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From: Carolyn Earle Billingsley <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Genealogy Strawman
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:34:02 -0600
References: <000e01c74e10$79cefcc0$6601a8c0@heirlines>
In-Reply-To: <000e01c74e10$79cefcc0$6601a8c0@heirlines>


I've been reading all the posts on this topic and mulling them over.
But I've realized we've come a long way from Sharon's original post,
which basically asked how many people would be interested in an
academically accredited, long-distance learning, slate of classes
pertaining to genealogy? In other words, you could take these classes
from home, but they would be academically rigorous. And these classes
COULD be used as credits towards a Masters in an academic program of
your choice.

I still haven't read much in the voluminous posts which tell me there
is interest in such a program, even though just last month we were
all bemoaning the lack of such education.

Sharon has done a lot of work to keep alive the flame of possibility
in setting up such a program, and in doing so, she proposed a
possible curriculum. It was not set in stone (which is why it was
called a "strawman"!)

So how many of you out there might be interested in enrolling in an
academically accredited, long-distance learning, slate of classes
pertaining to genealogy?

IMHO, this is a first step; we probably cannot immediately clamor for
more Ph.D. programs in genealogy until we have established a base.

As to genealogical versus academic education . . . I think it may be
a bit like Plato's man sitting in the cave, watching the shadows of
the real world reflected on the cave wall he was facing and thinking
that was all there was to reality . . . while the "real world" went
merrily on without him, outside of his arena of understanding.
Perhaps one doesn't really KNOW what one is missing by eschewing
academic studies until one participates.

I speak as a genealogist of many years standing, who then entered the
academic world when I was 40, and went on to major in history with
minors in Arkansas Studies and German; then studied two years at an
Austrian university to learn how non-Americans view the world; then
went on to earn an MA and a Ph.D. in Southern History, with fields in
anthropology and Early American Studies, graduating when I was 51.
Throughout all this schooling, I was always learning AS A
GENEALOGIST, and as most of you probably know, my dissertation and
subsequent book was centered around genealogy.

The point of my iteration of this lengthy bio is that my studying
anthropology, geography, history, sociology, women's studies,
African-American history, Native American history, etc., all gave me
new and unique perspectives on ***genealogy***.

Most of the posts made it sound like the reason for getting an
academic degree was so one could tack some more postnomials after
one's name, but the point is the education itself, which enhances
your genealogical studies and opens one up to greater insights and
knowledge about genealogical study.

It's not for everybody and there is an incredible pool of excellent
genealogists out there without a degree to their names. But this is a
new world; in the future, more people will need more credentialing in
a more competitive world, especially for jobs in the public sector
such as preservation, teaching, working with attorneys, archival
work, etc. We might want to start anticipating these changes instead
of sitting back and waiting to react to them too late.

I don't know how this conversation devolved into another discussion
about licensing, but I'd like to get back to the original topic and
find out if there's any interest out there in what Sharon is
proposing. Regards, Carolyn

Carolyn Earle Billingsley, Ph.D.
2100 Pleasant Grove, Alexander, AR 72002-9154
Telephone and Fax: 501.847.0114
Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the
Cotton Frontier (University of Georgia Press, 2004)
http://home.earthlink.net/~cebillingsley/

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