tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32827887980186898732024-03-13T06:46:54.663-04:00From Grad School to HappinessJChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.comBlogger226125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-9994940962083922752017-08-28T16:12:00.001-04:002017-08-28T16:12:38.895-04:00Well, This is UpsettingHello, readers! (If any of you are still out there. :) )<br><br>Unsurprisingly, with the passage of time and distance from my grad school life, I haven't had as much free time or motivation to keep up with this blog as I did for the first several years. I periodically come on here to clear out the spam comments and/or to see what people in this world are reading and writing about, but in general - since I haven't made a career out of postacademia - I've just gravitated away from this world and into my "real life" world.<br><br>Which is definitely how it should be! Hopefully those of you who read my blog back in the day (who have fully left academia) have done the same thing. If you're making a writing or coaching or whatevering career out of the postacademic world, then <u>of course</u> you should still be watching and reading academic news on a regular basis. Otherwise, hopefully you've slowly gravitated away from a daily perusal of the job market forums and things like that.<br>
<br>
However, I have been meaning to write an update to tell you all how I've been doing after all this time has passed, and I have read a few articles recently that I wanted to pass along to anyone who still finds themselves arriving at my blog and thinks that the problems I discussed several years ago have disappeared. They absolutely, 100% have not! <br><br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2017/08/well-this-is-upsetting.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-66230185679982521082016-04-22T10:38:00.003-04:002016-04-22T10:38:37.464-04:00Gawker is Asking for Adjunct Stories!Hi readers!<br />
<br />
If any of you out there who are still reading or finding this blog are adjuncts and would like to share your story, Gawker is looking for people who are willing to share their stories for an upcoming article or series that they're planning. They are guaranteeing anonymity. See the info at <a href="http://gawker.com/the-misery-of-adjunct-professors-keeps-higher-education-1772267323">this link</a>.<br />
<br />
From the article:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What is the reality of life as an adjunct professor? I’d like to run some stories from adjuncts. Please <a href="mailto:Hamilton@Gawker.com">email me</a>
if you’d like to share the following info: How much money do you make?
How much do you work? How does your school treat adjuncts? What is your
quality of life? And what do you think should be done to change the
labor system of colleges and universities, if anything?</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="mailto:Hamilton@Gawker.com">Email me</a>. Anonymity guaranteed.</blockquote>
If you have time and are willing to share your story, please do. If there's one thing I've become convinced of in the last five years (and maybe longer than that), it's that nothing in higher ed/grad school/academia will change unless we start agitating for it. And successful agitation is probably going to require some public attention on the plight of adjuncts and grad students.<br />
<br />
As always, I hope you're all doing well and are finding support while you're working your way through grad school, academia or postacademia. Take care and be well!JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-75181019687658952016-04-12T08:00:00.000-04:002016-04-12T08:00:08.986-04:00New Location for How To Leave AcademiaHi all! Long time no talk!!!<br />
<br />
I am still here...still working...still happy...still doing pretty great, with no regrets about my choice to leave academia in 2011. I'm going to write more about what I'm doing now and how I'm feeling in the next week or so, but it won't be appearing here...it will be appearing over at our <b>recently moved and revamped <a href="http://www.howtoleaveacademia.blogspot.com/">How to Leave Academia site</a>!</b><br />
<br />
Check it out: http://www.howtoleaveacademia.blogspot.com/<br />
<b> </b><br />
As some of you probably noticed, the old site went kaput a year or two ago, and unfortunately due to work and life demands it took us a long time to fix it. But all of the content that used to be at HTLA is now at this (free!) Blogspot site, and it will remain there until the end of the internet. We promise.<br />
<br />
I doubt that any of us will be writing much over there, but I suppose you never know when the mood might strike one of us to write something. So keep an eye on it! In the meantime, if any of you would like to add some content, write a guest post, leave a comment, etc., shoot one of us an email! We would love to add more to the site, and I'm sure that the newer folks who are leaving would love to hear from people who are going through the same process.<br />
<br />
And in the meantime, don't forget about our e-book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Essays-Aftermath-Leaving-Academia-ebook/dp/B00HOH011A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460420265&sr=8-1&keywords=moving+on+essays+on+the+aftermath+of+leaving+academia">Moving On</a>, which is still available on Amazon!<br />
<br />
I hope you're all doing well and are figuring things out for yourselves. Even if you feel alone, don't worry...we've got your back, and there is light at the end of the academic tunnel.<br />
<b> </b>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-63456445238718551602015-09-10T13:20:00.004-04:002015-09-10T13:20:54.843-04:00Article on Quitting AcademiaHey everyone,<br />
<br />
As I said in one of my more recent updates, I'm basically absent from the whole postacademic/alt-academic world these days, mostly by choice. I see an article about academic politics or the job market or whatever, and I'm like ..... meh, do I really want to get more depressed today? Nah, I don't think so.<br />
<br />
But I promised a few months back to bring you links to anything that I read on academic or postacademia that I find to be particularly good. And I think <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/9/8/9261531/professor-quitting-job">this piece</a> at Vox definitely applies.<br />
<br />
There are about a million parts of this piece that I want to highlight and would love to discuss - if I didn't have a pesky day job that I have to attend to right now - but in particular, this passage spoke to me, and I believe it will be useful for readers of this blog:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The concept [of alt-academia] is good enough in theory, but in practice it's just
another way of phrasing the problem: There's not enough room in
academia. Go find a job in a different field.<br />
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Some blame scholars themselves for the problem — claiming that
today's PhD holders aren't as capable or as qualified as generations
past. But after sitting on hiring committees and reading hundreds of CVs
and writing samples, I refuse to blame the earnest applicants whose
sole crime was being told scholarship was a worthwhile pursuit and
believing it. If anything, market pressures have resulted in the
production of some of the finest scholarship in generations, with <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Jonathan-Gottschalls-Fighting/229763/">even many adjuncts</a>
having a handful of great publications under their belts. The problem
is that the system is more than happy to take their money and use their
services from undergrad all the way to their doctoral graduation, but
when it comes time to pay it off with a real job? Sorry — best look
somewhere "alternative."</blockquote>
There's a lot of good stuff in this piece about student engagement, tenure, how the promise of grad school and academia relates to the reality, and quite a few other things.<br />
<br />
Read it, enjoy, and feel less alone!<br /><br />-----------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
Side note: For those who regularly look(ed) at our website How to Leave Academia, we are aware that the site is having massive problems and is currently unavailable when you try to navigate to it. We've been trying to figure out what's wrong - though, of course, our attempts to fix the problem are hampered by the fact that even WE cannot access the site to even poke around behind the scenes to see what's happening.<br />
<br />
And, you know, all of us have day jobs and real life to attend to, so trying to get the site back up and running definitely has fallen fairly low on our priority lists in recent months.<br />
<br />
But we are aware of the problem, we are trying to see if we can figure out what's happening, and hopefully we can figure it out one of these days! In the meantime, you can always find us and reach us via our personal blogs.JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-79850812970105720292015-06-25T10:50:00.004-04:002015-06-25T11:01:08.911-04:00STEM Readers: Can You Help Advise a Student Reader?Hey everybody!<br />
<br />
I received the following email from an undergraduate student in biochemistry who is currently enrolled as a senior in a university in the United States.<br />
<br />
This student wrote to me yesterday to see whether I might be able to offer some advice, as they've come to think that grad school might not be the best option for them after all.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, since I haven't taken a "hard" science course since my freshman year in undergrad and my only two friends who come from the biosciences are currently enrolled in graduate programs, I don't think that I can be much personal help for this student. So I thought I would pass their question along to you, dear readers, to see if anyone has any advice.<br />
<br />
If you can offer any advice for this student, please leave a comment below! I allow anonymous commenting and don't review/approve comments before they're posted, so advise away!<br />
<br />
The student writes:<br />
<br />
<i>I’m an undergraduate biochemistry senior. Lately I have become sort of
disinterested (sort of disillusioned) about graduate school in the
sciences and pursuing a science career. From my undergraduate research
experience this summer to interacting with professors, I don’t feel like
I could handle the lifestyle nor would I want to. I don’t know what
options there are though. Biochemistry isn’t really extendable to other
careers, and I’m not even sure where to begin. Most of my professors
advocate for graduate school too. What would you say to someone in my
position? Thanks for any help!</i><br />
<br />
So what do you say, dear readers? Can anyone offer any advice to an undergrad who really needs it?<i> </i>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-91029196699292081662015-06-03T12:23:00.001-04:002015-06-03T12:23:32.585-04:00Some Thoughts on the LaCour Scandal<div class="tr_bq">
So as I've learned this week, apparently there is at least one thing that will get me sucked back into reading and writing and thinking about academic work and the controversies therein. And that one thing is an instance of research fraud so massive that it almost defies imagination.</div>
<br>
I mean......really, Michael LaCour? You published a huge study in <i>Science </i>with a fancy glittery co-author, and it turns out that you completely fabricated your data? And apparently didn't even bother to get IRB approval <i>for a face-to-face survey </i>until after you already "carried out the interviews?" (Scare quotes intentional, obviously.) And then you faked a few <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/05/lacour-made-up-his-biggest-funding-source.html">grants</a> and a <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/05/michael-lacour-made-up-a-teaching-award-too.html">teaching award</a>, just because the research fakery wasn't enough? And you even stopped to falsify a <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/06/lacour-probably-fabricated-an-integrity-document.html">document of research integrity</a> along the way?<br>
<br>
Wow. Wow. That's...astounding.<br>
<br>
(For those who don't know what I'm talking about, <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/05/how-a-grad-student-uncovered-a-huge-fraud.html">here</a> is a good overview of both his fraud and of the excellent work by the grad student who uncovered it.<br>
<br>
Or just google LaCour's name. Even if you think you're done reading about academia, this scandal might just suck you back in for an hour or two or ten. Or maybe that's just me.)<br>
<br>
Anyway, many people smarter and more engaged in these issues than me have done great work writing about the underlying issues about research ethics and coauthor relationships, etc., that are related to this fraud. I don't have much to add on those issues since I haven't done research in almost five years, so I'll leave it to others to dig in on those important and relevant topics.<br>
<br>
I do have a few things to say about this scandal, though, from the "postacademic, cynical-about-academia" side of the aisle.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2015/06/some-thoughts-on-lacour-scandal.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-4590663065906434282015-03-06T15:06:00.000-05:002015-03-06T15:06:00.132-05:00How To Succeed in Academia: Be Rich!I ran across another link that those of you who find your way here may be interested in reading: an article by the excellent Sarah Kendzior, who writes about the <a href="https://chroniclevitae.com/news/929-academia-s-1-percent">reproduction of privilege and inequality in academia</a> for the Chronicle's Vitae website.<br />
<br />
Those of you who have been reading here for awhile know that this was a bit of an obsession for me for awhile - you can see my old posts on privilege and academia <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2012/01/lets-talk-about-privilege-and.html">here</a>, <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-discussion-of-privilege-in.html">here</a>, <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2011/12/postacademic-rant-5-academic.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2012/04/can-you-just-quit-sure-if-youre-rich.html">here</a>. I've also written about how this privilege divide has followed people into postacademia as well, both <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-post-academic-privilege-divide.html">here</a> and at <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/2014/03/the-post-academic-privilege-divide-troubling-trends-in-a-growing-movement/">HTLA</a>.<br />
<br />
But Kendzior takes it further, by pointing out that the vast majority of tenure-track slots in many fields are going to graduates of elite programs...but that the solution to this apparent problem, unfortunately, isn't as simple as telling prospective graduate students to only apply to elite programs:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
<i>The
answer is often financial, and, again, speaks to privilege and
discrimination endemic to academic culture. The most prestigious
universities – the Ivy League, University of Chicago, Stanford
University, the University of California system – tend to lie in the
most expensive parts of the country. Even with full funding, it is
nearly impossible to live in such costly cities without incurring debt,
given that stipends tend to be $25,000 or less.
- See more at:
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/929-academia-s-1-percent#sthash.sbh256KX.dpuf</i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The answer is often financial, and, again,
speaks to privilege and discrimination endemic to academic culture. The most
prestigious universities – the Ivy League, University of Chicago, Stanford
University, the University of California system – tend to lie in the most
expensive parts of the country. Even with full funding, it is nearly impossible
to live in such costly cities without incurring debt, given that stipends tend
to be $25,000 or less.</span></i></blockquote>
She goes on to note that while it may be fiscally responsible for a prospective student from modest means to go to a cheaper graduate school in a cheaper city, by doing so they are likely dooming themselves to a tenuous career marked by low pay, insecurity, or even adjuncthood.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Academia’s currency is prestige, but prestige is
always backed up by money, whether the expenditure for life in a costly city,
the expectation of unpaid or underpaid labor, or research trips assumed to be
paid out-of-pocket. </span></i></blockquote>
Her article references several studies that have recently been done on the hiring practices of academic departments. Since I no longer have access to a university library and the journals therein, I can't pull up the original studies. But for those of you who are still in the academic club, they might be worth a look.<br />
<br />
For many of you, it's probably too late to forego grad school or to transfer programs. But if you can gather some information and prepare yourself for what you'll be facing on the academic job market, perhaps you can plan ahead, research some (just in case!) alternate careers, and NOT wind up toiling in adjuncthood once you graduate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
The
answer is often financial, and, again, speaks to privilege and
discrimination endemic to academic culture. The most prestigious
universities – the Ivy League, University of Chicago, Stanford
University, the University of California system – tend to lie in the
most expensive parts of the country. Even with full funding, it is
nearly impossible to live in such costly cities without incurring debt,
given that stipends tend to be $25,000 or less.
- See more at:
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/929-academia-s-1-percent#sthash.sbh256KX.dpuf</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
The
answer is often financial, and, again, speaks to privilege and
discrimination endemic to academic culture. The most prestigious
universities – the Ivy League, University of Chicago, Stanford
University, the University of California system – tend to lie in the
most expensive parts of the country. Even with full funding, it is
nearly impossible to live in such costly cities without incurring debt,
given that stipends tend to be $25,000 or less.
- See more at:
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/929-academia-s-1-percent#sthash.sbh256KX.dpuf</div>
</blockquote>
JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-15466300671007308562015-03-02T10:28:00.000-05:002015-03-02T10:28:35.475-05:00Why You Need To Leave AcademiaSince I promised that I would do this in my last post....here's a <a href="http://cheekyscientist.com/leave-academia/">new(ish) article</a> I ran across today that has some very good (and strong!) sentiments about why leaving academia is not just a good option, but might be the best option for a graduate student in 2015.<br />
<br />
This site seems to be offering services for helping you "rebrand" or reorient your life for postacademia. I certainly can't vouch for their services - and in fact, I've gone on record several times as being somewhat skeptical about some of these services - so please don't take this as an endorsement of the services offered on the linked site. Again - I know nothing about their site and have not been asked to write this post, so be cautious if you start exploring their services. <br />
<br />
But I read this piece this morning and it struck me as <b>exactly </b>the kind of thing I was hungry <a href="http://cheekyscientist.com/leave-academia/">to read </a>in 2011 and 2012, when I was newly leaving academia:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Academia is broken. The time to leave it is now. If you don’t leave, you
will be poor, mistreated, and unhappy. There’s a myth in academia,
perpetuated by other (mostly unhappy) academics that says you can only
be a successful PhD if you become a tenured professor and continue to
publish in academic journals. <strong>This myth survives by encouraging
young PhDs—postdocs and PhD students—to look down on anyone who
expresses a desire to leave academia.</strong> As a result, a kind of
feedback loop is created in academia. Once you’re in the system, the
system keeps you there by weakening your mind and eroding your
confidence.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You’re told over and over again that nothing else but staying in
academia is respected. You’re told over and over again that you can’t do
anything else—that there is nothing else. <strong>The academic system makes you so dependent that you get used to being treated poorly.</strong>
You get used to your advisor yelling at you or making you feel small.
You get used to believing that there’s nothing else for you in the
world. </blockquote>
So if you're finding this site and you're new to the possibility that you might leave academia, let me just say that as a long-term veteran of the leaving process, I agree with every word of this essay. And I agree that if you're really, truly considering leaving academia, you are probably leaning toward making the right choice for yourself.JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-38672846735893938542015-02-23T09:59:00.000-05:002015-02-23T09:59:23.408-05:00I'm Still Here!Hello, dear readers of this blog (and of How to Leave Academia)!!!!<br>
<br>
It has been far, faaaar too long since I've updated this blog....and unfortunately, far too long since I've checked the comments to clear out the spam nonsense. I apologize to anyone who's had to scroll through offers for free online classes and moving services in Dubai (????) and other nonsense in order to get to the useful and supportive comments. I promise that I will try to stay more on top of that in the future so that those of you who need it can easily find the helpful comments and conversations that keep showing up on my posts.<br>
<br>
Along those lines, though...I'm so glad that, all of these years later, so many of you are still finding this blog and appreciating what I wrote and finding some hope for the future! As I've said all along - there is life, and happiness, outside of academia. I <b>promise </b>you that.<br>
<br>
In fact...if you're anything like me (and you take a job that is entirely outside of the university/academic realm), you will eventually get to a point where the world of academia seems so far removed from and irrelevant to your daily life that you simply don't think of it much anymore.<br>
<br>
Honestly? That's the real reason I haven't updated this blog in so long. I have now been out of academia, officially, for 4 long years. (Holy crap! I could have gone back for a whole new bachelor's or master's degree in that time! Maybe two masters' degrees!)<br>
<br>
But that also means that for 4 years (208 weeks! 1460 days! Over 35,000 hours!) I've had a life that is completely outside of academia. I work with 11 coworkers who have no idea what a peer-reviewed journal article is, I come home to a partner who has never had to write a teaching statement for a job application, and I take vacations without ever having to worry about work while I'm gone. I have a few friends who are former grad student colleagues, but we have so many other things going on in our lives - new jobs, new relationships and kids and pets and whatnot - that, honestly, academia hardly ever comes up.<br>
<br>
So, to be honest, I don't spend any significant time these days thinking about academia...which is why I haven't had anything new to write over here. <br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2015/02/im-still-here.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-60752833070029846782014-03-29T11:37:00.002-04:002014-03-29T11:37:39.585-04:00Want to Contribute a Story to HTLA?Hi everyone!<br />
<br />
We at HTLA are planning to do a major expansion of our site in the upcoming weeks and months. Now that the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Essays-Aftermath-Leaving-Academia-ebook/dp/B00HOH011A/">e-book</a> is finally <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/moving-on-essays-on-the-aftermath-of-leaving-academia">published</a> (and we've had a chance to lay back and enjoy Actually Having Accomplished That Big Thing We'd Been Working On For a Year, yayyy!), we are ready to get back to updating and expanding the content available on our site.<br />
<br />
Along those lines, one thing that we want to do is to create a section in which postacademics can tell their "leaving stories" and have them published on our site for others to read.<br />
<br />
We aren't going to solicit these from specific people, and we aren't looking for a particular type of story or for stories from people with particular types of jobs. If you're just a normal, everyday postacademic who left and found ... something? If you're doing academic advising or managing an office or directing a think tank or working at a diner or temp agency or running a side business? Then we want to hear from you. All of you.<br />
<br />
Don't sugarcoat your story if you don't want to. If your journey has been great, then tell us that! But if you've struggled, or have been desperate, or if it's been hard? Don't be afraid to tell us that either. We want <i>more postac stories </i>to get out there, and aren't picky about what those stories are.<br />
<br />
We are happy to keep stories anonymous if you want us to. See the <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/2014/03/iso-guest-posts/">announcement</a> below. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---------------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<strong>We want to expand our site and include more personal stories
of #postac life that focus on how people found work and what it’s like
to work in different kinds of #postac or #altac places. Also interested
in your “just for now” job experiences.</strong><br />
<br />
Keep it personal and not preachy, pretty much anything welcome. Brief is fine; no dissertation required.<br />
<br />
<strong>It’s fine if you need to remain anonymous.</strong><br />
<br />
We are happy to link to your website, business, or twitter account.<br />
<br />
<strong>We do not pay.</strong> This is gratis, because our site is
peer-to-peer. (Maybe someday when we start raking in the big bucks we
can offer compensation; for now, our income from the book (which is our only source of HTLA income and - given that the book is bargain priced - isn't much, covers basic
site maintenance.)<br />
<br />
<strong>Message us on Twitter:</strong><br />
@mamanervosa (Lauren)<br />
@leavingacademia (JC)<br />
@projectreinvention2012 (Kathleen)<br />
<br />
<strong>Or just use good old fashioned email:</strong><br />
laurennervosa@gmail.com<br />
leavingacademia@gmail.com<br />
projectreinvention12@gmail.comJChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-33030795380801774662014-03-13T16:31:00.000-04:002014-03-13T16:31:27.988-04:00What You Can Do With "Any" Postac JobThe other day, I happened to notice a twitter conversation going on between several postacs and near-postacs, in which one of them seemed to be lamenting the fact that if their efforts at networking and job hunting didn't pay off shortly, they would have to take "any" job after leaving academia.<br>
<br>
The implication there - not necessarily coming from that person, but in general - seemed to be that taking "any" job would be a letdown for a postacademic - a signal that you'd failed, or would no longer be doing postacademia "right" or something like that. Right? Because if that wasn't the case - if there weren't <i>good </i>or <i>bad </i>postacademic jobs, as I've argued - then "any" job wouldn't be second-best, right? "Any" job would be what you were going for!<br>
<br>
So of course, I jumped right into that conversation, arguing that there was nothing wrong with taking a "just for now" job, and that a person who took a job like that should still have <i>plenty </i>of free time to work on furthering their career (or whatever else they want to do).<br>
<br>
After jumping into that conversation (and sending out some random tweets later that night), I thought that this might be a good week to write about what my first job after leaving academia (three years ago!) has meant for my financial stability and plans going forward.<br>
<br>
(This post is also a partial response to some criticism that we've received on the <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/2014/03/the-post-academic-privilege-divide-troubling-trends-in-a-growing-movement/">privilege piece</a> at HTLA, in which some commenters (one at Versatile PhD in particular) have suggested that we are doing postacs a "disservice" by pointing out that some of them are in dire straits and might need to find a temporary, just-for-now type of job to pay the bills while they work on their future careers. I'm not sure if I understand why such advice is a "disservice" - because it's bad to point out that some people are struggling? Because everyone should follow a certain postacademic path, and deviating from it - even out of desperation - is a bad idea? I don't know...but I know I disagree.)<br>
<br>
In brief: taking a random job to pay your bills does not mean that you will stay in that job forever, or that you've given up on your chance of having a different or better career. And to bring it to a meta level: <b>recommending that a struggling new postac go work at a temp agency or to wait tables to pay their bills does NOT mean that we are telling them to stop thinking about their career dreams, or to stop trying to be an entrepreneur, or to stop working on skill translation or networking or anything else.</b><br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-you-can-do-with-any-postac-job.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-49258105141410906582014-03-03T16:51:00.002-05:002014-03-03T16:51:55.052-05:00"The Post-Academic Privilege Divide"Hello, everyone!<br />
<br />
Piggybacking on my recent post about what constitutes a "good" postacademic job - as well as the related posts from <a href="http://projectreinvention2012.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-to-get-post-ac-job.html">Kathleen</a> and <a href="http://mamanervosa.com/2014/03/03/postac-wanderer-real-career-path/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=postac-wanderer-real-career-path">Lauren</a> - the three of us have put our heads together to write a <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/2014/03/the-post-academic-privilege-divide-troubling-trends-in-a-growing-movement/">post</a> at <i>How to Leave Academia </i>that we are pretty proud of.<br />
<br />
If you have a few minutes, head on <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/2014/03/the-post-academic-privilege-divide-troubling-trends-in-a-growing-movement/">over</a> and let us know what you think.<br />
<br />
More soon!JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-43281555253551247042014-02-17T08:00:00.000-05:002014-03-10T11:06:10.248-04:00Columbia University and the Continued Rise of Adjuncthood: Does Mentoring Even Matter Anymore?Now that I am back from my blogging hiatus, one of my goals going forward is to work harder to raise awareness of "academic justice" issues - i.e., how faculty, adjunct instructors, and grad students are treated by their institutions and by higher education more generally.<br>
<br>
(Hint: the treatment is oftentimes not very good.)<br>
<br>
As I mentioned years ago on this blog, during graduate school I had no idea about how widespread the labor problems in academia actually were. In my program, the cheap teaching labor came from graduate students; therefore, the "fulltime adjunct" problem was not as obvious to me as it was to folks in other disciplines. In addition, my graduate program was highly ranked and seemed to be able to hire an endless stream of new tenure-track faculty, year after year. Meanwhile, I watched graduates of my program go on to solid tenure-track positions or good postdocs every single year. From my perspective, then, things in academia appeared solid and stable.<br>
<br>
It wasn't until I left academia in 2011 and started reading about the wider academic job market and the working conditions in colleges and universities other than my own that I realized that things were not as rosy as I had assumed. To my surprise, I discovered the existence of <span id="goog_555030086"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/">full-time adjuncts<span id="goog_555030087"></span></a>. To my greater surprise, I discovered the graduating Ph.D. students who just sort of "disappeared," <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/phd/2013/06/18/demanding-data-on-placement-rates/">never to be tracked</a> by their graduate institutions unless they got a tenure-track job. To my even greater surprise, I discovered the existence of
faculty (both <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2013/10/26/Edinboro-University-to-lay-off-30-plus-on-faculty/stories/201310260096">tenured</a> and <a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2013/11/26/BGSU-to-cut-30-faculty-posts.html">non-tenure-track</a>) who were <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/02/exigency">laid off </a>from their institutions without notice and
often without cause. <br>
<br>
In the past few years as I've continued to read these stories and as my blog gained an audience, I've found that negative <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2012/09/an-update-on-colorado-states-no-olds.html">stories</a> about academic labor just <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-new-normal-in-academic-hiring.html">keep</a> on <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2012/12/so-many-phdsso-few-jobs.html">coming</a>. So even as my personal story about academia has come to an end, I want to use this blog to keep the conversation going about academia's working conditions.<br>
<br>
So here we go...a few stories about academic labor justice to start off your week. One relates to general patterns of faculty and staff hiring, and the other to a series of worrisome faculty layoffs that are currently occurring at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2014/02/columbia-university-and-continued-rise.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-60109494087189085992014-02-13T21:04:00.002-05:002014-02-13T21:10:27.694-05:00New Postac Blogs?Hello loyal readers...<br />
<br />
Since I've been basically MIA for the last year or so, I am SURE that I have missed quite a few postacademic blogs that appeared during my website-co-building, e-book co-editing, non-blogging exile. I used to watch my blog stats like a hawk, noticing who would link to me and plugging the best blogs over here as soon as I noticed them. But as you may have noticed, I haven't done that in quite a while. And now that I'm back, I'd like to remedy that.<br />
<br />
So if you are writing or have been reading a good postac blog that isn't currently in my blogroll, please leave the URL in comments. (Or email or tweet it to me, if you're more comfortable with that.) I want to make sure that anyone finding this blog will have an updated list of folks who they can turn to for comfort or advice or commiseration or ranting, or whatever it is that you need.<br />
<br />
So let me know if there are any blogs I've been missing! Leave a comment on this post now, tomorrow, next week...whenever. I see all new comments as they come in on every post every time I log in, so I will see it no matter if you leave a comment tonight or two years from now. Let me know who you're reading!<br />
<br />
......And, you know, if you've been considering starting a blog about your own postacademic transition, now might be a good time. :) <br />
<br />
More soon....JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-55565258557076984802014-02-09T11:43:00.000-05:002014-02-09T11:43:02.184-05:00What is the "Right" Postacademic Job?As you may have just read (and if not, go <a href="http://projectreinvention2012.blogspot.com/2014/02/i-have-new-job-who-would-guess-what-it.html">read it now</a>!), my fellow post-academic and co-editor Kathleen has landed herself a new fulltime job working for an online university! She will be working with and mentoring university students, teaching a few online classes, and will be staying in the geographic location that she is currently living in without having to relocate. Oh, and it will also pay her a generous full-time salary with benefits. Yayyyyy Kathleen!!<br>
<br>
(Because I feel like I should say this: I know what school she will be working for, and it's not one of the "diploma mill" online schools that are often criticized. Though for reasons that I will outline below, I wouldn't care if it was ... because I firmly believe that <i><b>any</b></i> nonacademic job is a valid choice for people who leave academia.)<br>
<br>
So, the other night when Kathleen emailed Lauren and me to tell us about her new job, she was a little worried that she would be considered a "postacademic impostor" once she announced her new job: that she would be criticized for not taking the "right" kind of postacademic job (because online universities have come under fire lately from folks in academia and postacademia), or that taking a job that involved teaching and mentoring was not far enough outside of traditional academia to truly qualify as a postacademic job.<br>
<br>
As I told Kathleen last week, I don't agree with that assessment at all. And thinking about that conversation has actually motivated me to write my first blog post in a long, long time.<br>
<br>
I've been out of academia for nearly three years now, and the postacademic blogosphere and world have changed <i>considerably </i>during that time. Most of that shift has been wonderful - we are getting national press coverage and having public conversations about leaving academia, and the decision to leave is losing a lot of its stigma and the people who do it are being brought out of the shadows.<br>
<br>
But along with the growing visibility of the postacademic blogosphere, I've also noticed a not-so-great shift in the types of conversations we're having.<br>
<br>
The postacademic blogosphere used to be primarily about how individual bloggers were leaving academia without a net or a guide, and about their success (or lack thereof) at finding some job - <i>any job</i> - that would help them fully break free from academia's totalitarian culture and strict guidelines for what was acceptable. We had popular postacademic bloggers who worked as temps, as secretaries, as office managers, and even those who were unemployed for a while as they tried to find a new job. But we supported each other, and we reassured each other, and we talked about how even our not-so-glamorous jobs were terrific in comparison to adjuncting! And that our stable jobs (no matter what they were!) were better than begging for graduate funding every year while we took multiple futile stabs at the academic job market. At that time, <i>leaving </i>was the end goal for postacademics. It didn't matter what you did next, as long as you broke free of academia.<br>
<br>
In contrast, today's postac blogsophere has been more focused on scathing critiques of higher education and academia, and on profiles of successful people who have left academia and are well-established in new careers. I think that these types of pieces are certainly useful for new postacademics to read (scathing critiques abound in my archives, of course!), but this new focus has left a noticeable hole in the blogosphere. The highly personal, individual stories about the struggles and ups and downs of individual people <i>as they are initially leaving academia and trying to find some stable footing elsewhere </i>are all but missing in today's postacademic world. (Though such stories abound in our e-book, which can be bought <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Essays-Aftermath-Leaving-Academia-ebook/dp/B00HOH011A/">here</a> or <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/moving-on-essays-on-the-aftermath-of-leaving-academia">here</a>!)<br>
<br>
That's understandable, to a point - as postacademia becomes more public, the types of conversations that we have will change. But to tie this back to my conversation with Kathleen--in which she worried that her new job meant that she was "doing postacademia wrong"--I worry that the absence of stories about the struggles and hard decisions that many postacs go through as they leave may inadvertently make future academic leavers feel anxious or apprehensive. If new postacs don't know what kind of career they want after they leave, is that okay? Because most of what they will read in today's blogosphere is about people leaving and landing awesome, elite, PhD-level jobs.<br>
<br>
Similarly, if they don't land a perfect, academically-approved postac job right away, are they doing postacademia right? If they wind up temping for a little while as they figure out what comes next, should they feel like failures? If they get a good job with a generous salary and benefits in an industry that other postacademics are criticizing publicly, should they stay quiet because it's not a "good" job??<br>
<br>
I worry that if postacademia continues to highlight only the biggest postac successes, they will be inadvertently ignoring people whose paths out of academia aren't quite as blessed. And in turn, I worry that we may be doing a disservice to the people who will be looking to the postac blogosphere for advice in the future, especially if they don't know exactly what they want to do next. (You know...people like Kathleen and me, 2-3 years ago.)<br>
<br>
So in today's shifting postacademic blogsophere, I want to be clear about something that I believe <i>with every fiber of my being </i>(and that I do believe most postacademics believe, for the record): <b>short of contract killing or drug trafficking, there are no "good" or "bad" postacademic jobs. There is no "right" or "wrong" way to do postacademia. </b><br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2014/02/what-is-right-postacademic-job.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-87689093167474715802014-01-23T09:57:00.001-05:002014-01-23T19:59:44.578-05:00More E-Book News...and Also, Take the Ph.D Debt Survey!Hey friends!<br>
<br>
I promise...now that this e-book craziness is all but over for me, I will get back to updating this blog more regularly. I have missed writing here!! And with postacademia and problems of academic labor blowing up all over the internet and the blogosphere, there are certainly a lot of topics I could discuss!<br>
<br>
But, today I have two quick things to tell you about.<br>
<br>
First ... for those of you who have e-book devices other than a Kindle, our book ("Moving On: Essays on the Aftermath of Leaving Academia") is now available for purchase in EPUB format on Kobo.com. <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/books/moving-on-essays-on-the-aftermath-of-leaving-academia/mrrAZjekqUWeMJoH9jHHiw?MixID=mrrAZjekqUWeMJoH9jHHiw&PageNumber=1#readThisOn">Here's the link</a>.<br>
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ve5dxEo--A/UuEs7X06UPI/AAAAAAAAACQ/CfkH88bP70c/s1600/kobo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ve5dxEo--A/UuEs7X06UPI/AAAAAAAAACQ/CfkH88bP70c/s1600/kobo.jpg" height="320" width="213"></a></div>
<br>
<br>
Again, the book is value-priced at $2.99, and all proceeds will go toward the maintenance of the HTLA site. (Including the forums, which we are still working on!)<br>
<br>
As before ... we kindly ask you to leave reviews of the book on either site or on your blog, and to tell your friends about our book if you think they would benefit from it!<br>
<br>
In news not related to me or my blog..............<br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2014/01/more-e-book-newsand-awesome-and.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-60430468120658235452014-01-04T14:33:00.001-05:002014-01-04T14:33:35.240-05:00The E-Book is Published!!!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EwKejm_pJ7g/UshhTGLEoLI/AAAAAAAAACA/TBDM4wv06sc/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EwKejm_pJ7g/UshhTGLEoLI/AAAAAAAAACA/TBDM4wv06sc/s1600/cover.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
(Cross-posted from the <a href="http://www.howtoleaveacademia.com/">HTLA</a> site.)<br />
<br />
<strong>Kathleen, Lauren, Jet and I are thrilled to announce that <em>Moving On: Essays on the Aftermath of Leaving Academia</em> has now been released!! </strong>We’ve
been working on this book for a year and are excited to share these
wonderful stories with everyone interested in the experience of leaving
academia.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Essays-Aftermath-Leaving-Academia-ebook/dp/B00HOH011A/">Here is the link</a>
to where you can purchase the book on Amazon for your Kindle, or simply
to read in your browser via Amazon. In the next few months, we will be
also adding the book to Smashwords for use on readers other than the
Kindle, so stay tuned!<br />
<br />
<strong>The e-book is $2.99</strong>, and costs go towards
publication expenses and site maintenance. We priced it as low as
possible to make sure it’s available to anyone, even us brokeass
ex-grads. It would also make a great gift to anyone you know going
through this.<br />
<br />
<strong>If and when you read the book, please leave a review on Amazon.</strong> THANK YOU for your support of our project and for your support of all post-academics.JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-88312857827997306242013-11-16T07:00:00.000-05:002013-11-16T10:27:43.742-05:00Forum Update - Spammers Suck!As a followup to my <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2013/11/exciting-news-in-postacademia.html">last post</a> - yes, the spammer problem at our new forum is out of control. We are currently working on a solution and will get it fixed as soon as possible. We will post an announcement over there when it's functional again, and I will post an announcement here as well to let you know when it's safe to sign up.<br />
<br />
Thanks for your patience ... none of us have ever gotten much spam at our blogs, so we were naive about how much would be attracted by the forums. Ahh! Bear with us and we will fix it...JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-88580517722484001842013-11-06T18:53:00.000-05:002013-11-06T19:11:44.965-05:00Exciting News in Postacademia!!Hey everybody!! (Really, really) long time no talk!!<br>
<br>
Everything with me is going well ... I'm still at the same job, still living in the same place ... still hanging out with my partner and friends and family and dogs. Life is good!<br>
<br>
I haven't written in a while for various reasons ... to some extent, I just haven't had much to add to the interesting and varied conversations that have been happening in the postacademic world in recent months. On another level, I simply haven't been quite as "tuned in" to academic and postacademic news as I used to be. I do still pay attention, but as I've moved further away from my grad school life I have found that my emotions aren't as raw, my anger not so acute, and my desire to blog about each article and event to be less strong.<br>
<br>
(So take heart, new academic leavers - the raw emotions do fade over time!!)<br>
<br>
However, I'm back today to tell you about a few really exciting developments in the postacademic world, and with our <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/">How to Leave Academia website</a> in particular.<br>
<br>
More after the jump...<br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2013/11/exciting-news-in-postacademia.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-76798250999048730762013-06-20T10:30:00.000-04:002013-06-20T10:30:04.955-04:00The Ph.D. Placement ProjectHey all! Long time no talk!!<br>
<br>
I'm writing today because everyone who hasn't already done so should head over to the <i>Chronicle of Higher Education</i> and contribute to their new <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/phd/2013/06/18/welcome-to-the-ph-d-placement-project/">Ph.D. Placement Project</a>. There are numerous ways to do this - you can take the anonymous <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XnXJgvQ_bdR0jeEt-RtcIGYghsbwp6rH8SRT1rPj6rQ/viewform">survey</a> (if you've completed your Ph.D.), follow them on <a href="https://twitter.com/PhD_Project">Twitter</a>, email them directly (PhDPlacement at Chronicle dot com) if you have any ideas for how they should proceed, or sign up for their <a href="http://chronicle.us5.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=f2e61e1f7317622961cd58284&id=9c5a2f12b9">email list</a> to receive updates on the project.<br>
<br>
(This wonderful project seems to primarily be a response to William Pannapacker's most recent column in the <i>Chronicle</i>, where he laments the <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Just-Look-at-the-Data-if-You/139795">lack of data</a> on Ph.D. job placements. Kudos to the <i>Chronicle</i> for trying to tackle this challenge and to assemble the necessary data). <br>
<br>
They've already received more than 600 responses, and they are <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/phd/2013/06/19/a-good-place-to-start/">clearly excited</a> about the huge response to their initial survey. But as they write in that article, this is just the first step in what they intend to be a much larger project:<br>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>...the survey we've posted is only a starting point. We intend to use it to collect ideas and advice that will help us determine how best to proceed in collecting detailed, accurate placement information. </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>When we publish placement information about individual Ph.D. programs, it will be based on a formal research project, not on a Google survey. </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>In short, if you're interested in the issue of placement rates and Ph.D. programs, please keep communicating with us</i>. </blockquote>
At this point they are only collecting survey data from people who have completed their Ph.D.s ... so if you're a current grad student or a dropout like me, you can't take the survey. However, you can still follow them on Twitter, email them with suggestions, and sign up for their email list. So if you haven't finished your Ph.D. but you are interested in this project, there are ways to get involved. <br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-phd-placement-project.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-90791061877782635702013-05-21T21:00:00.000-04:002013-06-03T12:06:01.390-04:00Adjuncts! Tell Your Story Here!<i>(Editor note: Please share this post far and wide - on twitter, on your blog, Facebook, wherever. I don't blog-flog as a general rule, but I welcome any sharing of this post that anyone wants to do. Let's get as many stories as possible, and then we'll see what we can do as far as getting them out to a wider audience.</i><br>
<i><br></i>
<i>Also: I'm not going to respond to comments because I just want this to be a comment thread of stories, with minimal distractions. But I am reading all of them and listening.)</i><br>
<br>
So it's been a rough week in internet-land for postacademics and adjuncts (and their defenders).<br>
<br>
If you have a strong stomach for condescending, insulting comments, click <a href="http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,139237.0.html">here</a> or <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/college-ready-writing/one-500#.UZrNlUyZvrU.twitter">here</a>. But if not, let's just say that there has been a lot of insulting nonsense posted recently at academic forums, with (presumably) tenure-track faculty and/or grad students implying that academia is still basically a meritocracy, that folks who don't get tenure-track jobs are deficient in some way, and that adjuncting isn't really a major problem (and that even if it is, adjuncts know the market is crap so they deserve what they get).<br>
<br>
It's cruel nonsense, of course ... but it's still obnoxious, and I don't think we should let it sit out there unchallenged.<br>
<br>
But in an era when data about adjuncts is hard to come by and where graduate departments don't publish their placement statistics, it's hard to refute what those people are saying.<br>
<br>
A few of us were talking about this problem on Twitter, and came to the conclusion that one thing that should happen is for more adjuncts and other contract faculty to share their experiences in a public forum. If more of you "come out" publicly about your experiences, then we stand a better chance of drowning out the voices who are insisting that everything is equal, that the most deserving always get ahead, and that things really aren't that bad out there for folks in the social sciences and humanities.<br>
<br>
We need, in essence, a chorus of people who are on the lower rungs of academia to stand up and tell their stories.<br>
<br>
Ideally, every single adjunct would have a column in a major magazine where they could do this. :) But in reality, of course, most of you don't have that kind of platform, and/or may not be comfortable "outing" yourselves publicly in that way - using your real name, and opening yourself up to shame and criticism.<br>
<br>
So, here's a public (anonymous) platform for you to tell your stories, adjuncts. Take over my blog!<br>
<br>
I want to hear about your working conditions, about how grad school did (or did not) prepare you for what you encountered on the job market, and about how adjuncting makes you feel as a person and as a scholar. If we hear stories from a lot of you, then it becomes easier to drown out the nasty comments and Pollyannaish narratives that are out there.<br>
<br>
It certainly won't end the problems in academia, of course, but it might help in some small way ... if only by shaping the discourse on adjuncthood around <i>your experiences</i>, rather than around the statements and assumptions of tenured faculty.<br>
<br>
So leave a comment (or email me at leavingacademia at gmail.com). Tell us about your adjunct life.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2013/05/adjuncts-tell-your-story-here.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-76288470357742972132013-05-18T20:44:00.000-04:002014-01-05T10:28:48.160-05:00Why I Won't "Just Shut Up"So I've been thinking quite a bit about the whole U of M/postac kerfuffle over the past few weeks, and have been following the continuing debate over it (<a href="http://gradland.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/what-were-not-arguing-about/">this</a> reaction was particularly great) as well as the conversation surrounding Rebecca Schuman's new <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/My-Academic-Metamorphosis/139123/">article</a> in the Chronicle (behind the paywall, unfortunately) - which includes, incredibly, a full professor at an R1 university trying to invalidate her argument because she made a snarky comment about a few pioneering theorists. Sigh.<br>
<br>
Anyway, I wrote <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2013/05/i-dont-think-were-saying-what-you-think.html">my last post</a> because I wanted to defend myself against the (untrue) assertion that I think grad students are all privileged jerks who can't get real jobs. As I wrote two weeks ago - that is not, never has been, and never will be true of my thoughts on privilege in academia.<br>
<br>
But now that I've gotten that out of my system and have been following the ongoing postacademic debates, I've been thinking more and more about the silencing attempts I've been witnessing. First, of course, we have Amy Pistone telling all of us to shut up on an official graduate school website. Then, we see professors trying to deride and belittle critics like Schuman in the pages of a major magazine/website. And so on and so on. The critiques of postacademia, then, seem to amount to "shut up and stop talking!"<br>
<br>
(I mean, unless I'm way off base, I haven't seen any other critiques of our work out there. No one can refute the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-white/college-professor-salaries_b_3271404.html?utm_hp_ref=tw">horrific job outlook</a> for <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-phd-bust-americas-awful-market-for-young-scientists-in-7-charts/273339/">many disciplines</a>, nor can they argue with the fact that some people don't like certain types of work (even academic work) ... so all they're left with is "Well, <b>I</b> love <u><b>my</b></u> work, so you just shut up and stop talking and everything will be fine for everyone!!") <br>
<br>
The more I've thought about the people who are saying those things to <a href="http://pankisseskafka.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/open-letter-to-amy-pistone-ph-d-student-in-classical-studies-at-the-university-of-michigan-the-articles-will-stop-when-the-exploitation-stops/comment-page-1/#comment-494">Schuman</a> and <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/The-Big-Lie-About-the-Life-of/63937/">William Pannapacker</a> and the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/04/20134119156459616.html">other critics</a> of Ph.D. education, the angrier I've gotten. And now I feel compelled to write about why I haven't stopped updating this blog even though I'm officially out of academia, and why I'm not going to shut up and stop talking anytime soon.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2013/05/why-i-wont-just-shut-up.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-55843505444219698142013-05-05T14:44:00.000-04:002013-11-23T18:28:31.609-05:00I Don't Think We're Saying What You Think We're SayingSo ... while I've been away taking care of work things and life things and computer things, it appears that my blog has gotten tangentially caught up in an academic/postacademic brouhaha.<br>
<br>
It started when Amy Pistone, a Classics Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan posted <a href="http://www.rackham.umich.edu/blog/we%E2%80%99re-flattered-please-make-articles-stop">this article</a> (under the official U of M grad school masthead! Neato!!), instructing all of us in the postacademic world (and particularly those in the humanities) to sit down and shut up and stop talking, because she really really loves her work and that's all that matters. Not the <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/12/06/survey-finds-new-phds-less-likely-have-job-commitments">crappy academic job market</a> in the humanities, not the fact that grad school is something that a lot of people find <a href="http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2012_10_05/caredit.a1200111">depressing and demoralizing</a>, and not the fact that there are a huge number of people out here who are <a href="http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/2004/12/straight-talk-about-grad-school/">reading</a> and <a href="http://phdtips.blogspot.com/2009/04/when-to-quit-your-phd-program.html">commenting</a> (note: check out the years-long comment threads after each of those posts) and obviously gaining some value from those of us who are out here "writing these sorts of articles about grad students" that she doesn't like.<br>
<br>
Sigh.<br>
<br>
When I first noticed the traffic coming over from her article and skimmed it, I wasn't going to bother to respond. We postacademics get pushback from time to time, and I've got thick skin. And I'll be honest - when I glanced through Pistone's piece, my thoughts were basically: "mmmhmmm ... sure. Go ahead and vent, my dear ... but let's revisit this in five years and see how you feel then." Then I went on about my day.<br>
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But yesterday, I saw Rebecca Schuman's <a href="http://pankisseskafka.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/open-letter-to-amy-pistone-ph-d-student-in-classical-studies-at-the-university-of-michigan-the-articles-will-stop-when-the-exploitation-stops/">open letter</a> to Amy Pistone, in which she expresses similar feelings to mine:<br>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Do I dislike you, personally, Amy Pistone, even though you
have misunderstood the dark humor in an article I wrote [...]? No, on the contrary, you remind me of a far
more earnest version of myself at your stage (I’d say “at your age,” but
I spent seven years working in the private sector between college and grad school, which is more than two, in case you’re wondering).</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>No, my reaction to you, personally, is “Oh, bless her heart—she’ll learn soon enough.”</i></blockquote>
(It was apparently Schuman's <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/04/there_are_no_academic_jobs_and_getting_a_ph_d_will_make_you_into_a_horrible.html">piece in Slate</a> from earlier this year that inspired Pistone's university-sanctioned* temper tantrum.) <br>
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Reading Schuman's response inspired me to go back and read Pistone's article more closely. And boy, am I glad I did. Because now that I've read her post in full, I feel compelled to respond to what are <b>clear and notable misrepresentations of my writing on this blog.</b><br>
<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2013/05/i-dont-think-were-saying-what-you-think.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-71878275450145182952013-04-23T20:13:00.001-04:002013-04-23T20:13:28.559-04:00Still Here!Hi all! I'm still here! Still working, still #postac, still happy!<br />
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However, life has been busy lately ... my partner got a new job, and I've been traveling a bit, and work has been stressful. Around here, the other postacs and I have been busily working on the website and e-book, which has been eating up most of my "thinking about postacademia" brainspace and not leaving much left over for the blog.<br />
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And then, of course, my computer died last week. Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh.<br />
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Anyway, I'm either going to get my computer back or have a new one by Friday, so hopefully you will see some movement on the book and website (and hopefully something new in this space) in the near future.<br />
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But in the meantime, I'm still out here!<br />
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Wish me luck on getting a functioning computer for a fair price ... and to any of you who are still in academia and facing down the end of the spring semester ... hang in there! You can do it!!JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-52302979675962108612013-03-04T13:30:00.000-05:002013-03-04T13:38:29.064-05:00A Comment on Being #PostAcIf you haven't already seen it, everyone should go over to our new How To Leave Academia site and read the <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/2013/03/what-does-it-mean-to-be-postacademic-a-postac-manifesto/">latest post</a> that Lauren and Currer wrote, about the differences between the "alt-ac" and "post-ac" movements. It's a really interesting read, and it helps clarify the differences between the different groups of us who are out here, trying to identify problems in higher ed and to help people who want to leave academia. <br>
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Unsurprisingly, I call myself a post-ac. I have been and will continue to be immensely critical of the overall system of academia, which values obscure specialized knowledge over all else and which tells its grad students and faculty that the only job worth having is an academic one, even if it leaves you impoverished and miserable. I've found a job outside of academia, in a for-profit consulting company. I feel no qualms about this whatsoever. I no longer believe that academia (as an institution) is a benevolent entity working toward abstract goals like "providing education" or "advancing knowledge." They are working to minimize costs and maximize revenues, just like many nonacademic companies.<br>
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But at least here in the outside world, organizations are honest about it. I'd rather work for a company that is making money and being honest about it than one that tells me with a straight face that I should feel honored to work 60 hours per week for a salary in the teens because I'm contributing to the "life of the mind" ... while they jack up tuition rates on students by double-digits, cut classes and raise class sizes, build a multimillion-dollar athletic facility, and hire two new Vice Presidents of Something at salaries in the mid-six-figures.<br>
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I'm tired of the hypocrisy. I'm tired of watching people get hurt by the "bait-and-switch" of academia, and to then turn their disappointment inward, so that they blame themselves for not working hard enough or for not being smart enough. I'm tired of them believing that they should sacrifice because they're contributing to some benevolent institution or some "greater good."<br>
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The institution doesn't care about you. And there are ways to contribute to the "greater good" of society without impoverishing yourself or driving yourself crazy with anxiety and overwork.<br>
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So I'm a post-ac. Unequivocally.<br>
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<a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-comment-on-being-postac.html#more">Read more »</a>JChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.com10