, nor IEDs and mortar rounds, but by a swirling squealing smiling mass of diminutive petitioners all under four feet tall. Three or four children stood on the road just ten seconds earlier, yet by the time I climbed from my seat in the lead vehicle at least forty of them swarmed between my vehicle and the next.
Six of us dismounted, the drivers and gunners staying in the vehicles. I walked to the rear of gun-truck #2 where another man opened the hatch. The mass and press against my legs and back as I reached in for the box of food made me feel like I was at a Rolling Stones concert, albeit one given exclusively for very, very short people. I could barely move as I turned to try and carry the food over to a parent, hanging back at the edge of the village. Pressed in on every side, I called upon my remaining secret weapon.
The gunners in their turrets tried to focus on any potential distant threat, but when I gave the pre-arranged signal the gunner of truck #2 shifted. We had planned for this contingency. We plan for every contingency, even the happy ones.
Back at our base we had separated the hard candy from the more substantial food and toiletries we and placed this ‘ammo’ in a separate box. That box was with the gunner, “Wingnut.” On order he let fly with handful after handful of hard candy, throwing it well away and to the side of my location, a sugary ‘covering fire’ which shifted progressively further away from my location. My howling ‘opposition’ melted away, streaming in a shrilly joyous mass away and to the side, diving for luxuries strewn in the dirt.
I accomplished my mission, handing to two now-smiling women great boxes of food and toiletries. Thirty seconds later we were remounted and on the road again, just in case, because we were a long way from friendly forces and our convoy of two was very small.
What I describe above took place two weeks ago.
Four days ago, just a few kilometers from where I sit now inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, another group of American soldiers were doing much the same. They were passing out candies to children, as American soldiers have been doing for decades. The children were playing near the parked HMMWVs, and if my experiences are any guide, the kids were probably yelling and begging for yet more sweets, surrounding the Americans, when a suicide bomber drove straight into the pack of children and detonated his lethal cargo among them…
This cannot stand.
Baghdad Within Earshot: My Baghdad-as-London analogy remains and in my opinion strengthens. Nothing else to report.
Write to Major Bob here.
I have the summer off from teaching - we just didn't have high enough enrollment for me to get a class. That's both good and bad. Bad, in that I'm not gaining experience or earning extra money. That's only two items. Hmm...
The are several "good" aspects of not teaching this summer: