Chronicle of Higher Education - Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go
Though low on revealing hard data, the article provides a sketch of the dynamic of PhD graduates in the humanities looking for 'real' positions-- tenure track professorships. A mix of encouraging professors and accepting humanities programs functions to blind impressionable people into believing they will find good work for themselves upon graduation when the majority won't. Though the Bowen and Sosa report predict massive baby-boomer retirements (that haven't happened yet), the current trend is to replace those positions with adjunct teachers with no benefits, much less pay, and no guaranteed future with the school. Schools are already reducing job searches in this recession, and Benton (Pannapacker) believes they will not restore their tenure-track position openings once it is over. All told, it is an ill-advised road if you want some assurance that you'll earn a decent living comparable to the private sector for the same amount of time and money spent.
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