Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go - Advice - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go - Advice - The Chronicle of Higher Education bleak guidance, but mostly on target. There is a hard rain falling on the world of the humanities, a kind of slow-motion water torture -- drip, drip, down, down -- the demise of venerable institutions is happening, for those who can bear to watch.

Just to be clear: There is work for humanities doctorates (though perhaps not as many as are currently being produced), but there are fewer and fewer real jobs because of conscious policy decisions by colleges and universities. As a result, the handful of real jobs that remain are being pursued by thousands of qualified people — so many that the minority of candidates who get tenure-track positions might as well be considered the winners of a lottery.

Universities (even those with enormous endowments) have historically taken advantage of recessions to bring austerity to teaching. There will be hiring freezes and early retirements. Rather than replacements, more adjuncts will be hired, and more graduate students will be recruited, eventually flooding the market with even more fully qualified teacher-scholars who will work for almost nothing. When the recession ends, the hiring freezes will become permanent, since departments will have demonstrated that they can function with fewer tenured faculty members.