PhDinHistory takes a closer look at this year’s academic job market in history. Read more.
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George David Clark
is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Texas Tech University. He is also a fellow in creative writing at Colgate University. He will defend his dissertation this spring.
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David Evans
is vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Buena Vista University, in Iowa.
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Gene Fant
is vice president for academic administration at Union University, in Jackson, Tenn.
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Isaac Sweeney
is an assistant professor of English at Richard Bland College, a two-year institution in Virginia.
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Rob Jenkins
is an associate professor of English at Georgia Perimeter College.
Read Rob's On Hiring entries -
Katharine Stewart
is a professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' College of Public Health.
Read Katharine's On Hiring entries -
Audrey Williams June
is a staff writer who covers the academic workplace.
Read Audrey's On Hiring entries -
Eliana Osborn
has been an adjunct instructor at Arizona Western College since 2001, teaching mostly developmental English.
Read Eliana's On Hiring entries -
Julie White
is assistant director of student services and an adjunct instructor of sociology at Monroe Community College in New York.
Read Julie's On Hiring entries -
Allison M. Vaillancourt
is vice president for human resources at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.
Read Allison's On Hiring entries
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5 Responses to The Job Market in History
tay192 - March 6, 2012 at 9:26 am
This is an entertaining piece and, from my experience, accurate as a light-hearted “ethnographic” study. The role of “brokers” or “informants” is critical to the system. However, as fun as this piece is, with its clever graphics, “brokers” point to “brokenness”–a broken system that gives up transparency for secret processes. On my campus or as I see my campus from a non-broker perspective, “brokering” is the name of the game. If one were to read the official dispatches, reports, and attend the meetings, one would be left CLUELESS as to what is really going on. The “real” story is told around the coffee kiosk. The problem, of course, being in the “know” comes at a price–you need to be on the “right” side. So, brokers dispense information, maintain the interest of their “masters,” and do the dirty work of the powers that be by only telling what they want you to know. Lesboprof is right in this regard–don’t trust them! Let’s not forget that “brokers,” along with their duty to spread harmless gossip, can be responsible for maligning and marginalizing people, too.
Guest - March 7, 2012 at 12:28 pm
It may be an instinctual difference among individuals, but I don’t like information brokers and avoid them. Gossip produces anxiety in me, which isn’t healthy.
quiero_leer - March 28, 2012 at 7:17 am
My question is, how does one manage the hostile spinmeister? After I admittedly made a mistake in class as a grad student, a powerful prof with zero knowledge of me as a person, a student, or an instructor took some heavy-handed (and extraprocedural) action against me. I fought this, won, and still have had it spun against me ever since, sometimes subtly, sometimes less so, including a misleading read-between-the-lines memo that I assume was placed in my file. When I was informed I would not be funded for my final year (supposedly due to “budget cuts” in a department begging to staff summer classes), I became aware of this individual’s continued innuendo in writing, sent out several years after the fact as a preemptive heads-up. Suffice to say that this is a legendarily toxic work atmosphere, for many reasons/years.
mangereid - March 28, 2012 at 9:58 pm
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hai289 - March 30, 2012 at 8:01 am
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