Labels: diversity, doctoral programs, Minorities, PhDinHistory

PhDinHistory on 11/14/2007 11:15 AM:
You are right that minority students are often drawn to other fields that look more financially promising. However, there is another side to the coin. Listen to what Sanchez says: "Our brightest students of color are often attracted toward law, business, or medicine, not only because of higher levels of remuneration, but also because of the greater diversity they find in graduate education in those fields and in those professions overall."
In other words, the history profession needs to become more diverse so that minority students will perceive it as a place where they want to work. In the meantime, they should take comfort in the fact that they will find it somewhat easier to get hired in full-time positions than their non-minority counterparts. Check out this blog post and you will see that minorities who become history faculty have a competitive advantage on the job market.
Where will these new minority history PhD's find work after graduation?
Perhaps talented minorities gravitating to other fields than history bears some relationship to the dearth of tenure-track positions in history departments at colleges and universities?
Why be an adjunct lecturer historian if you can be a doctor or lawyer or school superintendent instead ?