Getting a Ph.D. is like playing the lottery, explains Monica Jacobe. After a median 10 years of study, and perhaps four or five years of job hunting, 40 percent of language PhDs will not have tenure track jobs anywhere.
"I'm 30 years old and I've never made 30 thousand a year." Monica Jacobe, who is about to finish her dissertation in American literature, describes her life as a contingent faculty member. In Part 2, she talks about her prospects for an academic job and the sorry state in which previous generations of faculty and administrations have left the profession.
Higher ed employment has become a pyramid scheme, explains Michelle Masse, with mostly-male sectors at the top and mostly-female sectors at the bottom. The relationship between "feminization" of the humanities and "masculinization" of administration means we're all in the harem of the dean.
A professor on public assistance. Andy Smith describes his ten years as a contingent faculty member.
The vast majority of all college faculty are now hired on a contingent basis.
In the struggle to keep up with tuition, 78% of students work while enrolled, averaging 30 hours per week. But the annual cost of everyone's public tuition in the United States is less than $50 billion, says Adolph Reed. We could pay that bill for everyone, he says--and reap substantial returns on the investment.
"Between a provocateur and a buffoon." That's how Berube describes Horowitz in this interview with Marc Bousquet. Berube explains what happens when Pennsylvania experimented with Horowitz's "academic bill of rights"
She argues that the call to service in higher education has been a vector for cynical exploitation by administrations, but also for willing submission to exploitative demands. This is especially the case for womenn faculty, but also for men in feminized sectors, such as the humanities.
Melanie Hubbard, a Columbia Ph.D. with articles, an NEH fellowship, and a book contract has never been interviewed for a tenure-track job. She has served on contingent appointments at bartenders' wages for 10 years. Part 1
Sabbaticals for nurses and accountants? "We're all workers," says Adolph Reed. "We all want the same things." Now that everyone works in the service economy, the blue-collar/white-co llar distinctions make very little sense. And recognizing that all intellectuals are workers is a step toward realizing that all workers are intellectuals.
Melanie Hubbard, a Columbia Ph.D. with articles, an NEH fellowship, and a book contract has never been interviewed for a tenure-track job. She has served on contingent appointments at bartenders' wages for 10 years. Part 2
Activists from Graduate Students United at the Universiy of Chicago describe pushback from faculty members, fellow graduate students, and the administration.
California Faculty Association activist Elizabeth Hoffman describes the "permanently temporary" condition that is now the norm for faculty in U.S. higher education.
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