I went back and reread this insightful article by Leonard Cassuto, who may be my favorite contributor the The Chronicle of Higher Education. (I once listened to him speak at the MLA and, like a shy school kid, I couldn’t bring myself to go up and talk to him after the session.) The reason I went back to Cassuto’s article was because it was referenced in a whiny, anonymous piece by a graduate student who finds that the move towards professionalization is stifling creativity and not letting us play video games.
What are we preparing our students in the humanities to do after graduate school? At the PhD level, traditionally the response has always been to advance into the professoriate. Today such a position sounds incredibly naïve, but the reality is that it has always been naïve. Historically, students in the humanities with an MA or a PhD have gone on to careers in a seemingly endless number of fields—higher-education administration, non-profits, libraries and museums, government, business, etc.
I went to graduate school, earned a PhD, and became a professor. During my time in graduate school, I never once heard a professor talk about anything other than becoming a professor. But I watched as some of my fellow students took positions now called “alt-ac,” a term I increasingly dislike. Looking back, because of my involvement and jobs I had outside my department, I tentatively pursued jobs in three different fields (libraries, university teaching center, and business); I am very happy with the job I ended up with. However, I could have been just as satisfied with a different career.
In our introduction to graduate studies course, which has a strong professionalization element, one of the main goals is to help new students become professionally aware, and this means much more than simply realizing that the academic job market stinks. Coupled with this, I think we are trying to push students to identify what they want to do, what they are good at, and what their professional goals are. In my work as graduate director, if I have a better idea of what a student wants to do, I can better advise them. And for those who may not want to become professors, I now know enough people on campus that I can steer students towards people who can help them in ways that I cannot.
So I will push forward with my “unimaginative” professionalization efforts, because I feel strongly that people who invest this much time and energy into a degree should have a good shot at a decent job when they’re done, and that they shouldn’t have a narrow definition of what that could be. I hope that in the process they don’t lose their love of books or intellectual curiosity.
What are we preparing our students in the humanities to do after graduate school? At the PhD level, traditionally the response has always been to advance into the professoriate. Today such a position sounds incredibly naïve, but the reality is that it has always been naïve. Historically, students in the humanities with an MA or a PhD have gone on to careers in a seemingly endless number of fields—higher-education administration, non-profits, libraries and museums, government, business, etc.
I went to graduate school, earned a PhD, and became a professor. During my time in graduate school, I never once heard a professor talk about anything other than becoming a professor. But I watched as some of my fellow students took positions now called “alt-ac,” a term I increasingly dislike. Looking back, because of my involvement and jobs I had outside my department, I tentatively pursued jobs in three different fields (libraries, university teaching center, and business); I am very happy with the job I ended up with. However, I could have been just as satisfied with a different career.
In our introduction to graduate studies course, which has a strong professionalization element, one of the main goals is to help new students become professionally aware, and this means much more than simply realizing that the academic job market stinks. Coupled with this, I think we are trying to push students to identify what they want to do, what they are good at, and what their professional goals are. In my work as graduate director, if I have a better idea of what a student wants to do, I can better advise them. And for those who may not want to become professors, I now know enough people on campus that I can steer students towards people who can help them in ways that I cannot.
So I will push forward with my “unimaginative” professionalization efforts, because I feel strongly that people who invest this much time and energy into a degree should have a good shot at a decent job when they’re done, and that they shouldn’t have a narrow definition of what that could be. I hope that in the process they don’t lose their love of books or intellectual curiosity.