Colleagues,
I have read with great interest the message string about graduate programs
in British history. While there is much truth in what they say there is
more to it than has been stated. For example, are we to imagine that all
qualified students who wish to pursue graduate studies in British history
should attend one of two or three top rated programs? Should we further
assume that academic employment in the mid-range will dry up or might it
expand? Is academic employment only to be measured in terms of the very
best universities or should we consider the entire range of employment
opportunity from community colleges through major research departments?
And what about programs where the approach to the field is atypical, where
the quesions asked are not the ones most frequently encountered in the
literature? And furthermore, how do we factor in smaller programs that
are well staffed and well supported with research resources? In short, to
answer the questions that began this string, we have to avoid simple
binaries and instead consider the student involved and the nature of the
program. A name alone is no assurance of excellence or of future
employment.
It won't be surprising to anyone if I should introduce a word or two
about our program at UC,Irvine (and elsewhere in UC) There are three
full-time faculty working in British history. Jim Given is our
medievalist, Lamar Hill deals with the early modern period while our
newest colleague, Doug Haynes, is our modernist. While we all work on
our own research topics we share an interest in British identity from the
medieval to the contemporary world. Furthermore, our library provided
a comprehensive collection in the field and our microform collection is
a notable research center. Since the mid-1960s we have developed an
important early modern and modern microfrom collection that permits a
graduate student to accomplish much basic research while still at
Irvine before leaving for Britain.
There are three innovative aspects to our program that bear mention. The
first are the regional seminar series held at the Huntington Library in
which we participate actively. There are seminars in each of the three
periods, the early modern graduate seminar having been organized by Lamar
Hill. The seminars have given our students a wider community of scholars
with whom to work than would have been the case had they only the campus
resources to draw upon. The second innovative approach is our newly
developed intercampus, interactive graduate seminar in British history,.
This is still a work in progress, but it allows us to combines the
benefits of our relatively small campus-based programs with a much larger
systemwide seminar. The third innovation is our commitment to theory.
Our students study the several theoretical approaches that inform
historical scholarship and those who wish to go further have available to
them our critical theory resources in the School of Humanities which are
among the best in the country.
Should you have any questions or comments our addresses are:
jbgiven@uci.edu
dhaynes@benfranklin.hnet.uci.edu
lmhilluci.edu
Lamar Hill
UC,Irvine