The pressure on humanities faculty

I have a cousin who wants to become a professor in the humanities. My SO and I are horrified. We're not too miserable now, but we went through some really awful years and landed good jobs through sheer luck. We also fully expect the job market to be worse by the time cousin graduates.

My family is insistent that we not breathe a word of this. We're to be nothing but either neutral or supportive. I've gone so far as to recommend the Academic Job Search Handbook, but that's all. I've listened politely to a lot of talk from my aunt about how this career will 'fulfill' him.

A post on College Misery today reminded me why I want so urgently to warn my cousin. It's from someone who landed a tenure track job against all odds only to find out it's almost impossible to get tenure. 3/4 teaching load and 10-12 articles are required.

My biggest regret is not my “career failure” (I’ll be fine, in the end). Rather, it’s the fact that the state of higher education at this point in time leads to a glut of job seekers who should feel “lucky” to land a crappy job in a toxic department where they work under unreasonable conditions…as long as there’s dental! There’s something wrong with this system. 

SO and I are lucky enough to be at a school with very reasonable research requirements. Still, as an academic I've often found myself in situations similar to this one (an accomplishment turned nightmare because of crazy expectations). Is this the way things are going? Pin It