Monday, September 23, 2002
 

Yikes.

I just got my first look at the MLA job list, and they should not let first-years see this kind of thing. This year, there are 12 jobs open in my field-- in the entire country (and, I think, that includes Canada as well, though I'm too afraid to go back and confirm that). As it is, some of those would be a stretch to fit into my area; eg, they're 20th cen. American, but they're asking for a focus on drama. Columbia is looking for someone (gee, would that be because they can't keep faculty because their entire department is the most famous disaster in academia today?), and no one in their right mind would teach there. They wouldn't hire a PhD from here, anyway, and the same goes for Berkeley, who had two of the other jobs open. Need I even mention that the job situation for PhDs in English is a very scary one right now? Everyone was holding out hope that it would be better this year, but it doesn't seem to be.

Aside from the problem of even getting a job, there is also the problem that, of course, you have absolutely no control over where you go. One of the jobs more specific to my area, for instance, is in South Dakota. And if I were offered it, I'd take it.

One thing I did learn in a hurry is that I'd better start honing up my multi-ethnic focus for all it's worth. I have a lot of research backing me in that, at least at the moment, and I've been trying very hard to make my ongoing project engage these questions (not for purposes of making myself marketable, but because I think questions of ethnicity and gender are particularly relevant to my studies).

The one bright spot: Most of the jobs were tenure-track. Everyone in the scholarly community is afraid that universities are going to jettison tenured jobs in favor of part-time adjuncts, which is not good for the adjuncts, not good for research, not good for students, and not good for the system at large. Tenure's not perfect, but it's preferable to the alternative.

Elvisette philosophized at 12:41 PM