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[writenow]

Hi there, I wanted to share my quandary with you all...

 I am a 2007 PhD in the humanities in an interdisciplinary field where the job market is tough but not as bad as some....(i.e. I don't study Milton, or 20th century American History.) I have a book under contract due in 1.5 years.

Partner is in a non - profit, very demanding gig. (12 days off per year-14 hour days....) Job is hard to replace. Our community here, including partner's (aging) dad, impossible to replace...My family is not here (but that's OK with us!) but they are very accessible from here, which we do like...

Now I have the perfect gig in hand--a local job for next fall. It is at a 3/3 SLAC, which was a little hard for me to take since I have been so groomed for an R1, but since we love living here, I thought I could handle it...also, it is a long commute. But in this particular metropolitan area, that is not atypical.

I like the school, my new colleagues seem nice, etc. But I do have some ambivalent feelings, (it was an early offer, took myself off the market before knowing how some other possibilities would play out, etc.)


Then I got 1 of the national humanities postdocs I applied for (2 years! no teaching!) The catch/s are

a) It is in a not very accessible location--and a place where I know no-one.
It is a few hours from an airport with direct connections to the major city we currently live in.

b) We want kids. ASAP. We planned to start trying to make this happen this summer. We are old enough to feel some urgency about this.

c) If I took this gig, I would go alone--non academic partner would be able to use his generous 12 days of vacation to visit me, plus some weekends and that is it. Financially, it would make much less sense than having only one household. The travel, plus the lower fellowship pay and benefits make going expensive...Plus I would miss him, and everyone else in my life.

d) I don't necessarily do my best work when away from any social interaction, eating meals alone, etc.

e) But don't necessarily find a 3/3 super conducive to getting tons of work done either--though I was able to be productive at my visiting gig, there will be much more service on the TT.

f) The SLAC says I can only take 1 year of the postdoc, but wants it to be year 2 so I can start this fall...the postdoc says it would have to be year 1. Could probably get the SLAC to agree, but at cost to how much new colleagues like me. It is a small place, and my relationships with people are important.

SLAC also says I can apply to other fellowships down the road. I am worried that coming from SLAC (not a famous place) that it will be harder to get fellowships than it was coming out of grad school at a well-known program...

But maybe I just need to trust the abundance of the universe???? This is a very good postdoc, and the connections and support for my book would be excellent, but when I imagine leaving my partner here and heading to (insert remote location here) I get pretty depressed. The thought of turning down this amazing opportunity is also distressing...

What say you all?

---writewell

[menotti]

I don't know anything about national postdocs in the humanities, but gosh, I would go with the SLAC job.  In my field, the postdoc is what you do in order to get the job... which you've already been offered!

[gaeta]

I don't know anything about national postdocs in the humanities, but gosh, I would go with the SLAC job.  In my field, the postdoc is what you do in order to get the job... which you've already been offered!

I think I have to agree with menotti. It doesn't sound like a very difficult decision. As one half of a dual-body situation, I find your TT job possibility quite enviable:

You will not have to move.
You will not have to separate from your partner.
You will have a TT job.
Your partner will continue to have a job.
You will be in better financial shape than if you take the postdoc.
You can try to have children while living in the same place.

So often we have been trained to think in terms of "big names," whether those names happen to be names of universities or fellowships. Because of this, it almost seems like we are giving up or if we don't automatically salivate when offered something by a big name of any kind.

The problem in this case is that there is no guarantee that the big name postdoc will land you a TT job in the same area as your partner in two years. You don't need a postdoc to put you in that position; you already have an offer. Gift horses, mouths, etc.

Good luck. I wish my partner and I could be as lucky as you!