For about a year or so now, I’ve been really thinking about getting a PhD. Why?
Ugh... why. Such a complicated question. When I was a little baby art history student, going to grad school and eventually getting a PhD was personal goals at the highest level. I wanted it. I thrilled at the idea of focusing on research and writing, almost exclusively, in an environment that would encourage and foster rigorous academic study. That would put “excellence” on a pedestal.
That was a long time ago. (Long, I’m telling you. Decades. Your girl is old now.)
And I’ve changed. I followed a different path, and that path took me places I couldn’t imagine when I was an undergrad.
And yet, I’ve come full circle, and now I think about that PhD. Can I do it. Should I do it?
Where would I be in 5 or 10 years time with a PhD? I’m not entirely sure. My main gig right now is really a conglomerate of gigs. Like many people today in America, I’m working the hustle life. And honestly, I love what I do. I teach at different schools - adjunct life y’all - and I really enjoy my classes and my students. Graduate students are fantastic, because they’ve chosen to be there. That isn’t always true in K-12, and it isn’t always true with undergrads, but with grad students, with very few exceptions, they are working on that Master’s because they want that Master’s and it shows in the work ethic, in the work product, in the level of inquiry and curiosity they bring. I love it.
But I’m also realistic. A PhD is not a magic key that will open up full time employment in academia.
What I really would love is to work with small museums. I’ve done the big universal museum thing, and it’s great in its way, but I just have this soft spot for little, community-organized and -driven museums. When I was in my early 20s, I went to the District Six Museum in Cape Town, and that experience has really thrown this little pinpoint of light over my career, guiding me towards I know not what.
How does a museum bring a community together, record and honor its past, uplift its history, and provide guidance on future history? District Six does those things, and while my own academic and professional path have wandered from those questions, it’s like a path that crosses and re-crosses the questions that District Six buried in my mind all those years ago, like Inception, a thought that takes route and grows.
I remember sitting in Pepper House in Fort Kochi with my husband and daughter and thinking about District Six. This is not in any way a logical connection to make. District Six and Pepper House are wildly different places. But the young man who prepared our chai (and a delicious watermelon juice for our daughter) told us about how Pepper House provides art classes for local youth, teaching them traditional and contemporary art forms, connecting their cultural past to the new and exciting things happening in art and in Kochi. (They have a Biennale!) Maybe it was the tiredness, or the heat, or I don’t know what, but listening to him talk to my husband and attending to my daughter, my mind drifted to Cape Town. And that thought has lingered.
I also think about the Museum of Chinese in America. When I was working on Ellis Island, another grad student was splitting her time between the nonprofit we both worked with and gave tours for and MoCA, and it was eye-opening. MoCA then was a small, community-built museum in a former public school turned neighborhood cultural center, and it was, quite frankly, brilliant. Seeing what this community managed to assemble showed just how much can be accomplished with the right passion, interest, investment, and forethought. If you’re ever in NYC, go visit MoCA - now in a beautiful and modern space. And while you’re there, remember that all you see around you grew directly out of that (relatively) little public school display and a community that believed in what was being done there.
Would a PhD help me to work with small communities develop cultural centers, especially museums, where their local culture and customs can be documented, preserved, and kept alive among new generations? Is there a place for that work? And is there a place for me in it?
And is a PhD the best path towards that work? Or is my little-baby-art-history-student-brain pushing me towards a goal that isn’t entirely on point?
This is what I need to reflect on.
