Once upon a time, when I was but a wee proto-professional in the wide and wondrous field of media studies, I went on the academic job market. Between October and April, I sent out more than 60 applications, and no doubt expended far too much energy in the improbable pursuit of a gainful livelihood. Many times I rejoiced and many times I despaired, and although I learned lessons of patience and humility the uncertain outcome never became easier to bear. I am thus ecstatic to announce a happy ending to this saga:
For the next 2 years I will be serving as Acting Assistant Professor of new media in the Film & Media Studies program of the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University!
I haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting my colleagues in person because their search did not allow for campus visits. But all signs suggest a fantastic fit between my academic background and future and the program's composition and goals. I'm thrilled at the prospect of contributing to the evolution of the department's offerings in digital media, television, and contemporary visual culture.
Moreover, the position is absurdly accommodating of my continuing professional development. The appointment begins in January 2010 and comprises a 1-2 teaching load over winter and spring terms in 2010 and 4 courses over 3 quarters in the 2010-2011 academic year. I plan to move to the bay area in December, and until then I will be working to complete my PhD (don't expect to hear much from me over the next 6 months). I leave my permanent residence in Providence in mid-June and will return periodically while living at home in Michigan during the summer and fall.
Though I may be one princess who lives happily ever after, I have never been more aware than I was during this process of the centrality of class privilege to my achievements. In the context of a general economic crisis, the depressed academic job market has gotten more coverage than usual this year, much of it (in the New York Times, for example) portraying the plight of grad students as a temporary exception to the status quo. Speaking from my own experience, the problems with academic training and employment are not exceptional, they are structural (hat tip Dave Parry or someone contiguous). The notion that institutions of higher learning support the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake and that the most talented scholars will succeed in a meritocracy provides an ideological alibi for the precarious conditions of academic labor.
Based simply on the numbers, the majority of new professors will not land secure tenure-track jobs in the early stages of their careers, no matter how promising their skills. Because the limited array of post-doctoral and temporary full-time positions isn't adequate to absorb this workforce, most young scholars expect to toil as adjuncts for low pay until their research and teaching profile is more established. In many cases, work that could support emerging PhDs is is piled onto grad students (hat tip Amanda French), and tenured jobs that could support professionals are parceled out into part-time positions without benefits. The university is an industry and we are workers; the more that advanced grad students and new PhDs have to concentrate on paid employment, the harder it is for us to progress in our research and move onto firmer vocational ground. The result is that academics typically spend a decade or more of their lives, through grad school and several years afterwards, not earning a living wage. I am lucky to have financial resources that mitigate this burden, and certainly many with less advantages than I navigate these circumstances with aplomb and go on to distinguished careers. But I can't help remarking that these conditions perpetuate an institutional culture that makes access difficult for those without a commensurate level of economic privilege (and the other dimensions of privilege with which class intersects).
If you'd like to celebrate my accomplishments, I urge you to support organizations and initiatives that advocate for academia as a profession that is equitable and open to all. Marc Bousquet and Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor offer some illuminating resources, including (USA):
• The Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions
• The Coalition on the Academic Workforce
• The American Federation of Teachers
• The American Association of University Professors (currently seeking donations for their capital campaign)
I write all this because I feel a certain responsibility to head off the impression that, since I got a desirable job in the end, the system works. It doesn't, to which my brilliant friends who will be left un(der)employed this year attest. However, I think it's fair to say that a tremendous dose of my own tenacious work and careful strategy went into my success. I hope that we can continue to nurture ABDs and new PhDs by sharing knowledge and experience as a collective resource. For starters, I'll point you to the Media Studies Job Search group on Facebook, where I'd be happy to field discussion, and the advice section of the infamous wiki.
Finally, I'd like to convey my deepest thanks to the friends, family, mentors, and peers who have supported me in so many ways through this process.
This entry is crossposted at cyborganize, but I am relocating my future blogging back to this web site. Please update any blogrolls to the Indiscrete Media category feed, which is my workaround for organizing new posts. I believe I've managed to rejigger the site to allow you to comment using OpenID or without logging in.
