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February 10, 2004 • Volume 12 Number 10

'I am very proud of the success of our department'

What makes BC an outstanding place to train as a historian?

Several history students were posed the question. Here's how they responded:

Sarah Berger '04, at work on a senior thesis on the devotion of Mexican American women to the Virgin of Guadalupe:

"The faculty in Boston College's history department brings history to life. History is not only about the facts within books, but more importantly, history is the untold stories of the women and men living during a specific time period. These are often the tales and stories that complete larger picture when a student is trying to make sense of possibly a historic event.

"To become a historian is not simply to be able to regurgitate facts, but rather, to look at history from all angles. Here at Boston College, history becomes the foundation on which all of society is built. The faculty teaches specific courses geared toward their area of expertise, thus bringing the history alive and full of emotion. "History becomes a part of everything that you live, breath, and eventually (hopefully) publish."

Doctoral candidate Andrew Finstuen, researching a dissertation on concepts of Original Sin in mid-20th-century American Protestantism:

"Overall, the faculty is highly accessible. I have worked principally with James O'Toole (he is my major advisor and a more generous mentor you will not find), David Quigley, Stephen Schloesser, Seth Jacobs, and Paul Breines. These gentlemen give of their time and expertise freely, offering support and highly constructive feedback on graduate student work. They are all excellent teachers as well. By seriously engaging graduate students, and by modeling exceptional research and teaching habits, these individuals have prepared students well for embarking on careers as historians."

Doctoral candidate David McCowin, who is conducting oral histories as part of his dissertation research on the Holy Name Society in early- to mid-20th-century Boston:

"Faculty members are active in their fields. My advisor, Jim O'Toole, recently published Passing for White, for example, and he is regarded as a premier historian of American Catholicism. Our faculty members are also inspiring teachers. Their ultimate concern is preparing us for an increasingly tight academic job market."

Libby MacDonald Bischof '99, who is pursuing her doctorate in American history, and currently on a university fellowship completing her dissertation on Modernist Boston at the dawn of the 20th century:

"One of the things that I feel makes BC a great place to train as a historian is the teaching experience we are given. We are teaching assistants for three years, working closely with faculty teaching the undergraduate core requirement, and then are given the opportunity, as Teaching Fellows, to design and implement syllabi for our own core courses. Father Stephen Schloesser, SJ, has been my mentor in this regard--his obvious care and concern for the students at Boston College coupled with his dynamic and thought-provoking lectures on the cultural and intellectual history of Europe and the World and challenging course-load greatly influenced the development of my own core course.

"I have found the Junior and Senior faculty in the department to be exceedingly generous with their time. In particular, my advisor, David Quigley, has made my graduate experience challenging and worthwhile. Professor Quigley, despite his own workload, took the initiative to establish a dissertation writing group for graduate students writing on various aspects of American history. We meet monthly to read, critique and discuss the work of our peers. This writing group helps to keep me on track with my dissertation and provides the support greatly needed in what is often a very lonely endeavor.

"It is really encouraging to see so many new and well-received publications from professors in the department--especially for those of us in the writing stage. Professors are eager to share their writing/editing process, and advise us to publish as soon as possible. When we have the opportunity to present, publish, or give a job talk, faculty read and comment on numerous drafts and even stage mock interviews to prepare us for the job market. "If you walk down the corridors of the department, doors are most often open. I have asked many professors in fields different from my own for book recommendations and/or general advice about dissertation writing. On the whole, I have found people eager to help and give recommendations."

Raymond Ramirez '04, working with Assoc. Prof. Virginia Reinburg on an independent study of crypto-Judaism during the time of the Inquisition in 17th-century Spain:

"Faculty members encourage students to pursue their interests and establish their own structures and goals. Prof. Reinburg, for example, has been extremely helpful with my project. She has given me a tremendous amount of advice, she has always offered new perspectives on things, but fundamentally she has allowed me to develop, research, and structure this project, so that it really represents my ideas and perspectives. In so doing she has prompted me to do my best work."

R. Todd Romero, whose dissertation, "Making War and Minting Christians: Masculinity, Religion and Colonialism in Early New England," focuses on the role differing notions of manhood played in 17th-century Puritan-Indian relations:

"Recent innovations in the program like the Americanist writing group have really fostered intellectual life in the department, while also providing a forum for dissertation writers to work through research and writing problems. In addition, the Preparing Future Faculty program has offered important training sessions on a range of topics, from using technology in the classroom to preparing for job interviews... Facing the job market without this assistance would be a much more formidable task.

"In the period I've been in the department, the graduate program has become much more vibrant, with increasing numbers of students publishing articles and winning research fellowships from a variety of sources.

Heather Fryer, whose dissertation studies four "federal communities" - an Oregon Indian reservation, a Japanese-American internment camp in Utah, a housing community for shipyard workers in Oregon, and the Manhattan Project outpost at Los Alamos - established in the West during the Second World War:

"From the first day of graduate school I was surrounded by top-notch scholars who were completely willing to provide training, guidance, and mentoring at every stage. More than other departments I know of, BC faculty has an 'it takes a village' approach to training graduate students. My advisor, Marilynn Johnson, deserves special mention here, because she took the lead in providing the right measure of rigor and tough love with lots of encouragement, concern, and practical advice about how to get along in the academic world, which isn't always an easy business. And in addition, I've had tremendous assistance from three graduate directors, professors I did coursework with, professors I TA'ed for, department chairs, and many others. With their help, my research agenda and teaching practice have developed far beyond what I ever imagined I could accomplish.

"The BC History Department is also unique in the great consideration it gives to what graduate students need to learn in order to become successful professionals. We spend at least 5 years as teaching assistants and/or teaching fellows, which gives us a real advantage over other new PhDs. We are guided toward funding sources for research, both within and outside the university. The Department has a Preparing Future Faculty program that supports early professional activity, from conferences to crafting research proposals to preparing for job interviews. So in addition to learning to be a scholar, I learned what it means to be an academic professional, which is a critical--but often overlooked---element of graduate education. In everywhere from the classroom to informal chats in the hallway it is clear that graduate education matters a great deal to everyone in our department, which kept my morale up over the course of eight challenging years.

"I am very proud of the success of our department; the faculty richly deserves its many recent accolades. I've watched everyone's tireless efforts from the inside to produce exciting, relevant, important scholarship and to develop a generation of PhDs with the same love and respect for the discipline that lies behind their outstanding work." - Mark Sullivan •