Dissertation ideas... Universities for Pedagogy?

Graduate School
1

<p>As the time approaches for graduate school applications, I am getting in contact with prospective advisors to see if they are interested in my research ideas. The result (only one, so far) has been both pleasing and discouraging. Please take a look at the brief description of my prospective research ideas/goals (this is basically what I send to DGS’s, etc.):</p>

<p>“Although I have yet to decide a specific time period or region, I want to study Hispanic music / lyrics as literature (this requires much interdisciplinary work), and eventually produce a textbook (in collaboration with fellow students / advisors) for a Spanish class, ideally an advanced conversation or something similar. I want to thoroughly examine different types of music from a wide range of artists and time periods for analyses of various types, just as one would study traditional forms of literature. The textbook would provide students with preparatory language lessons (colloquial or regional phrases, etc.), brief cultural lessons, biographies, critical reviews and other useful segments to encourage their own analyses of the music and to develop their analytical skills and the expression of said skills.”</p>

<p>Here is the response from a professor at Duke:
“Your idea is simply wonderful, and I’ll definitely want to buy your book. But Duke is unfortunately not the place to do this work. I think you need a place with a more applied focus, a focus on pedagogy, a place where language teachers and literature teachers overlap more. Once you find the right place, you could then work with people like ethnomusicologists and put them on your thesis committee along with the literature and language people. But it needs to be a place where textbooks are valued as highly as they should be.”</p>

<p>This made me feel pretty lousy, even though it is encouraging. Any suggestions on schools that focus on pedagogy? Perhaps I should chunk the idea altogether and settle for something else? I realize this is the response of a single professor, but I can’t shake the fear that the rest will respond in a similar fashion.</p>

2

<p>**Language pedagogy… specifically Spanish</p>

3

<p>Do you feel that this could provide a viable career? Sorry, I wonder that about anything that doesn’t happen in a lab. If there aren’t graduate programs devoted to this, it might not be an accepted field of study. However, I can understand the cultural significance of this work and it would surprise me if spanish language departments or anthropology departments don’t have this kind of stuff. I hope it works out and you should blow off the Duke professor’s unsupportive comments because this clearly isn’t his area of expertise.</p>

4

<p>How about… eliminating the textbook part and suggest how your research might contribute to the field of Spanish language/literature in the academia? You might get more favorable responses. Political correctness is extremely important at this stage and will always be until you can be 100% sure that the person you are working with will support whatever you want to do with your PhD. </p>

<p>Or, just ask your professors, particularly those who have written materials for language classes.</p>

5

<p>You have an excellent point, ticklemepink. I have been considering dropping the textbook idea and instead, researching to produce an anthology (this would be taking on a HUGE project) of Hispanic music. I could easily narrow it down if the focus is too broad. What do you think?</p>

<p>Oh, and thank you, too, belevitt. I obviously can’t speak for graduate programs, but I was under the impression that this idea had great potential for a career in academia, and I want to become a professor, so it seemed pretty viable. I’m still mulling it over, though. I won’t know until someone shows interest!</p>