This week’s post for University Affairs is my contribution to the debates about the strikes happening here in Toronto, and especially the situation at the University of Toronto, where I do my PhD in the Department of History. I quote from a marvelous open letter written by an English professor, and from a memoir I read on the weekend, written by a tenure-track professor who lost his job. I think it’s a good post. Check it out here. An excerpt:
It is often extremely difficult for new PhDs to secure meaningful, full-time employment that pays a living wage. This is true for academic and non-academic jobs. Recent graduates may spend years teaching courses on short-term per-course contracts, often for multiple universities at the same time, or moving far from friends and family to take up a one to three year postdoctoral fellowship or visiting assistant professorship position. (“Visiting from where? you might ask. From nowhere.“) Those of us who “leave” academia may find it takes four to five years to settle into a new career. To pay graduate students a pittance, sell them (if only by implication) on the merits of a tenure-track position, then offer them little assistance on the transition to secure employment . . . well, it doesn’t sit right with me.