If you’ve read some of my other blog posts, by now you know that I am on the alternative academic career track. Why I am on this track versus the tenure track or versus any other career track is a story for another post. I came to alt-ac because I wanted and needed financial security and I knew I would not find that in adjuncting; I also lost my confidence in ever landing any kind of teaching position until I had finished my PhD. I blogged about that two years ago for U Venus in an emotional post titled “What Are You Teaching Next Semester?”
For the past two years I have been happier than I ever was as an adjunct, and I have become what I call an altac advocate. I believe that society needs more PhDs outside of the classroom and that the skills we develop are not just useful but needed in other areas. The skills we develop in graduate school are useful in other areas. I know that higher ed has some major structural problems that are leaving many folks, especially those adjuncts off the tenure track, in a vulnerable position, but in the meantime I think those still in graduate school or who have graduate degrees should consider all of their career options.
I hesitate to advise people to leave adjuncting or abandon their aspirations of achieving a tenure track position. That major decision is not up to me. I consider it a very personal decision. This is why I take all articles that suggest altac as part of grad reform with a grain of salt; I worry that talk about reforming graduate education reform by including alt-ac career tracks or suggesting that people in graduate school consider alt-ac careers will make it seem like The Alt-Ac Track is going to fix everything that is wrong in higher education.
Altac Will Not Save Us.
Although proponents of humanities graduate education reform (like Stanford’s Humanities PhD proposal) do well in acknowledging how graduate students are being trained only in becoming a tenure track faculty member and that schools must consider offering more information about alt-ac careers, I worry a bit. It seems to assume that grad reform take place in the shape of preparing graduates for altac careers. This assumption worries me because then some will feel they must leave their career tracks and their career dreams to become altac members in order to be relevant again. This assumption also brings forth the expectation that altac careers will solve the problems of having so little tenure track jobs. Moreover, as Lee Bessette pointed out in her recent post, the talk of graduate education reform leaves in the cold many who have already graduated and suffered the brunt of the job market.
Alt-ac is not the solution to our bigger, systemic problems in higher ed. But we still must talk about it.
Humanities programs should talk more about alt-ac careers and provide resources, as Katina Rogers has pointed out. Those of us who have graduated should embrace the myriad of career choices people with PhDs have and not assume that those who don’t get TT careers just couldn’t cut it. We should also be willing to help others out, whether they are adjuncts, non-tenure-track full-time instructors, alternative academics, independent scholars, or unemployed. Until reform takes places, we need to support each other. We also have to be good to ourselves and remember what we want in a career and why. (Tough question, I know, but necessary.)
I am all for humanities higher education reform. It is necessary to take a step back and think about what humanities degrees are for and where they’re taking graduates. But I think it’s unfair to put the expectations of saving the humanities on the alt-ac career track. Please don’t take it out on us.