There’s a big, and growing, problem with academic labour and the job market. What makes it worse is that there hasn’t been an attendant shift in attitudes within the academy about the purpose of a PhD. Although I’m most familiar with the situation in history and the troubles faced by the humanities in general, a recent post by biologist Ethan Perlstein entitled “Postdocalypse Now” confirms that scientists face many of the same issues. Clearly, the economic crash in the US and decades-long supply and demand changes in North America continue to wreak havoc. And the phenomenon reaches across the pond, too.
Within my own discipline, Nick Sarantakes is publicly pondering solutions for reform, and alt-ac innovator Alexandra Lord is imploring administrators and professors to invite “former academics” to the discussion table.
I don’t know the answer to Saratakes’s question about “how this ends.” What I do know is that a major attitude adjustment is called for, alongside serious reforms to graduate education.
We have to change how we envision PhDs. Earning one isn’t a prelude to an academic career. It can be; usually, it isn’t. Instead, let’s talk about earning a doctorate as an amazing part of a fantastic life. This shift in thinking would work wonders. No longer would out-of-date and frankly harmful career assumptions rule over every aspect of graduate education. It’s taken me years to remember that although I admired history professors way back when, I did not start my training wanting to be one. During my program, I explored other interests and grew immensely as a person, but got sucked into the hegemonic assumption: tenure-track or bust. Being psychologically handicapped has made my transition away from academia that much harder. And I lament the part I played in perpetuating and reinforcing unhealthy and irresponsible attitudes, and ones that were (and are) just plain wrong.
So let’s start changing the way we think about the PhD. Let’s remove an unhelpful assumption from the top of the priority list. It has no place there for me, and presumably for many others. And let’s assign resources in a sustained, serious, and respectful way to help graduate students and PhDs figure out who they really are and what they actually want. There is a place for this advanced degree in my career as well as in my life, no matter what that career ends up looking like.
