History PhD Distance Learning?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by JoePhD, Sep 13, 2018.

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  1. JoePhD

    JoePhD New Member

    I work for the Air Force and they offer to help out with tuition. I am looking for a Distance Learning PhD in History or American Studies.... or something similar. Any guidance/help would be greatly appreciated!
     
  2. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    The Union Institute & University offers a PhD in Humanities & Culture which could include a history component.

    Faulkner University offers a PhD in Humanities/History which is based on the Great Books of the Western World.
     
  3. JoePhD

    JoePhD New Member

    Thanks for ther info. I've heard about Union U and wasn't sure about it's rigor or fit. I'll check out Falkner and truly appreciate any other advice offered!
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Last edited: Sep 14, 2018
  5. JoePhD

    JoePhD New Member

    Thanks. I am willing to look beyond the border, but 20K/year for multiple years is unfortunately prohibitive.
    Thanks for the example, though. I think the Air Force is more likely to provide funding for US universities.
     
  6. nyvrem

    nyvrem Active Member

    JoePhD likes this.
  7. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  8. JoePhD

    JoePhD New Member

  9. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    I know this is peripheral, but if the OP is looking into this with the intention of teaching history at the college level, history's a tremendously difficult field to crack, even with a B&M PhD from a top school. An example would be a former colleague from the community college where I started teaching 15 years ago. Has a PhD in history from a major university, Flagship State U, solid school, multiple basketball national championships. Also has a second PhD from a seminary in the South. He's unusually handsome, looked like Central Casting's idea of young, popular tweedy professor with the piercing blue eyes, fashionably long hair and great trim beard--the girls in the class swooned. He looks the way I only wish I looked. He's a brilliant lecturer, Mr. Inspirational. And yet, he couldn't find a job for the longest time. So he just started adjuncting, picking up more and more adjunct slots for several schools and driving sometimes an hour one way to teach a class here, then turning around and driving an hour-and-a-half the other way to teach another. Ended up teaching something like 10 classes a semester for about five different schools to try to scrape together a measly 30 grand or so a year, thousands of which were taken away for gas money as he cranked 50,000 miles a year on his beat up car. That was his life, this guy with a better education than I'll ever have. When he finally got the full time position making maybe $40K a year at the tiny CC where I met him, he felt like he'd won the lotto.

    So before anyone throws a lot of resources into a PhD in a field that is absolutely GLUTTED, where people who get PhDs from Stanford and Yale scramble to find jobs and often have to fall back on low-paying post doc slots while they wait out a market that never gets better, I say consider the cost. If the OP wants to do this for personal enrichment or just because, then OK, fine, go for it.
     
  10. JoePhD

    JoePhD New Member

  11. JoePhD

    JoePhD New Member

    Thanks for the advice. I currently have a career with the Air Force. I love history and I think somewhere down the line teaching would be interesting, as an adjunct or after retirement. Air Force is willing to foot some of the bill. Thanks again for the information!
     
  12. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    When I was at Keiser University many moons ago, at one point we had a Director of Student Services who had a PhD in history. Not for long, though, as he ended up giving up on higher education altogether and becoming a real estate agent.
     
  13. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    If you can navigate their admissions process, this may well be the way to go. It's both well established and focused on DL. Had tons of high profile alumni, including Nelson Mandela.
     
  14. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    No problem. One of my former colleagues here at Middle of the Pack Directional State U, a guy who's now retired, did land a job in history academia and was also a former Air Force guy, he served several years. He also had education and experience in the hard sciences and after an early retirement, he got a PhD courtesy of his rich Uncle Sam and fashioned a career in academia by specializing in the history of science.

    If you can find something other than history that's of great interest, you might couple that interest with history. For example, if you're a human resources guy in the Air Force, nothing in the world stops you from getting a PhD in HR Management, yet focusing your dissertation on the historical perspective of HR management and spending the rest of your career focusing on that history, looking at HR trends vis-a-vis historical trends, the history of the labor movement, etc. That could be the sort of thing that floats your boat in terms of natural interest in history while resulting in a very marketable degree. The history people at my uni, and they tend to be people with fairly elite degrees (a sampling of PhDs: Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Brown, Duke, UCLA, UT-Austin, Michigan, Tulane, George Washington, William & Mary), they average about $60 or $70K a year, low end in the 50s, high in the 80s. These are butt-kickingly good scholars at a university of over 25,000 students, these are people who write multiple books and such. Now, about 100 yards away, you have the business school, where people who went to Average State Us make twice that and more. Even I, a paltry lecturer with average credentials and not a book to my name, make more than just about anyone in history. Just saying, if you can find some higher-demand field that you like where you can make some decent money, yet still pursue your passions in history as described above, I'd say at least give that plan a hard look before you put four plus years into a distance history degree.
     
  15. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    Good for him. When I attended a career seminar at FSU back in the day, panel presenters from nearby Tallahassee Community College looked more relaxed and happier than just about anyone from any other level of academia. Of course, adjuncting for years just to get there blows.

    BTW, did I visit that CC? I interviewed at #1 and #2 smallest colleges in your state. One ended up losing the TT line, but asked if I'm OK with visiting assignment - I declined. I also interviewed at a very large CC in the same system. I got the offer, but HR decided they'd rather not bother with an international candidate - citing "verbal policy".
     
  16. JoePhD

    JoePhD New Member

    William and Mary is not far away from me. I'll keep searching with your advice in mind.
     
  17. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    It was actually in another state where I started, Kansas. My wife now teaches as a math adjunct at the little CC near my uni. When you speak of a relaxed attitude, she gets it and she loves it there at the CC and is vying for a full time position. She used to teach at a Pac 12, many years ago, and has no desire to go back to that sort of atmosphere.
     
  18. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Just an idea. Not saying you should give up the online PhD thing for history if that's the direction you want to go, just so long as you go in eyes open. Best to you, and thanks for your service.
     
  19. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

  20. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    There are other fields that look at history quite a bit: political science, government, international relations, anthropology, national security studies, cultural studies, anthropology, etc. My security studies masters programs was basically a history of various regions of the world, but focused on terrorism, international relations, war, and political instability.

    University of Southern Mississippi has a distance doctoral program in international development.

    https://www.usm.edu/gulfcoast/international-development-doctoral-program/course-offerings
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2018
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