There’s COVID-19 research, and then there’s meta COVID-19 research–that is, research about research in the era of COVID-19. Scientists, specifically principal investigators, were surveyed about time spent on various job activities. No one will be surprised to learn that productivity has been lost, particularly in disciplines dependent on shared equipment and/or student labor. Likewise, it is not shocking to discover that parents who have to care for small children are disproportionately affected. It’s good to confirm these things; the world can defy expectations sometimes. More importantly, it is good to quantify them so that efforts to intervene and remediate disparities can be assessed for effectiveness.
[Read more…] about Science Corner: Researching the Researchers
tenure
The Future of ESN
This is my final post on the Emerging Scholars Blog.
Well, my final planned post, anyway. Tom insisted that I leave the door open for guest posts in the future, but I won’t be writing here every Tuesday as I have for the past few years. For my final post, Tom asked me to offer some thoughts about how far ESN has come and where it might be going in the future.
I became involved with the Emerging Scholars Network because I wished it had existed when I was an undergraduate. I’ve told this story many times, but I can’t remember if I’ve ever written about here on the blog. As a senior at the University of Louisville, I was convinced that I was supposed to get a PhD and become an English professor. I had long loved literature, and my conversion drove me to ask the question, “How can I integrate my love for Christ with my love for literature?” Through a couple of InterVarsity staff (Robbie Castleman and Terry Morrison), I was put in touch with three Christian English professors. I emailed them and asked where I could get a PhD that would enable me to pursue this question.
From my current perspective, I now see the question as a bit naïve. If I had read George Marsden’s Soul of the American University or The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, I would have known that US research universities – the kind that grant PhDs that lead to English professorship – had long ago abandoned any pretense to be Christian. Still, I wrote the three professors and eagerly awaited their responses. [Read more…] about The Future of ESN
Is a Tenure-Track Job a Futile Dream?
Probably.
Last week, I addressed the question of whether graduate school was a path to certain doom. In the comments of that post, John questioned my use of statistics to show that people with Ph.D.s had relatively good job prospects in this economy. He shared a personal experience with trying to find a tenure-track faculty position in the humanities. Now that is a completely different matter than simply getting a job, and the outlook isn’t nearly as bright.
James K.A. Smith has written a series of posts offering advice on going to graduate school. He puts it very well:
Do you want to be an academic superstar, teaching at Harvard or Yale or at least Notre Dame? Do you want to be at the very pinnacle of your discipline? The go-to guy or gal that NPR calls for comment? Do you want to become moderately wealthy?
Well, then let’s be clear: In some cases, you simply can’t get there from here. If you’re at a Bible college right now, or a little Christian college, or probably even just a local state university, I hate to break it to you, but that route’s pretty much blocked for you.
Smith goes on to address the question of simply being in academia, not at the elite level, and offers a bit more hope. Still, I would compare the dream of getting a tenure-track job (especially in the humanities) to the dream of becoming a professional basketball player. Many things have to break just right for a person to even have a chance, and the chances still aren’t great. I’m not sure what’s a more amazing stat: that 17% of 7-foot-tall American men play in the NBA, or that only 17% of them play in the NBA.
Does this mean that you shouldn’t get a PhD in the humanities? Not necessarily, but it does mean that you should count the costs very carefully. And keep an open mind about alternative paths that might make themselves available.
James Sire: Yes, Virginia, There Is Life After Traditional Academe!
After my post last week, James Sire sent me the story of his decidedly nontraditional career. With his permission, I’d like to share it with you below.
When I graduated from the University of Missouri in 1964 with a Ph.D., all those who graduated with me were offered and took jobs. I had 3 choices — Nebraska Wesleyan; a new branch of Miami University (OH) in Dayton, now a university on its own; and the University of Baghdad. I chose the one that offered a traditional liberal education (my core interest). Three years later I began looking and interviewing for a Ph.D.-granting institution. I wanted to advance my narrowing academic interests (literary criticism or Milton or 17th century English Lit) and teach doctoral students. [Read more…] about Is a Tenure-Track Job a Futile Dream?
Is Graduate School a Path to Certain Doom?
Every few years, another publication discovers that becoming a tenured professor at a research university is hard work. Most recently, it was Slate, which ran an essay by Rebecca Shuman which, fittingly for an essay about literary study, had two different titles depending on whether you looked at the text on the page or the title in your browser:
- Thesis Hatement: Getting a literature Ph.D. will turn you into an emotional trainwreck, not a professor.
- There are no academic jobs and getting a Ph.D. will make you into a horrible person: A jeremiad.
Neither title is all that catchy, but you have to give them credit for clarity and SEO.
Schuman shares her regret at going to graduate school. I could tell from her opening paragraph that she was going to be in trouble.
Who wouldn’t want a job where you only have to work five hours a week, you get summers off, your whole job is reading and talking about books, and you can never be fired? Such is the enviable life of the tenured college literature professor, and all you have to do to get it is earn a Ph.D. So perhaps you, literature lover, are considering pursuing this path.
Her conclusion, after having this false dream thoroughly driven from her system:
I now realize graduate school was a terrible idea because the full-time, tenure-track literature professorship is extinct. After four years of trying, I’ve finally gotten it through my thick head that I will not get a job—and if you go to graduate school, neither will you.[1]
Is Earning a Ph.D. a Dead-End Street?
Perhaps some numbers might help put things into perspective. Let’s dismiss the idea that you’ll “never get a job†if you earn a Ph.D.
As of January 28, 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the following: [Read more…] about Is Graduate School a Path to Certain Doom?
What I Wish I’d Known about Faculty Life: Any Regrets?
This is the final post in Kevin Birth’s series, What I Wish I’d Known about Faculty Life. Previously: Departmental Politics, Teaching the Curriculum, The Tenure Track.
It was one of those gloomy days when even a cup of coffee had no warming effect. Edward and Gretchen were chatting in one of the college’s cafés. Fitting the melancholy tone of the day, Gretchen was morose about Edward’s impending retirement and move to a warmer climate. He had been a mentor to her – guiding her through the various minefields of being a new faculty member. Now she was tenured and becoming the mentor to a bunch of new faces in the department.
After a long silence, Gretchen asked, “Any regrets?â€
Edward took a sip from his cup, looked up, and said, “You know, I’ve had my gripes–we get paid too little, and we are disrespected by the media. Besides, nobody reads what we publish. There are too many students; there are too many committees; there are too many people with MBAs trying to tell faculty what to do. But regrets? No, I have no regrets. I feel blessed that for 35 years I’ve been able to wake up each morning and want to get to work.†[Read more…] about What I Wish I’d Known about Faculty Life: Any Regrets?