united nations advanced certificate faculty - Long Island University

THE PH.D.
Hiroshi Kaihara
I graduated from Meiji University, a private university in Japan, in 1988.
Somehow I wanted to work for the United Nations. So I left Japan in 1993
and spent a year learning English at the University of South Alabama in
Mobile. The following year, I came to New York and began studies that
led to a Master’s Degree in Social Science and a United Nations Graduate
Certificate (1996). I chatted with Professor Wilson a lot. That helped
improve my oral communication skills and remains a good memory. I
stayed in the Brooklyn Campus dormitory and, although I could go anywhere
I wanted, I rarely ventured off campus, even to go to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rather, I became completely absorbed in studying, almost like a
monk. Two books in particular opened my eyes: Ernest Gellner’s Plow, Sword and Book and Karl
Popper’s Open Society and Its Enemies.
In the fall of 1997, I became an International Relations major in the Political Science Department
at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). You have to do a lot to earn
a Ph.D.! You need to complete 60 credits of course work, pass two comprehensive exams (one
written, one oral), pass two foreign language tests, and write a dissertation. The written exam is
on your major and minor fields. During the oral exam, you are grilled by five professors. Actually,
I had fun because everybody listened to me! I passed the Japanese language exam, obviously, and
was able to substitute a Chinese course taken at Hunter College for the test in a second foreign
language.
The dissertation was one of my most frustrating experiences. First, I could not come up with a
good idea. Idly, one year passed by. So I changed my mind and decided to write on something I
could do with my present ability. I chose the political power structure of Japanese politics. Then
I had a very hard time communicating with my dissertation sponsor. You cannot get your dissertation
accepted unless your sponsor gives you the green light. The longer I worked with my sponsor,
the more I realized how our views differed. And this all happened even though I had chosen
the sponsor! Nonetheless, I successfully defended my dissertation in December 2003. That was
the final stage of the whole Ph.D. process. It took almost 7 years (from spring 1997 to fall 2003),
although I took two years of leave of absence.
Now, having acquired a Ph.D., the real test for me has started. Yes, I need a job!! The job market
for political science is too tight. Simply too many universities are producing too many Ph.D.s for
not very many tenured positions. Right now, I have a graduate teaching fellowship from the
Graduate Center, which guarantees me a modest salary for three years, and I am teaching
American politics, American foreign policy, world politics, and East Asian politics at Brooklyn
College as an adjunct instructor. Probably because I look young (although I am already 35, not
young at all by Japanese standards), naturally students challenge me freely. So I have to prepare
for their ambushes. Overall I enjoy teaching. After all, I am only discussing something I am interested
in. So if I can continue to teach with a better salary my life will not be so bad. My email
address is hkaihara@gc.cuny.edu.
❃ ❃ ❃
15