IHE: Humanities Graduate Education is Shrinking

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE: Humanities Graduate Education is Shrinking

[marshwiggle]

IHE: Humanities Graduate Education is Shrinking

The people who think there are too many humanities professors in the world may find cause for joy in the decline there, and doctoral students may be pleased to see a decline in the number of other Ph.D.s competing for those precious academic jobs. But aside from that, the only clearly positive indicator is that almost all of the people who received graduate degrees in the humanities are satisfied with their jobs."

So I guess adjunct porn is pretty much a fiction.

[dismalist]

...

The people who think there are too many humanities professors in the world may find cause for joy in the decline there, and doctoral students may be pleased to see a decline in the number of other Ph.D.s competing for those precious academic jobs. But aside from that, the only clearly positive indicator is that almost all of the people who received graduate degrees in the humanities are satisfied with their jobs."

So I guess adjunct porn is pretty much a fiction.

They are about as satisfied with their jobs as those who have graduate degrees in other fields.

Adjunct or non-adjunct, market is working.

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE: Humanities Graduate Education is Shrinking

The people who think there are too many humanities professors in the world may find cause for joy in the decline there, and doctoral students may be pleased to see a decline in the number of other Ph.D.s competing for those precious academic jobs. But aside from that, the only clearly positive indicator is that almost all of the people who received graduate degrees in the humanities are satisfied with their jobs."

So I guess adjunct porn is pretty much a fiction.

Oh Marshy...

[Hibush]

"To some critics, this is a natural flow, as there are fewer jobs (especially in higher education) for Ph.D.s in the humanities. To others, the numbers reflect the tragedy of the academic job market failing to keep up with student and faculty demand."

Unfortunately, the article does not go on to name or quote anyone in the latter group. Where are the big student numbers swelling classes as the school fails to fill faculty positions?  (Not in CS, but in humanities?)

[ciao_yall]

...

The people who think there are too many humanities professors in the world may find cause for joy in the decline there, and doctoral students may be pleased to see a decline in the number of other Ph.D.s competing for those precious academic jobs. But aside from that, the only clearly positive indicator is that almost all of the people who received graduate degrees in the humanities are satisfied with their jobs."

So I guess adjunct porn is pretty much a fiction.

They are about as satisfied with their jobs as those who have graduate degrees in other fields.

Adjunct or non-adjunct, market is working.

They are probably applying their advanced skills outside of academia. PhD's in the humanities have a lot of transferable skills.

[kaysixteen]

Yes, of course they do.   If they can get someone outside of academia to hire em to use those skills.

[financeguy]

I must beat the same deceased horse again regarding transferable skills... The irony of those in academic roles touting their "transferable" skills is rich considering they would never in a million years consider someone else's skills as transferable to an academic environment. Someone who won Olympic gold in swimming, got an Oscar in documentary directing or served as the CEO of Exxon will not be hired as the dean of arts and sciences, assistant professor of history or president of the university. Your "transferable skills" having earned a Ph.D. in a narrow area of navel gazing are much less substantial than any of those accomplishments and have no value. A humanities Ph.D. is actually a sign of several negative traits to employers such as the ability to meet a deadline or follow specific guidelines rather than just "wherever things lead."

[jimbogumbo]

financeguy: https://thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/howard-university-announces-legendary-actress-alumna-phylicia-rashad-dean-newly-reestablished

[ciao_yall]

I must beat the same deceased horse again regarding transferable skills... The irony of those in academic roles touting their "transferable" skills is rich considering they would never in a million years consider someone else's skills as transferable to an academic environment. Someone who won Olympic gold in swimming, got an Oscar in documentary directing or served as the CEO of Exxon will not be hired as the dean of arts and sciences, assistant professor of history or president of the university. Your "transferable skills" having earned a Ph.D. in a narrow area of navel gazing are much less substantial than any of those accomplishments and have no value. A humanities Ph.D. is actually a sign of several negative traits to employers such as the ability to meet a deadline or follow specific guidelines rather than just "wherever things lead."

And an MBA assures that one will be a good business person? An MD means they will be a good doctor? The list goes on...

[pondering]

A humanities Ph.D. is actually a sign of several negative traits to employers such as the ability to meet a deadline or follow specific guidelines rather than just "wherever things lead."

I'd like to see an average employee in the private sector do the following in a six-month period: decipher and translate several dozen late medieval Latin documents; research and write two articles (one in German) and draw up the index for a book manuscript; teach two 50+ enrolled undergrad courses; and edit a journal, run a scholarly society, and organize a conference. Oh, and I was writing my dissertation (you know, the main thing humanities PhDs do) throughout all this. During that time I was working 50-60 and sometimes up to 100 hours per week. All this for a salary far below what such workloads might generate for someone with similar rare language, paleography, and pedagogy skills outside of the academy.

Needless to say, pace financeguy, this all required some extreme deadline-meeting and specific guideline-following skills and a more general competence for managing and juggling multiple urgent projects at once.

[marshwiggle]

IHE: Humanities Graduate Education is Shrinking

The people who think there are too many humanities professors in the world may find cause for joy in the decline there, and doctoral students may be pleased to see a decline in the number of other Ph.D.s competing for those precious academic jobs. But aside from that, the only clearly positive indicator is that almost all of the people who received graduate degrees in the humanities are satisfied with their jobs."

So I guess adjunct porn is pretty much a fiction.

Oh Marshy...

I'm not sure what you're implying: Are the adjuncts in those stories actually "satisfied with their jobs", or do they represent the rare exception to the graduates "satisfied with their jobs"?

[Wahoo Redux]

I must beat the same deceased horse again regarding transferable skills... The irony of those in academic roles touting their "transferable" skills is rich considering they would never in a million years consider someone else's skills as transferable to an academic environment. Someone who won Olympic gold in swimming, got an Oscar in documentary directing or served as the CEO of Exxon will not be hired as the dean of arts and sciences, assistant professor of history or president of the university. Your "transferable skills" having earned a Ph.D. in a narrow area of navel gazing are much less substantial than any of those accomplishments and have no value. A humanities Ph.D. is actually a sign of several negative traits to employers such as the ability to meet a deadline or follow specific guidelines rather than just "wherever things lead."

I teach business writing my friend.  I've gotten a good look at the peeps studying for the business degree.

But in all fairness to your adolescent snark, those of us in the humanities don't regard business as a legitimate academic discipline----hence the resistance to your Exxon lackey as a poohbah.  University presidents, however, are trending toward trained monkeys at an alarming pace.

[eigen]

I must beat the same deceased horse again regarding transferable skills... The irony of those in academic roles touting their "transferable" skills is rich considering they would never in a million years consider someone else's skills as transferable to an academic environment. Someone who won Olympic gold in swimming, got an Oscar in documentary directing or served as the CEO of Exxon will not be hired as the dean of arts and sciences, assistant professor of history or president of the university. Your "transferable skills" having earned a Ph.D. in a narrow area of navel gazing are much less substantial than any of those accomplishments and have no value. A humanities Ph.D. is actually a sign of several negative traits to employers such as the ability to meet a deadline or follow specific guidelines rather than just "wherever things lead."

Eh? We hire people from non-academic sectors all the time.

[Ruralguy]

The second set of comments also only barely makes sense. Ability to finish a high degree can signal conscience abilities. Its not a 100% signal of that, especially if not accomplished in a reasonable period of time and an interview of the person indicates they are a scatterbrain who eventually wrote something comprehensible.