[Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship

[Greg Thompson]

Alfredo et al.,

There is a very thoughtful collection of essays published in Cultural
Anthropology about precisely this issue, "academic precarity". These essays
address this issue in sociocultural anthropology, and although the
percentages may differ in other fields, the problems are very similar.

Here is the forum introduction (scroll down for links to the articles):
https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1321-academic-precarity-in-american-anthropology-a-forum

The first article is from a mother and son duo of academics and it
discusses the mother's initial inability to understand how her son could go
into private industry rather than "sticking it out" on the academic job
market.

Academia is a nasty business and getting nastier each year (in the U.S.
this is particularly the case due to the political polarization of higher
ed and the fact that many "red" states see higher ed as an enemy to be
eliminated - e.g., North Carolina).

And one more thing Alfredo, don't be fooled into thinking that the set of
skills that you have acquired in graduate school are only applicable in
this small sphere. It may seem that way at first but you should know that
the Ph.D. letters do carry quite a bit of clout in the world at large.
What's more, I have had a number of colleagues who I know who left academia
and have found that their skill set is highly valued. A number of them work
in the world of "consulting" and similar work that requires research
skills. They have found that there are few people in these fields that have
any idea about how to do research (one friend described how everyone on the
team of researchers would use Google to conduct research on topics).
Anyway, this is to say that there really is a huge amount of opportunity
out there, if you are interested and willing to make a few tweaks here and
there (that same aforementioned friend told me that she had to learn how to
write in bullet points rather than paragraphs, and how to write a 1 page
report rather than a 20 page report - not the hardest thing in the world to
do... Oh, and even video analysis can be useful for HR consulting type
jobs).

Anyway, this isn't to say that the situation isn't sad or tragic. I think
it is both. But I'd like to hold out hope that there may be ways forward
that might be even better than what academia holds in store.

-greg





On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 11:19 AM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
wrote:

> In the interests of widening the discussion:
>
> I’ve described my work history before on this list — basically, moving
> from teaching literature and writing (with stopovers in landscape
> architecture and theater production) to concern about the working
> conditions of teachers, especially academics in higher education, the 75%
> who are contingent/adjuncts. The concern is both for the people employed
> this way and for the integrity of the institutions that employ them. I
> eventually engaged this concern by working with and for the labor movement,
> ending up first working for the garment/apparel workers union in
> Philadelphia and then at the Labor Educaiton Program at the U of Illinois,
> from which I retired in 2010.
>
> The new twist to this story is about the employment of academics on
> short-term contracts in Viet Nam, under conditions that seem to be
> increasingly frequent in the “developing” world, where the market for
> education is booming. University World News http://www.
> universityworldnews.com/  tracks this phenomenon and includes occasinal
> critical articles about the competition for rankings. The university where
> my husband and I have been teaching on and off since 2015, Ton Duc Thang in
> Ho Chi Minh City, recruits professors from all over the world with a
> promise of $2,000 per month US — but extending their contracts depends on
> producing articles published in journals on the ISI list; the nature of
> this list is worth taking a look at. The impact of this practice on the
> culture and student body is not all bad.
>
> My point here is to place the issue of the challenge of getting a
> tenure-track job in a global context. This is not just an individual
> problem.
>
> I’m willing to go further down this line of discussion. However, academics
> are often reluctant to reveal and compare their working conditions on an
> “academic” discussion list. Maybe by putting up the issue of what academic
> freedom requires, and how these requirements fare in the global market for
> higher education, we can shed the embarassment of revealing information
> about our own experiences with getting the brass ring of a full-time,
> secure job.
>
> Let’s see if anyone picks up on this. Maybe I’m being too vague.
>
> Helena Worthen
> helenaworthen@gmail.com
> Berkeley, CA 94707 510-828-2745
> Blog US/ Viet Nam:
> helenaworthen.wordpress.com
> skype: helena.worthen1
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Feb 19, 2018, at 9:19 AM, Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > The article describes accumulating large amounts of knowledge pertaining
> to
> > history, which (the author maintains) cannot be turned to other
> endeavours.
> > This, no doubt, is true for her. If, however, her approach to studying
> > history had been systemic, then there would have been a powerful form of
> > re-application and continuity in any work that was turned to. Perhaps the
> > same can be said for "phd/postdoc training". If it cannot be reused or
> > isn't enabling, what, substantively, is it?
> >
> > Best,
> > Huw
> >
> >
> > On 18 February 2018 at 18:32, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Really inspiring words and work, Francine. I do see community colleges
> and
> >> many other educational settings apart from universities as really
> valuable
> >> and exciting opportunities; the PhD and following postdoc etc training
> in
> >> universities, however, tend to be very much targeted towards a very
> narrow
> >> spectrum of positions, or at least that's been my experience. I am very
> >> happy that this thread may widen that scope and make visible other
> paths.
> >> And as Mike suggested, it would be very interesting to hear from several
> >> others who have followed distinct trajectories apart from the
> >> phd-postdoc-assist/assoc. prof-prof, and yet made a career in touch with
> >> most of what was developed in the junior (phd and few later) years.
> >> Thanks!
> >> Alfredo
> >> ________________________________________
> >> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> >> on behalf of Larry Smolucha <lsmolucha@hotmail.com>
> >> Sent: 18 February 2018 06:20
> >> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship
> >>
> >> Message from Francine Smolucha on a scholar's life with or without
> academia
> >>
> >>
> >> Alfredo,
> >>
> >>
> >> There are other jobs that pay well (sometimes with tenure and early
> >> retirement benefits) - besides professorships at four year colleges and
> >> universities.  Administrative and support staff positions pay well. And
> >> don't overlook community colleges, technical colleges, and public grade
> >> schools and high schools. There is also the private sector and
> government
> >> jobs.
> >>
> >>
> >> As a 'low status' community college professor, I managed to translate
> >> Vygotsky's
> >>
> >> overlooked writings on creativity (back in the 1980's) and introduced
> his
> >> theory of creativity to academia.  I got early retirement at age 53 and
> >> continue to write and publish. While my Ph.D from the University of
> Chicago
> >> gave me academic bona fides, it was the quality of the scholarly work
> that
> >> ultimately mattered.
> >>
> >>
> >> I was always inspired by the harsh circumstances of Vygotsky's life and
> >> how he still kept on writing.
> >>
> >> [When I felt really sorry for myself, I would actually say "Well at
> least
> >> I am not coughing up blood"]
> >>
> >> So many of his works were not published in his lifetime, he did not
> >> collect a royalties check, and    they say he was depressed at the end
> of
> >> his life.
> >>
> >>
> >> I leave you with this quote from an ancient Sufi mystic -
> >>
> >>
> >> You can't always get what you want but you can get what you need
> >>
> >>
> >> .
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ________________________________
> >> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> >> on behalf of mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> >> Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2018 7:07 PM
> >> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship
> >>
> >> Yours is a quandary shared by your generation, Alfredo.
> >> Being allowed to teach and conduct research in a quality institution is
> a
> >> great privilege and an
> >> increasingly rarer possibility.
> >>
> >> There are several people on this list who have organized their lives to
> be
> >> independent scholars
> >> while staying connected to the core institutions of disciplinary
> training.
> >> It might be nice to hear
> >> the variety out there.
> >>
> >> It appears pretty certain that the situation is going to get worse
> >> before/if it gets better.
> >>
> >> What can the collective experience of xmca come up with that would be
> >> useful to the many
> >> of you caught in this meat grinder?
> >>
> >> mike
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 4:49 PM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <
> a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Good luck then, Wagner!
> >>> A
> >>> ________________________________________
> >>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> >
> >>> on behalf of Wagner Luiz Schmit <wagner.schmit@gmail.com>
> >>> Sent: 18 February 2018 01:07
> >>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture Activity
> >>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: (non)grieving scholarship
> >>>
> >>> This just hit me in the spot...
> >>>
> >>> Wagner
> >>>
> >>> On Feb 17, 2018 9:48 PM, "Alfredo Jornet Gil" <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I have not been able to contribute to this list as much as I'd like to
> >>>> lately, among other things, because I need to find a job, and I need
> to
> >>>> make sure that I have checked all those boxes that selection
> committees
> >>>> will check (enough first-authored publications? in good enough
> >> journals?
> >>>> enough leadership in projects? teaching? supervising? acquiring funds?
> >>> more
> >>>> than all others candidates? and more than favoured-for-whatever-other-
> >>> reasons
> >>>> candidates?). So I have been doing all I can these weeks to fill up a
> >>>> competitive CV, for my contract is about to expire.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> And, although I did not think that it was particularly well written,
> it
> >>>> was both relieving and discouraging to read this article (see link
> >> below,
> >>>> which I take from the facebook wall of a colleague who I think also
> >>>> subscribes this list). The article makes visible the pain scholars go
> >>>> through when, after so many years of digging and digging and digging a
> >>>> little (but deep!) hole, may after all have to leave it and find some
> >>> other
> >>>> thing to do. In Canada, I met a French astronomer who was moving
> >> through
> >>>> the world with his lovely family, short-term project after short-term
> >>>> project, getting better and better at what he worked on (apparently he
> >>> was
> >>>> among the few who had expertise in computer modeling simulating some
> >>>> astronomic events) , and finally having to step out academia last year
> >> to
> >>>> find something else to do, for his family no longer could stand the
> >>>> constant uncertainty and travelling. It could be me soon. And that may
> >>> not
> >>>> be a bad thing, or even a thing in itself, but the story seems to be
> >>> quite
> >>>> endemic to academia and may be interesting to some of you:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Everybody-Loses-When/242560
> >>>>
> >>>> Alfredo
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
>
>
>


-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: greg.a.thompson.byu.edu
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson