TQ gets his MA

Yep. Last Friday, I received my Master of Arts degree in American History from Leiden University, with honors! I received full marks for my thesis, "Let Freedom Howl In Rage: Free Jazz and the Politics of Black Emancipation", which was also nominated for the Robert Fruin Award in Historiography. Though I personally feel that there is still room for stylistic improvement, it was suggested I turn it into a book of some kind for publication.

ThomasQuinn wrote: Yep. Last Friday, I received my Master of Arts degree in American History from Leiden University, with honors! I received full marks for my thesis, "Let Freedom Howl In Rage: Free Jazz and the Politics of Black Emancipation", which was also nominated for the Robert Fruin Award in Historiography. Tthough I personally feel that there is still room for stylistic improvement, it was suggested I turn it into a book of some kind for publication.
Congratulations. I've always enjoyed reading your posts and you come across as a very learned and dedicated individual. I didn't know what you do for a living, but I suspected you were bound to be a scholar! There you are!

: -)

Congratulations !

Way to go, TQ! Congrats!!

^ what she said.  Well done, TQ.

Good job! Sure beats the hell out of anything those Treasure Moment losers would have achieved in such a "brainwashed" environment :-)

Congrats TQ!!  Hopefully I'll be celebrating  like you in about a year and a half when I receive my MA in School Counseling and PPS Credentials.

Well done, TQ - congratulations. :-)

TQ got his MA? Is that all?

I always thought you were a PhD. Congratulations :-)

Hey, congratulations!  :)

well done, TQ!

Congratulations!

:-)

Well done, congrats!

If you do turn it into a book, don't forget to sign a few copies for us! :)

Congratulations TQ!   So where do you go from here?

@Raf:  i just tried to PM you but I don't think it went through.  I hope all is well with you and that life is good!

Thanks, everyone.

As to where I go from here: how should I know? I'm an historian now, so if you ask me after I've been there, I'll probably be able to tell you ;-P

But seriously, I don't know. With the recent depression the market for history and historians has molten, but interest is slowly starting to return to history, so I'm waiting and hoping until research grants start returning my field again, because I cannot compete with established names for those very few subjects that remain - at the very least I'd already need to have my Ph.D. and one book in general circulation to compete there.

Whatever the scenario, I'll have to have a 'day job' to go with it, as you just can't live on writing unless you're either a journalist or Dan Brown, and in either case the negative aspects outweigh the positive. A job in journalism tends to be extremely time-consuming, whilse being Dan Brown involves writing like Dan Brown. So I'm be looking for a steady job that will allow me to do research on the side, so ideally something in a library or archive of some kind, but it could of course be something quite unrelated which I happen to qualify for and gives me sufficient time to do historical work. I'm keeping an open mind for the time being at least.