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I'm a bit curious how many people active on this site identify themselves as professional historians.

I know there are some statistics available from when the site entered private BETA, but I assume the set of people has grown since then.

If you're willing to state that you are, I'd appreciate it; especially if you list your area of expertise/concentration/research.

When I say "professional historian" it's somewhat loose - e.g. you hold a degree/concentration in History/Anthropology/related discipline, or you teach it, or you have published works that can be classified as historical research.

P.S. It's mostly idle curiosity about the site demographics, no specific purpose in my asking.

One possible use for the info might be to be able to ask targeted questions aimed at areas where we KNOW we have experts, which should generate high quality answers that would improve the site overall IMHO.

Another one would be for CHAOS team responsible for History SE to see if the site would benefit from extra efforts to attract professionals.

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  • As a side note - i'm nowhere near a professional.
    – DVK
    Commented Feb 2, 2012 at 3:27
  • I have a BA in History, no real concentration, but I work as a Software Test/Build Engineer. Go figure...
    – MichaelF Mod
    Commented Feb 2, 2012 at 12:30
  • NO degree in it, no professional experience in it, just have a decent intrest i where we've been and how we got here. That and "Those that dont' learn from history, are doomed to repeat it" is one of my favourite sayings :p
    – canadiancreed Mod
    Commented Feb 2, 2012 at 14:11
  • one more amateur here
    – Rose Ames
    Commented Feb 4, 2012 at 6:11
  • I have a BA in history with a focus on US Latin-American relations, and I am pursuing a JD so I get more history exposure there too.
    – ihtkwot
    Commented Feb 19, 2012 at 4:45
  • Similar to canadiancreed here. Hated history at school, realised I loved it once I'd left university. I've read a lot since; much of my free time is spent contributing to Wikipedia on mediæval and early modern history, mainly European.
    – Owen Blacker
    Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 2:40
  • Professional Software Engineer here. However, I do a lot of reading, and have a fairly extensive library of History at home. In another age (pre-computers) I might have taken that path. However, in another age, we didn't have SE sites either...
    – T.E.D. Mod
    Commented Apr 11, 2012 at 13:55
  • I have a BS in computer science and history (double major). That is my only qualification since I work as a software developer. Specialties include medieval Europe, ancient Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and the Crusades.
    – Mike Rodey
    Commented Aug 19, 2012 at 4:18
  • @T.E.D. You might be interested in checking out the history tag on Programmers.
    – yannis
    Commented Dec 16, 2012 at 6:27
  • 1
    Seems like this site is complletely dominated by people working as software developers. (not too surprising given SE's origins, but still).
    – DVK
    Commented Mar 18, 2013 at 2:40
  • Well credentialed in Theology, Hebrew studies, and some Law. But I pay the bills as a code jockey...
    – user2590
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 1:31
  • @Vector - seems we all do the latter :)
    – DVK
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 2:39

2 Answers 2

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MA here, with history conferences, articles and even a book to my name... and I'm a professional software developer.

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  • 3
    a real live historian! at least compared to most of us :)
    – ihtkwot
    Commented May 8, 2012 at 12:42
  • 2
    And I finally managed to answer one of your questions to boot!
    – SigueSigueBen
    Commented May 10, 2012 at 1:17
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Withdrawn doctoral candidate, bunch of conference papers. Discovered apart from the normal levels of hell for doctoral candidates that are typical; that my research was fundamentally unethical to communicate in a scholarly mode.

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  • 1
    To me, this sounds like a quite often-heard battle-cry, familiar, yet almost requires a more verbose explanation: "my research was fundamentally unethical to communicate in a scholarly mode". (Eg, why not do both? Know sth, tell sth, eg: here?) Unless, by "scholarly" you mean 'strictly required pay-walled gardens' as an outlet ;)
    – LаngLаngС
    Commented Sep 3, 2020 at 22:47
  • 1
    I researched working class self emancipation techniques. The students you teach are employed as Human Resources Managers, Industrial Relations officers, and Personnel. The primary readers of your research other than scholars are government advisors. One of my research results was that only collective action produces emancipatory knowledge. Another was that the employers and states rapidly use research to attack emancipation or conditions. I would either lie or assist in repressing the object of my research. The normal levels of hell were also significant in my withdrawal.
    – Samuel Russell
    Commented Sep 3, 2020 at 23:10
  • Sounds familiar again. Without internal description of specifics available, I'd still say: get to the mountaintop, use all channels? Dual-use cannot be avoided, but first-mover advantage is a plus? Openness needs to be severely depressed or strangled to foster dystopia.
    – LаngLаngС
    Commented Sep 3, 2020 at 23:22
  • I’m choosing to promulgate by alternative channels. And my tenure situation as a manual labourer is vastly superior.
    – Samuel Russell
    Commented Sep 4, 2020 at 1:10

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