Applying For History Jobs With Africana Studies PhD?

[Hegemony]

I am surprised at the pessimism of the people commenting on this thread. I tried to be moderate in my initial post, and I expected people in History departments to come in and be much more reassuring. But since they won't, I will. Of course there are no guarantees, and things will depend on your (OP's) choice of topic, quality of scholarship, amount of energy, and so forth. But the urgent field of the moment is race, and every hire we are making in the departments I'm involved with engages race in some way. This is a corrective for the failure to engage race over the past umpteen decades, as well as an effort to keep the departments in the current national conversation. We have been able to hire good people, but so far there has not been an excess of suitable candidates. There have been a lot of candidates who do something unrelated and who are applying just in case, but not good candidates actually in the field, i.e. who actually have race as a central feature of their work. So I would think that a good candidate who is up to speed on current debates and who is able to teach a range of courses, with history and race as a central focus, would stand an excellent chance.

I will also say that we pay a medium amount, but are not able to pay a vast amount. One reason we have hired so many people in recent years is that we inevitably lose them, after they've been here a few years, to places that lure them away with enviable sums of money. We literally can't keep the positions filled.

If you, OP, are actually a member of a minority-American race, double all that in terms of your desirability on the market.

[spork]

[. . . ]

I actually used to work with underrepresented college students for a career advising program.

[. . .]

Chances of full-time, tenure-track employment as a history professor: effectively zero.

Chances of a full-time university career in fields such as recruitment and retention: far higher than zero.

Also any training in statistics (e.g., working knowledge of SPSS) can position you for a job in institutional planning, research, and/or assessment.

Another possible option: $20,000 and two years will get you a master's degree in instructional design.

I'll repeat myself by saying that a history department looking to fill a tenure-track position in history is not going to hire someone with a PhD in Africana studies. For every Africana studies PhD, there are thousands of unemployed history PhDs looking for the same magical tenure-track history position they thought they'd be lucky enough to get when they started their doctoral programs.

But I'm not a historian. Here's someone who is: No, You Cannot be a Professor.

[Caracal]

But I'm not a historian. Here's someone who is: No, You Cannot be a Professor.

I never quite understand the compulsion for people to say things that are manifestly not true in order to make their point. It makes me think that people like this must also be crummy scholars because they seem unable to handle nuance and think that the strongest way to make their point is to vastly overstate it and not address evidence that goes against their argument. The title is manifestly not true. You can be a history professor. And no, getting a tenure track job is not akin to winning the lottery, unless somewhere in the range of 40 percent of people win the lottery. Look, data!

https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/september-2018/every-historian-counts-a-new-aha-database-analyzes-careers-for-phds

None of that means that getting a PHD in history is a particularly good idea for most students. On the rare occasions when I have students who ask for advice on grad school, I'm not encouraging, but I don't tell them things that aren't true, like "there's no chance you can ever get a tenure track job." Among other things, that is likely to be pretty counterproductive if they do their own research and find that some sizable percentage of people do get a tenure track job.

You also tailor advice for the individual. If someone wants to do PhD in French History, I'm going to be a lot more discouraging than I would if someone wants to study modern Egypt and speaks fluent Egyptian Arabic.

[spork]

[. . . ]

Look, data!

[. . . ]

1. The trend line for history PhDs awarded per year has a positive slope, with the number increasing about 1.3% per year. Let's assume figures for the last six years are similar.

2. The four-year tenure-track percentage for the 2004-2008 cohort (pre-recession) is 52%. For the 2009-2013 cohort it is only 43%. The percentage for two-year tenure-track (3%) is the same across both cohorts. Yet enrollment surged post-recession, especially at community colleges. Smaller percentage of history PhDs getting tenure-track employment despite increased enrollments, at the same time the number of history PhDs awarded per year is increasing. Maybe there even was a decrease of the same size between 2009-2013 and 2014-2018 cohorts as there was between the 2004-2008 and 2009-2013 cohorts. If so, that brings the tenure-track percentage for the 2014-2018 cohort down to only 34%.

3. There is an annual average of 859 history PhDs awarded over the ten-year period shown. Assuming that average has held steady, that's > 5,000 more history PhDs granted for the period 2014-2019. The OP is finishing her first year. Let's say, conservatively, it takes her four more years before she's on the market. That's another ~ 4,300 history PhDs, so a total of close to 9,500 history PhDs have entered the labor market since 2014. Yet total full-time undergraduate enrollment for the USA won't reach its 2010 peak even by 2028 (https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_303.70.asp). More history PhDs per year combined with fewer students, all while, if #2 has continued, which it probably has, there are fewer tenure-track positions for history PhDs.

4. The OP is in an Africana studies program. History departments overwhelmingly hire historians. What's the tenure-track placement rate for people with PhDs in Africana studies and how many Africana studies PhDs are being awarded? 

5. Opportunity cost: even if the OP is fully funded, she's probably not earning a full-time salary, building her retirement savings, and advancing up the career ladder during the length of the program. That's lost earnings of between a quarter million and a half million dollars.

[hazeus]

Welp, if my anxiety wasn't bad enough with this pandemic, I think this threw me over the edge.

[tuxthepenguin]

One I will throw out: you might be able to adjunct at a CC while working on your PhD. I don't think the probability of a CC job is that good either (not my area) but it might open a door with CC and small teaching colleges.

At my relatively small public university (4/4 load for full time faculty), you could almost certainly get a job teaching introductory history world history courses in my department. We have hired literature PhDs, high school teachers, opera singers, and many, many, grad students in an array of "studies" programs. But none of this would lead to a tenure track job.

In my knowledge, we have hired three people who had been adjuncts here to the tenure track (including me)--over probably more than 150 adjuncts over this period. That's actually quite high. However, all have history PhDs from top-notch programs. And more importantly, all had the luck of coming along when a job opened up.  Even in good times, being an adjunct will not lead to a full-time job. And being an adjunct with credentials that are "good enough" to teach part-time does not mean that your credentials would be considered good enough for hiring on the tenure track.

Again, if somebody's "back-up" plan is to maybe be able to get a job as an adjunct and hopefully turn that into a full-time job in history, that is not a good place to be.

My point was not to use the CC experience to then have that position turn into a TT offer, or to use it to get a job in a history department. OP is looking for alternatives to broaden the number of employment opportunities. CCs these days are hiring PhDs, but they need to understand and buy into the mission of a CC (read the columns posted at CHE for instance - though I've heard the same thing in person). If you've taught a course for a CC, you can then use that experience to get a CC job somewhere, not necessarily where you're adjuncting. CCs offer courses in more than algebra and composition.

Also, on the point someone made about not being able to get a TT job if they don't offer a degree in your area, I have one data point to the contrary - our student that just started a TT position at a CC even though they don't offer an AA degree in my field.

I'm not denying that the TT job market is tough, but it's not as tough as "No, you cannot be a professor".

[Caracal]

[. . . ]

Look, data!

[. . . ]

1. The trend line for history PhDs awarded per year has a positive slope, with the number increasing about 1.3% per year. Let's assume figures for the last six years are similar.

Actually I think it has gone down over the last six years, which is good. Programs are admitting smaller cohorts.

[Caracal]

Welp, if my anxiety wasn't bad enough with this pandemic, I think this threw me over the edge.

Look, you're getting advice from people who don't know your field and certainly don't know enough about your subspecialty or your program to judge. Questions to ask yourself and others probably include. Is your program fully funded through at least five years? What sort of jobs do the people who go there get? What does a "decent" placement rate look like? Who would you be working with on your dissertation? How do their students do? Also, is this moment of anxiety just about the current situation and the potential for the job market, or is it tied to larger concerns about your interest in the subject and your desire to pursue the doctorate?

[fourhats]

Look, you're getting advice from people who don't know your field

Actually I do know this field, but no one noticed my reply.

[Caracal]

Look, you're getting advice from people who don't know your field

Actually I do know this field, but no one noticed my reply.

Didn't mean you, or the more helpful posts, I was just telling the OP to not pay too much attention to people whose knowledge of the humanities job market doesn't go much further than "it's bad."

[apl68]

Welp, if my anxiety wasn't bad enough with this pandemic, I think this threw me over the edge.

We have posters here who like to ride certain hobbyhorses at every excuse.  Your question gave them an excuse.  Hence the heated debate in which you seem to be largely overlooked.

The people who are so insistent on how the job market is so very, very dismal and only likely to get worse aren't wrong.  They have over and over again seen grad students go into higher education and end up having reason to regret it.  I'm one of those people.  I invested years of my life in a PhD program for not much return.  My experience was far from the worst that could have happened, and has happened to others. 

Caracal and fourhats are telling you about specific circumstances in which you might be able to pull this off.  So there's not absolutely no hope.  At best it's still going to be something of a long shot.  If you are fully funded through your PhD, really like the work, and are young enough that you don't mind a certain level of "opportunity cost," then you might find the PhD worthwhile.  There are worse things to do in life than pursue an education you enjoy about a subject you enjoy, with at least some chance of it leading to a congenial academic career.

If your main concern is ultimately building a good career, then your best bet would probably be just going as far as the MA and then looking for alt-ac or high school work.

I spent years fearing that my failed bid to become an academic had ruined any chance of having of a decent life.  Although the cost in time and trouble was higher than it really should have been, it didn't ruin my life at all.  I got a good education that I still use, and was introduced indirectly to a Plan B career that has worked well enough.  As long as you're not talking about disrupting your family life or taking on ruinous amounts of debt, you're not going to ruin your life here.  But you do have some serious choices to make about what would be best for you.  Each of us here is trying in our own way to help you make informed choices.  I think everybody here wishes you the best.

[larryc]

Historian here. Yes we do look with skepticism on "studies" degrees. Not that they don't have value, but they are not history degrees.

That said, yes we will look at your application closely. Pitch yourself as a historian in the cover letter. Present at history conferences and publish in history journals.

What we are looking for is someone who can do the work of our department. It's great that you can teach history of Africa or African American history. But we also need either the US or world survey. Can you teach historiography and research methods? Some studies folks can and have, and I've voted to hire such people.

All that said--I have about a decade left in my career and do not expect to serve on another search committee. We won't be hiring.

[tuxthepenguin]

Welp, if my anxiety wasn't bad enough with this pandemic, I think this threw me over the edge.

Look, you're getting advice from people who don't know your field and certainly don't know enough about your subspecialty or your program to judge. Questions to ask yourself and others probably include. Is your program fully funded through at least five years? What sort of jobs do the people who go there get? What does a "decent" placement rate look like? Who would you be working with on your dissertation? How do their students do? Also, is this moment of anxiety just about the current situation and the potential for the job market, or is it tied to larger concerns about your interest in the subject and your desire to pursue the doctorate?

Also: Can you complete the degree without taking on any debt? Do you have a high level of current debt? Do you have a spouse with a good job? Will you have a moderate inheritance down the road? Can you change to a different program at your university with better employment opportunities?

And one for the current situation: Are you going to be funded for the full time you're in your program? If so, that may very well be your best bet for survival over the next two or three years. I'd be more scared for my job than for my future in the current economy.

{None of this should be taken as my agreement with going to grad school in history. It's usually a bad idea. I'm more open to it when the economy is this bad and going to get worse over the next six months.}

[tuxthepenguin]

Another important piece of data

My biggest surprise when I started researching the job markets is, according to U.S. Department of Education data, that the number of full-time and tenure-track jobs in most fields, including and in fact especially in the humanities, has been growing steadily over the past 20 years. The reason the job market is so bad isn't that the jobs have disappeared, but that collectively Ph.D. programs have pumped out new Ph.D.s at an even faster rate than the market grows.

Please direct statements of disbelief to the author. The message is not that you should get a PhD in history.

[Dismal]

If you are interested in contemporary issues in Africa and the diaspora, have you thought of taking some MPP (masters in public policy) coursework. You'd take some Econ and stats and combine that with Africanist stuff.  Could stop at the MPP level or keep on to PhD in African studies.  Under this suggestion, you would not take much history.