Key Ideas in History at Texas A&M University CID Presentation 17 January 2004

Background What is done well –Meaningful teaching experience –Dissertation supervision –Job placement What could be done better –Support for off-campus research –Gender balance in the student body –Professional development

Competing Visions - I How to train graduate students for jobs in schools unlike our own –Adopt a pragmatic professional point of view vs. –Introduce students to the intellectual traditions of historians and historiography

Competing Visions - II How much preparation should students have in common? –Standardization (core courses; syllabus preparation; the dissertation) vs. –Preserving individualized student initiative and faculty guidance

Competitiveness The department, most of whose students find academic jobs, seeks to improve the jobs they secure, through –Intellectually compelling dissertations –Interdisciplinary engagement –Broader teaching and course experience Fields Kinds of experience

Diversification The department, disproportionately white and male, seeks to redress the imbalance by –Recruiting students from within the TAMU system –Reconceptualizing fields of strength –Developing select new fields –Hiring strategically

Internationalization The department, dominated by historians of the U.S., seeks to broaden its scope with –Flexible course offerings –New foundation courses –New hires –New areas of focus

Other questions How better to fund students Reassessing preliminary exams Fostering interdisciplinary endeavor

Final challenges Reconciling competing visions in a way that enhances students’ diversity, competitiveness, and transnational awareness Institutionalizing change