I agree with the need for a temporary shutting down, and ensuing overhaul of grad school. It would help to start from a place of total honesty by saying from the jump that there are very very few jobs and that if you are willing to pursue an array of other non-university career paths then it may be worth it for you, but if you are assuming a academic job will be “gettable” at the end, you are setting yourself up for an early midlife crisis with little job prospects; something that will have ripple effects into your family life too, as those who watched you travel this path are chagrined by the result at the end.
People should be told outright that their chances for an academic job could well go down further if their politics challenge progressive ideology in any way, or they are not able to help diversify departments by way of their race or gender. I can personally report that as someone who is at the end of the grad school journey (dissertation mode) now, there was only one professor, in my experience, who ever made it a point to say “there aren’t any jobs in academia.” This is partly because most profs tend to believe they got their job through pure merit. Today the only way to give yourself a shot at the remaining few opportunities is to go so woke that you beat out your fellows the way crabs in a bucket do. I hope Compact, either via Geoff or others, will run a full length piece on this subject(s) soon. It may be that we’re at a moment of legitimate change. However it may be that academia will circle the wagons and shoot down meaningful critique in a way reminiscent of the definitive reaction to this 2009 opinion piece in the Times, which generated massive discussion (in part due to it positioning its critique in the light of the ‘08 economic meltdown) and which also called for radical overhaul of grad school as well as the humanities. It was cheered by droves of students and adjuncts, only to have it stonewalled by the most entrenched and powerful faculty and administrators who nevertheless fancy themselves as radicals ready to remake the world.
I agree with the need for a temporary shutting down, and ensuing overhaul of grad school. It would help to start from a place of total honesty by saying from the jump that there are very very few jobs and that if you are willing to pursue an array of other non-university career paths then it may be worth it for you, but if you are assuming a academic job will be “gettable” at the end, you are setting yourself up for an early midlife crisis with little job prospects; something that will have ripple effects into your family life too, as those who watched you travel this path are chagrined by the result at the end.
People should be told outright that their chances for an academic job could well go down further if their politics challenge progressive ideology in any way, or they are not able to help diversify departments by way of their race or gender. I can personally report that as someone who is at the end of the grad school journey (dissertation mode) now, there was only one professor, in my experience, who ever made it a point to say “there aren’t any jobs in academia.” This is partly because most profs tend to believe they got their job through pure merit. Today the only way to give yourself a shot at the remaining few opportunities is to go so woke that you beat out your fellows the way crabs in a bucket do. I hope Compact, either via Geoff or others, will run a full length piece on this subject(s) soon. It may be that we’re at a moment of legitimate change. However it may be that academia will circle the wagons and shoot down meaningful critique in a way reminiscent of the definitive reaction to this 2009 opinion piece in the Times, which generated massive discussion (in part due to it positioning its critique in the light of the ‘08 economic meltdown) and which also called for radical overhaul of grad school as well as the humanities. It was cheered by droves of students and adjuncts, only to have it stonewalled by the most entrenched and powerful faculty and administrators who nevertheless fancy themselves as radicals ready to remake the world.
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“End the University as We Know It”
NY Times
April 2009
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html