An "Other" Historian's Diary

I watched a documentary entitled "13th" on Netflix this afternoon. It made me ponder a lot of things. I don't always agree with all the angles in this film, but I really learned a lot from it and even when I could not completely agree with its interpretation, it still made me ponder something I never considered before. Some people might argue that a war on drug should not be equal to a war on the African Americans, and if African Americans were arrested and imprisoned in the war on drug, it is because they get involved in drug, and it is really bad. I can never support or justify selling, carrying, and taking drug. But, how did so many African Americans get into drug business? In answering this question, many people might show some racial stereotype towards African Americans. However, do the African Americans get the financial benefits of the drug business? Who are those who actually get profit from drug business? Why are the poor African Americans the ones get caught and...

It actually happened a while ago. I just realized that I have not updated this blog for a really long time. So, after posting my LinkedIn article here in my last post, I decided to also update another achievement of my academic life.  I received this prize on my birthday. I cannot think of a better birthday gift than receiving the Student Paper Prize at 2020 Missouri Conference on History! English is not my native language, so I have been working on my writing constantly. This award is such a great honor to me! I am thankful for my advisor  Lorri Glover . Dr. Rozbicki had been helping me refining my writing ever since I came to SLU, and Dr. Glover has been kind and helped me a lot after Dr. Rozbicki passed away last year. She has  offered me useful and meaningful advice on my dissertation writing. She is also very kind to give me her ticket to the award luncheon, which I wasn't planing to attend until being notified winning the award. She is also very kind to buy the lunc...

I am a PhD candidate defending my dissertation next month. Facing the uncertain academic market, I have to rethink my value in the market. I have read many arguments on the value of humanity and liberal arts education. But I have no intention to join the meaningless disputes between humanity as the most valuable subject and it as the least useful discipline. For me, humanity teaches me to tell the nuance of human affairs, not just generalize them. So I will not say humanity training is most important. I just want to reflect on my own experiences and try to tell you why a history PhD like me is a great candidate in today's job market. I have been thinking about this topic for a while. Now I have finished writing my doctoral dissertation, I finally have time to take a deeper look at it. Do I have to be a history professor? Will the skills I have learned in this process be valuable in other fields? Even after I complete my degree, I still can choose, whether I want to be a history pro...