There is this truly evil system that unfortunately is becoming more and more widespread and that consists of offering postdoc positions to recent PhD graduates in the Humanities. Postdocs make some sense in sciences. A newly-minted PhD has a chance to work in a lab run by an esteemed professor, engage in some research, get some publications out, etc. In the Humanities, however, this system makes absolutely no sense. Postdocs in the Humanities do the exact same work as Assistant professors. The only difference is that they are paid a lot less and don't get any benefits or support for their research.
The only reason why universities today open more and more postdoc positions in the Humanities is because they want to save money and exploit these poor postdocs without offering them anything in return. While in sciences a postdoc position is a necessary step that leads you to a tenure-track position, this is not the case in the Humanities. Once you fall into the postdoc trap, you might never climb out of it. I have seen people going from one miserable postdoc to another for years. Being stuck in this position means that you have no hope for tenure, no financial assiatnce for your research, no job security, and often no benefits.
I believe that we should do everything we can to resist the introduction of postdoc positions in the Humanities in our schools. This practice is exploitative and it robs young academics of any future. This is wrong, people. Let's not allow this to happen. More than half of all instruction at American universities is now performed by part-time faculty and this horrible trend is growing. We don't want our students to be taught by grievously underpaid, overworked, and exploited people who are worrying themselves sick about whether they will even have a salary next academic year.
4 comments:
---While in sciences a postdoc position is a necessary step that leads you to a tenure-track position,
It used to be the other way in sciences as well. Most of the science professors who are now retiring jumped straight from the Ph.D. student into faculty position. Some did a one-two year postdoc at most... It all changed when the research has become a mass production industry, which required a lot of workforce, which in turn led to overproduction of the Ph.D.-s and in the increase of the competition. Guess the same is happening in the humanities...
---Once you fall into the postdoc trap, you might never climb out of it. I have seen people going from one miserable postdoc to another for years.
True for sciences as well.
---Being stuck in this position means that you have no hope for tenure,
Why? And even if it is so, it may evolve, for the same reasons it has evolved in sciences.
That's what I've seen happening. It's a very rare person who manages to get out of this ferris wheel of postdocs. People keep going from one postdoc to another every year. I want to hope that this will change but this is so not the tendency.
It is rare in the sciences as well, it is just considered more normal in the sciences.
You know my university is not the best one, but we still got over 50 applications for a position, and hired a person with all his degrees and postdoc experience from the world's top 10 universities in that famous list...
The situation on the job market this year is even worse than last year, from what people tell me.
However, I have to admit that the crisis worked very well for me. I'm happy I didn't find yet another job at yet another famous university. If I had, I might have never known the happiness I experience at the non-famous school where I work now.
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