A PhD student writes:
I am an ABD who will be going on the job market in the fall. Like many graduate students I began my graduate studies in a well-regarded terminal MA program. Two of my current letter writers are professors who are members of my dissertation committee, and the third is a well known philosopher who was the director of my master's thesis committee. I am curious whether this is sort of thing is normal or whether search committees might see it as a strike against me (perhaps because someone might wonder why I couldn't get three letters from my current institution).
Any advice would be helpful.
My instinct is that the only scenario in which this could seem odd is if the MA faculty member really has no expertise in the area of the PhD thesis *and* there are other faculty at the PhD program with expertise in the area who aren't writing--then, I suppose, someone might draw an adverse inference. But even then, it seems to me a remote worry. Apart from that, it seems to me perfectly fine. What do readers think?
