RAINBOWTROUT - middle eastern studies question!

[SoonIHope]

Congratulations on your acceptances!

I have a question for you, and didn''t want to hijack your other thread! You were applying for grad programs in Middle Eastern studies, right? I majored in MEALAC undergrad from Columbia and have been looking at graduate programs so I would love to hear why you chose to apply the places that you did, and why you end up choosing whichever one you choose to actually attend. I have been passively considering graduate school since I graduated in 2003 but haven''t actually gotten the ball rolling on that yet.... Part of my problem is being unsure if I want to leave NYC or not, part of it is not knowing much about potential programs, and part of it is not knowing what I would want to do with that degree afterwards. So if you don''t mind my asking yet another question...what are you planning to do career-wise in the end? Thanks!!!

 

[AGBF]

Date: 3/29/2006 12:42:38 PM
Author:albicocca
I majored in MEALAC undergrad from Columbia and have been looking at graduate programs

I may be wrong, but I think rainbowtrout is studying comparative literature (Arabic and French).

Deb

 

[SoonIHope]

Date: 3/29/2006 1:02:50 PM
Author: AGBF
I may be wrong, but I think rainbowtrout is studying comparative literature (Arabic and French).

Deb

Oh, bah, I hope not!! I think she said a long time ago she was looking at both types of programs though...? Or maybe I''m just remembering wrong...

 

[rainbowtrout]

Yes, I do comparative lit, but I did look at all three kinds of programs because the quality of the french, Middle Eastern, and complit dep''ts were all important to me.

it''s hard to answer your question unless I know what you want to do...which period, which language, etc.

basic "good" programs are UCLA, Indiana Bloomington, Columbia (if you can take the lack of funding and the occasionaly infighting), NYU, Penn (for Koranic and Jewish studies), Harvard...but each of these has a differant focus.

But to really be certain I would ask any of your old professors that you think would still be interested in talking to you. if you had a mentor in undergrad I would email them and ask for advice--they are you most valuable source.

If there are people whose articles you remember being excited by in undergrad, that''s a nice place to start too.


I plan to try for a tenure-track position when all is said and done. If that fails I might take a position with the government, try my hand at translating, etc.

 

[SoonIHope]

Hehe, good point, I suppose a bit more information would have been useful! Sorry about that!

I studied Arabic and didn''t have a huge amount of focus other than "Arab world", leaning slightly towards contemporary literature/culture/politics.... My honors thesis was on prose fiction by women on the Lebanese Civil War if that gives you a better idea. The problem now is that I don''t really know what I want my long term focus to be or have any real career goals in mind, which is why I''m having a hard time planning!! I know I should contact some of my professors, but I feel a bit foolish since I have so little of an idea what I want to do, so I sort of want to come up with a goal to have in mind when I approach them. I don''t really think I want to be a teacher or a translator or a diplomat so I''m at a bit of a loss as to what else there is that I could really do with my degree.

So far I''ve just been ignoring it since graduation and forgetting all my Arabic...

It''s just nice to hear there are people out there really doing what I want to be doing, so I don''t lose sight of the fact that I COULD go back to school and actually DO something with all this knowledge I gained before it seeps allll the way out of me!