If this doesn’t belong here feel free to remove.
I have an undergraduate business degree, and currently work in the public history field and also do living history stuff regarding the American Civil War.
Because of that, I’m super interested in really specific material culture regarding uniforms, equipment, supply chain, etc. I am well on my way to finalizing a recent project analyzing civil war hats, which is largely original primary source research. It’s been a wonderful project, lots of work and a labor of love.
My question is then, is there any disadvantage to continuing independent researcoutside of a Master’s or PhD program? Or conversely, are there any compelling reasons to look into applying for them?
Thanks for any insight!
Comments
The advantages and disadvantage will all be relative to a goal, so what’s the goal?
Higher degrees are credentials that make certain goals either possible or more attainable—such as certain types of employment. They will also funnel your study through the guardrails of established scholarship and scholarly practice. If you want to open certain doors or desire that sort of structure for the project—say, because you think it would be useful to have a more disciplined approach to your historical work—then pursuing a graduate degree makes sense. But if the degree would not advance any specific goals, or you would feel hemmed in by having to discuss your topic with reference to things like the historiography of material culture, then perhaps it’s not necessary to pursue a degree.
In short, you need to answer the question “will this degree help me achieve X,” and the substance of X is crucial to determining the answer.
Get funding and do a master’s. You will get some money to focus on it for a couple years as well as a crediential to show others have approved you has capable in the field. In addition to this, you also get the mentorship of an expert in the field as well as being pushed to be far more intellectually rigorous in terms of gathering and analyzing your sources.