Hello everyone, i am a masters student in history(i am in my first year).My main focus is 19th century Ottoman History, and i am planning to prepare my dissertation about “wallachian revolution of 1848 and it’s socio-economic reasons etc.”.I love the era that i am studying right now, but i also get very interested in european history between 15th and 19th century.I started to read things about rise of the reformation movement, 30 years war, holy roman empire and Ottoman Empire’s effect on that time’s politics.
So i thinked that maybe focusing on “Suleiman the first’s campaign on hungary and the rivalry between him and ferdinand” in my phd thesis will be a good place to start.Maybe a phd about habsburgs and holy roman empire will be a stepping stone for me to switch my study focus in my later studies.My program provides classes for me to learn one more modern language, so i am thinking learning german will be a plus for me.There are also latin courses so i guess i will attend to those classes too.
But i don’t know the rules of the academia, do universities allow me to study a different era in my phd ?
I do not identify as a historian, but an anthropologically trained archaeologist who deals with proto-historical cultures. My background was in Classical Archaeology and Anthropology, and I’m now about halfway through my PhD in Ancient Studies.
For me, I was able to change, albeit with some difficulty. I went into my PhD thinking I would study the Aegean Bronze Age and it’s maritime networks; now I’m writing a dissertation about cuisine, feasting, and social ritual in Early Iron Age Anatolia.
The biggest hurdle I ran into was languages; I don’t use my Greek and Latin much, and had to learn some Hittite, Akkadian, and Hieroglyphic Luwian. I don’t consider myself very good at languages and so this was a major issue for me and one I’m still working on. But my background in archaeology, and studying ceramics in an Aegean context, more or less translated-minus the details- to Anatolian archaeology. For you, languages might not be so big an issue, but the details of the new context you’re working in might.
Your ability to change focuses, at least professionally, will probably revolve around your choice of advisor and your choice of department. If you want to study European history and have a background in Ottoman history, you’ll want to have an advisor who can support that project; don’t go to a department where you can’t get a little more guidance than you used to need for Ottoman history. In my experience that extra guiding hand as I found my way was very helpful and appreciated.
In a similar vein I think your instinct to want to do some sort of “bridging the gap” projects is good too; for me, I did a smaller project on Ionia in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages while I beefed up on central Anatolian archaeology. Depending on where you are in your career and where you’re planning to go for your PhD you might not need to do your entire PhD thesis in this vein, but that’s up to you; many countries in Europe expect you to come into your PhD with a well formed PhD thesis in mind, whereas many in the US, where I work, double as masters programs.
To answer your question, then, I think it should be possible if a little unconventional; most scholars dabble into other periods of history (mine are Classical Greek, Roman, Ottoman, and Byzantine archaeology) or even other fields (I do some chemistry, for example; some historians might do some work in anthropology or psychology). Your ability to change will largely depend on where you want to go for your PhD and how they treat their students. Do try some bridging the gaps and do get some language under your belt ASAP if this is truly your plan.