Note from Jonathan Prude
Director of Graduate Studies
As is probably well known by now among the Department’s alumni, the Emory Graduate School did not escape the nation’s economic downturn. It was hit--and hit hard. An overall shrinkage of the University endowment was compounded by crimpings in internal University arrangements. The upshot was that Emory graduate programs faced significant cuts. Not, I’m pleased to report, to stipend and research funding for students currently enrolled, but rather in the number of funded lines available to applicants. Within this overall diminishment, the History Department was reduced from eleven lines in 2007-2008 to four during this current admission season. Or to put it another way: the pool of applicants rose by about two-thirds this year (a not unexpected consequence of hard times) while the number of openings in our program fell by about the same proportion.
In the event, we found internal funding for an additional line. And we ended up over-admitting by one. Hence six students joined us this Fall: two Americanists; one Europeanist; one Latin Americanist; one Africanist; and one Asianist.
We are modestly optimistic conditions will improve next year. And in the meantime, our current flock of students did well by every possible measure. The data are still being assembled. But as of this writing, Emory Ph.D. candidates this past year delivered some 20 papers at scholarly gatherings and collectively published one book and 14 articles. Their work won two external awards and was judged to merit 24 research fellowships, including two Mellon Teaching Fellowships, two Fulbrights, and one DAAD.
Finally, on the all important question of finding employment, our students also acquitted themselves impressively--and this despite a genuinely wretched job market. Counting candidates who received their degrees from last summer through those slated to graduate by Fall, 2009, nine of our students found employment in academe, seven in tenure-track slots. This would be a strong record at any time. In the context of current conditions--when searches are being reduced and called off left and right--it is a testament to our candidates’ abilities and talents.