Suspicious of someone's qualifications.

[YNK]

A family member (not local to me) claims to have completed a masters in politics and economics (and later abandoned a PhD).
I did attend his degree ceremony many years ago.

He makes passive aggressive jokes and refuses to seriously engage in any meaningful way whenever a conversation touches on the subject.

I recently asked for some information only to be told "we didn't do the cold war".

Is it even possible to achieve a masters degree in this subject without covering the cold war?
I'm really trying to get my head around this and it's really bothering me.

This has really bugged me but I'm worried I'm I being a bitch for smelling a rat?

Why does it matter?

Yes if course it is possible. Masters usually cover specialist areas often selected by the person undertaking the masters.

He got a degree that you attended, why do you keep on at him about it.

Of course!

At each level you specialise more.

A degree in economics and or politics will be mostly about theories with some case studies, some history and a lot of maths.

The masters will then focus in on a particular area - eg economic development, political history, whatever

Of course it is, I have a MA in history and politics and my courses didn't specifically cover the cold war. Obviously I am aware of it in general, and broadly what happened but I did not cover it in any detail during my 4 year degree.
During my degree I could choose from lots of different periods of history and the cold war wasn't featured in any that I chose.

I mean politics and economics as subjects are huge.

You will normally get taught the basic theories and orthodoxy at degree level.

And then maybe a couple of case studies in detail.

For a PhD your research subject will be very narrow.

When I did history at school I did the Russian Revolution and the Atom Bomb.

I wouldn't be too pleased at someone going around claiming I didn't have a history qualification because I didn't do WW1 or the french Revolution.

I think you should probably get over your scepticism, and probably get the message that the reason he doesn't want to talk about it is because it was a long time ago and he has either lost interest or can't remember anything about it.

The abandoned PhD may well be a sore point.

Is it even possible to achieve a masters degree in this subject without covering the cold war?

Yes. Masters' degrees are usually pretty narrow in focus. You could look it up on the web site of the university, but the cold war doesn't sound like a politics & economics topic; more political history or a specialist module in an international affairs programme.

The past is vast.

What did you actually ask him? Was it something really specific?

The abandoned PhD may well be a sore point.

PhDs can be pretty traumatic even if you complete them.

He's probably got you sussed, that's why he doesn't want to engage.

It's really none of your business.

Where did he do his degree? Some are masters courses and some universities you get a free masters (oxbridge lol )

Oh course it’s possible 🤣
What an odd thing to ask!

Why does it matter to you?

My first degree was an MA in politics and international relations. I remember very little except "plucky little Malta"😂

Also if you want to know something just go to Chatgpt and ask.

It will give you a better answer than someone who didn't do the subject 20 years ago.

I just want to know what you wanted to (related to the Cold War?) that you contacted a not-local family member that you don’t even like, instead of googling.

Why are you nitpicking about this? @YNK

I hardly remember most of the technical details of my MSc and I graduated with Merit.

Also i did choose specialist subjects / modules of course and didnt touch others.

It’s like you have assumed he must know everything to do with politic and economics because he did a degree, a long time ago. Which is ridiculous.

Why are you trying to catch him out? And don’t say you weren’t. If you want to know something about the cold war you would Google it rather than speaking to a relative you aren’t that close to anymore.

Why do you even care?

I studied french as part of my degree and can barely speak a word of it now

Surely you realise he can’t have studied the history of everything to do with politics and economics?

He makes passive aggressive jokes and refuses to seriously engage in any meaningful way whenever a conversation touches on the subject.

As a Politics and History degree-haver, I can confirm that this is the best way to retain sanity. Especially with anyone looking for a debate!

Nothing like studying a subject in detail to absolutely kill your interest in it. He's probably telling the truth that he didn't cover the Cold War, and then after completing his studies ran as far from politics and history as he could and doesn't even read it as leisure any more. Probably nothing worse to him than history and politics talk at a social occasion - especially if he senses that someone is trying to judge his knowledge.

I have a first class BSc in theoretical physics, I doubt I'd come close to passing A Level physics these days. Forgotten all of it and no longer find it that interesting like I did in school.

True.😱

I mean, I’d class a basic knowledge of the Cold War under general knowledge, but if you were asking detailed specialist questions about the Cuban missile crisis because you were testing him, that’s a bit daft. I have four degrees in Eng Lit, including a doctorate, have published award-winning research and taught at universities for 25 years, but I’m a modernist who works mostly on women’s writing. If you asked me questions about eighteenth-century prosody, Arthurian romances or early slave narratives, I’d be falling back on undergraduate knowledge.

I'm really pleased I was being unreasonable because it made me feel very uncomfortable.

I'm not academic and limited to general knowledge but it really surprised me to hear it wasn't a topic covered on a course like this since I imagined it would have been important.

I've learned something new - thanks.

A whole module of my degree covered the Chinese agrarian economy circa 600 BCE, and I couldn’t tell you anything meaningful about that almost 20 years later, let alone an area I didn’t study. In fact, what I learned most from my degree is how little knowledge a degree actually gives you and how irrelevant most of it is to what you’ll do with the rest of your life. If he completed his degree years ago then not only will he probably have forgotten most of the stuff he studied, but he probably just wants to talk about more relevant things.