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[alibali]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate every bit of advice you have regarding how a Humanities PhD (US university, but from an EU country) lands a lecturer position in the UK?  I have both U and G teaching experience in the US but just one pub so I realize I stand no chance of being considered for lecturer positions at this point.  What options are there for recent PhDs (since there are so few postdocs in the Humanities)?  Would I be considered for part time or temporary positions?  Thanks a lot!

[embitteredhistorian]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate every bit of advice you have regarding how a Humanities PhD (US university, but from an EU country) lands a lecturer position in the UK?  I have both U and G teaching experience in the US but just one pub so I realize I stand no chance of being considered for lecturer positions at this point.  What options are there for recent PhDs (since there are so few postdocs in the Humanities)?  Would I be considered for part time or temporary positions?  Thanks a lot!

In my experience in English lit. in Britain, every single lectureship, part-time, and temporary position I have ever seen went to someone who had a previous acquaintance or relationship to the department. I can count at least 15 such instances off the top of my head, but I've probably seen many more.

Post-docs are a little different. I have seen a few cases where people were hired based on publications and special skills; I once had a professor ask me if I knew anyone who spoke Russian to be his post-doc for a project, for example. However, I've also seen a few in-candidates get jobs largely because of a pre-established relationship.

[sandgrounder]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate every bit of advice you have regarding how a Humanities PhD (US university, but from an EU country) lands a lecturer position in the UK?  I have both U and G teaching experience in the US but just one pub so I realize I stand no chance of being considered for lecturer positions at this point.  What options are there for recent PhDs (since there are so few postdocs in the Humanities)?  Would I be considered for part time or temporary positions?  Thanks a lot!

In my experience in English lit. in Britain, every single lectureship, part-time, and temporary position I have ever seen went to someone who had a previous acquaintance or relationship to the department. I can count at least 15 such instances off the top of my head, but I've probably seen many more.

Post-docs are a little different. I have seen a few cases where people were hired based on publications and special skills; I once had a professor ask me if I knew anyone who spoke Russian to be his post-doc for a project, for example. However, I've also seen a few in-candidates get jobs largely because of a pre-established relationship.

^ clearly the Eng Lit lot are my Russell Group university are odd then as they seem to have lots of foreign scholars with no previous link to the department.

OP the job market is so dire here that even for temporary lectureships and postdocs you will have people with several publications applying, so you may find you're not that competitive right now (particularly if you are currently in the US as while they'll often fly people over for a permanent job even now, a temporary post might be difficult to justify). That would normally be the route to a permanent lectureship. Part-time teaching tends to be hourly paid and is an option. I'm rather sceptical though that as an unknown you'd be able to pick up enough to live on. Have you looked into the EU Marie Curie fellowships? There's a scheme for incoming international applicants but I think with a US PhD you'd be eligible. That would be a good way to get a foot in the door. But honestly given that most EU governments are upping spending on universities, while the British government is cutting it, your chances might be better in your own or other EU countries at the moment. (Unless it's Ireland which sounds even more awful regarding universities than the UK right now.)

[embitteredhistorian]

Of the Russell group universities, there are 8 where I have not witnessed this or heard of this happening.

[alibali]

Thanks a lot, sandgrounder and embitteredhistorian.  My field is Applied Linguistics/ Linguistic Anthropology and I have no idea how different jobwise that is from Eng lit.  I think the Marie Curie fellowships I've seen required that applicants do not have a PhD (just an MA), but will look into it more closely.  Your help is much appreciated!

[babbinacara]

For anything temporary or part-time, positions will go to someone in the UK and quite probably someone with a existing relationship with the department.

If there are going to be any full-time lecturer positions in the UK ever again, your chances of getting one will be affected by exactly the same things as are relevant to many positions in the US or elsewhere in the EU: publications, publications, more publications, and some teaching experience. You do have two things going for you: a US PhD, which means you already know enough to be able to teach, plus EU citizenship, which will streamline the bureaucracy.

Of the last eight people hired in my (social science/humanities) department at an extremely traditional university, still only one had a pre-existing relationship with us (and thus was scrutinised probably more harshly than otherwise) and six have non-UK PhDs.

[enfanterrible]

Thanks a lot, sandgrounder and embitteredhistorian.  My field is Applied Linguistics/ Linguistic Anthropology and I have no idea how different jobwise that is from Eng lit.  I think the Marie Curie fellowships I've seen required that applicants do not have a PhD (just an MA), but will look into it more closely.  Your help is much appreciated!

An added complication for you might be that linguistics anthropology as a discipline doesn't really have a tradition in the UK (or does it?), so there may be relatively fewer jobs than in the US, all things being equal, that is, job market being equally bad.

I could name several departments that are strong in linguistics anthropology in the US off the top of my head, but couldn't name one in the UK. I don't think I have seen a single job in linguistic anthropology in the last couple years in the UK (while I have seen several in applied linguistics, if by that we mean traditional applied linguistics, e.g., psycholinguistics, second language acquisition, etc.)

[embitteredhistorian]

Thanks a lot, sandgrounder and embitteredhistorian.  My field is Applied Linguistics/ Linguistic Anthropology and I have no idea how different jobwise that is from Eng lit.  I think the Marie Curie fellowships I've seen required that applicants do not have a PhD (just an MA), but will look into it more closely.  Your help is much appreciated!

The situation is vastly different between linguistics and literature, which are often in different departments and are funded by different groups (AHRC versus ESRC). I have heard stories of in-hiring in linguistics, but not as frequently as in literature.

I think the Marie Curie fellowships are for PhD scholarships exclusively, but I'm not sure.

[sandgrounder]

Marie Curie fellowships can be doctoral or postdoc. This scheme demands a PhD or four years research experience.
ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/calls/people/m_gfamciif_201006_en.pdf for details.

[alibali]

Many thanks to everyone!  enfanterrible-true that ling anthro does not exist in the UK as a field, but the research done under this umbrella in the US is framed as sociolinguistics in the UK (which in the US is slightly different from ling anthro).  Thanks again and all best!

[drspouse]

If you have a mentor or department in mind, one route might be to apply yourself for an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship or a grant with yourself as named researcher.

Low chances of success but worth a shot and good experience, I would say.

[alibali]

Thanks, drspouse for your help (and everyone else again)!  Does anyone know whether it would be easier for me to find a postdoc/research associate position in The Netherlands ? (I do not speak Dutch)  I realize this is a forum on academic life in the UK but thought I'd give it a shot. 

[drspouse]

I have a colleague who is employed by a Dutch university but her data collection is not in the Netherlands. She does not speak much Dutch. She registered for her PhD there, though, and was kept on to write up the data.

I don't know what there is in the way of fellowships there, or how much teaching would be expected for a postdoc who hasn't been "kept on by supervisor" like my colleague.  But I know most of her department-mates do their research outside the Netherlands and mostly in English.

She ran into a couple of problems with optional, but useful, taught courses that could have helped her but were only available in Dutch.

[sandgrounder]

The Netherlands academic market is definitely open to non-Dutch speakers, and from chatting to colleagues from Dutch universities recently, it doesn't sound like they feel particularly threatened by budget cuts. So yes well worth a try. http://www.academictransfer.com/?set_language=en is worth keeping an eye on, although I don't know how comprehensive a listing it is.

[embitteredhistorian]

I have seen a few positions in English lit. in the Netherlands which do not require a knowledge of Dutch but state that they expect newly-hired lecturers to learn Dutch within a couple of years. That's a very fair requirement, IMO.

I have met some faculty at Dutch universities and they seem very happy. I'd definitely move there if I was offered a job.