Scholastic Brainstorming

I have a bachelor's degree in History and am currently earning a master's degree in Public History. My interest has always been modern U.S. history, particularly with regard to minority, immigrant, and other shafted groups (like gays and lesbians). My master's thesis is about post WWII (1950s and 1960s) housing for African Americans in my city (no scholar has studied Black life in my community so I'm excited to break some new ground).

So, the master's thing is going fine and this fall I'd like to begin a doctoral program but I haven't yet chosen what program. I'm teetering between Public History and American Studies with a history concentration. Lately, I've been leaning much more toward American Studies because I'm fascinated with our shitty and wonderful culture. I'm already a cultural critic so why not make it official?

I even have an idea about what to study if I do the Ph.D. in Am Stud. For years I've been preoccupied with how people in rural communities relate to outsiders (particularly African Americans and gays and lesbians) so I'd love to delve into rural racism or homophobia (I'm leaning toward the latter). (This explains my obsession with Brokeback Mountain, right?) There's something about this kind of xenophobia that intrigues me.

I'd like to travel to small communities and conduct interviews (oral history is another love of mine), do some place studies, and case studies. I wouldn't do anything related to Matthew Shepard because his community, death and the circumstances around it have been studied a lot and masters' theses and doctoral dissertations are supposed to add original scholarship to a field of study. However, the scholarship that emerged after his death is an example of the kind of thing I can do.

I'd have to find some interesting angles on rural homophobia (or racism, if I choose to go that route). I think I could do it. I've never lived in a rural area but the eastern side of the state is rural and if I can pinpoint a case study somewhere then I can spin it into a dissertation. I'm stoked thinking about it.