Some good news

We have four cheerful pieces of news for PhDs without permanent academic jobs. Well, they are small pieces of news, but we think they will benefit some people, and that’s a start. Please, folks, keep at it trying to improve things, as every little bit counts and the more little bits we improve, the more people will be better off. And please let us know when you achieve something!

1) A better deal for those without their own e-resources library access:

We spoke to JSTOR about the difficulties independent scholars face without regular access to an academic library. They expressed great sympathy for Hortensii’s aims and a desire to help, and to that end they are offering members of the Hortensii community a discount of 25% on JPASS subscriptions. A JPASS subscription is almost (but, unfortunately, not quite) like an individual version of a library’s JSTOR subscription; it provides unlimited access to more than 1,600 scholarly journals, the vast majority of the ones included in the library JSTOR packages. (There is a complete list of titles included at http://jpass.jstor.org/collections; we are actively working with JSTOR and certain publishers to get this list expanded.) Hortensii’s discounted JSTOR subscription costs $149 per year; you can also subscribe on a monthly basis for $19.50 per month. JSTOR has offered us a 10-day free trial (which you can access here: http://jpass.jstor.org/freetrial) and are happy to answer any questions if you e-mail support@jstor.org.

If you would like to take advantage of the discounted JPASS subscription send an e-mail to E.Dickey@reading.ac.uk and just ask for the link to the discount; it would be unkind to JSTOR to post that link on an open site, but it is free for the asking to any member of the Hortensii community.

 

2) An opportunity for recent PhDs (especially in the US) to get their views across and make money doing so:

Vitae (https://chroniclevitae.com/), The Chronicle of Higher Education’s new online career-development community, is looking for writers. The site produces daily news, analysis, and advice for young academics exploring and planning their career paths (in and out of academia) and working to make their academic lives more rewarding.

Vitae’s editorial team is PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN THE VIEWS OF GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS, and they’re seeking writers to become “Vitae Voices,” one-time or occasional PAID columnists who provide insightful, specific analysis, drawn from personal experience on a range of issues facing young scholars. There’s an interest in having content about the academic job market, career management and professional development, grad-student and postdoc life, mentoring, labor issues, work-life and health and wellness issues, among others. Submissions should be in the range of 800-1,300 words and written in a conversational style. If you’re interested or have questions, Vitae editors can be reached by e-mail at editorial@chroniclevitae.com.

 

3) An opportunity for UK Classicists considering going into school teaching to find out more about what the opportunities available and the various training routes:

There will be a Teaching Classics Day on 18th October 2014 in Abingdon (near Reading). See http://www.shsk.org.uk/Home/Book-Event.aspx?ID=485&ReturnURL=Main-event-booking.aspx

 

4) A career fair in Paris especially for PhDs, on September 12 (the advertisement is in English, and there is no suggestion that only the French are welcome):
http://phdtalent.org/the-phdtalent-career-fair-2014/

 

Lastly, some more news stories have come to our attention. Note that links get posted faster on the Hortensii Twitter and Facebook pages, owing to the awesome and efficient people who run those pages, so for the latest links to discussion it’s always a good idea to check https://twitter.com/Hortensii and/or https://www.facebook.com/Hortensii

News of a project to improve the situation in Massachusetts, with some important general thoughts:
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/591-ph-d-s-adjuncts-and-the-teacher-training-conundrum

Some really depressing insights into how some faculty members are not being helpful and need us to help them understand what the problems are:
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/598-the-conferencegoer-what-some-faculty-really-think-about-nonacademic-careers

News of a unionization effort for adjuncts in Florida:
http://www.philly.com/philly/jobs/Adjunct_professors_pushing_for_better_pay_benefits.html

Philosophers who work outside of academia (June 2014):
Part 1: http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/06/philosophers-who-work-outside-of-academia-part-1-how-and-why-do-they-end-up-there.html
Part 2: http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/06/philosophers-who-work-outside-of-academia-part-2-whats-it-like-to-have-a-nonacademic-job.html
Part 3: http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/06/philosophers-who-work-outside-of-academia-part-3-transferrable-skills-and-concrete-advice.html

Not just a problem for the humanities, but poor job prospects for scientists as well:
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/07/employment_rates_for_stem_ph_d_s_it_s_a_stagnant_job_market_for_young_scientists.html

And science PhDs are not very happy with the solution of ‘alt’ careers, either:
http://sicknessisfascinating.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/alt-careers-arent-answer.html?spref=tw

‘How to secure a job after your PhD’: excerpts from videos with useful advice. The focus is on non-academic jobs:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGuX0rO-DritW75XmoLtuhcgJFbmV0OCo

Another response to the MLA report:
http://chronicle.com/article/Restructure-the-Humanities/147203/

‘How I got out’ at Vitae, highlighting routes out of academia:
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/575-how-i-got-out-one-adjunct-s-journey-from-freeway-flyer-to-e-learning-director

Grad students and transferable skills: a storytelling approach:
http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs/2014/06/27/transferable-skills-and-storytelling

Grad students and academic careers:
http://thegradgrind.com/2014/05/30/is-academia-really-in-such-a-mess/

Yes, we CAN do something!

Hortensii, the group dedicated to improving the situation for PhDs without permanent academic jobs, has registered its first success: the University of Manchester held a conference at which the organizer produced name tags without institutional affiliations out of consideration for the feelings of unaffiliated attendees. He informs us that he did this as a result of our survey. No-one reported having difficulties with those name tags, perhaps in part because a complete list of attendees’ e-mail addresses was included in the conference pack and therefore affiliations were not necessary for contact purposes. Thank you Nigel Vincent!

Now we would be the first to admit that as successes go this one is small. But it’s a step in the right direction, and every step counts: the only way we can make big changes is via lots of little changes. So we look forward to hearing about the next success: when you change something about academia, even a little thing, do tell us, so we can tell the world that change is possible and thereby encourage others to make more changes.

In other news, we have two more documents on this site, one a list of things employed academics can do to help and one an information sheet for prospective PhD students. We know the latter document is appalling, and we apologize for that, but we felt we had to do it because of the strong support for making sure that prospective PhD students know the truth about the job market. We also, ahem, have made some corrections to the original documents, which contained a few mistakes. Many apologies to all about those mistakes, and MANY thanks to the people who pointed them out! Please keep the corrections coming if you spot more mistakes: we know that having incorrect information on this site is highly undesirable, and we’ve made a big effort to get things right, so we really welcome help in that direction.

And we have lots of volunteers, which is great — but we could definitely use more! If you have volunteered and not yet heard from us with a specific assignment, don’t worry: we’ll be in touch soon with a possibility that we hope will match who and where you are. If you haven’t yet volunteered, please do! And if you have a good idea, please put it on our ‘Discussion and new ideas’ page for everyone to see — thank you!

We’ve also found a site that you might want to check out if you are having feelings of failure and/or considering leaving academia but worried that this might look like failure. It’s www.jobsontoast.com and has some good posts confronting the ‘failure narrative’ and suggesting what we can do about it, as well as practical advice for getting non-academic jobs. In the latter area, of course, we still also recommend http://versatilephd.com/.

In less cheerful news, we have heard from a significant number of people in the ‘precariat’ who support the Hortensii initiative but are afraid to say so in public because they fear being fired for speaking up. Is this really what academia should be like? Can we do anything to restore basic freedom of speech to our disciplines?

Keep up the good work, everyone! And on behalf of all the people who are afraid to say anything, let me say thank you to those who are not afraid to do something — we’re looking forward to the next success!

Let’s do something!

Hortensii is a group of people inside and outside academia who want to alleviate the difficulties facing PhDs without permanent academic jobs. We take our name from the Roman Quintus Hortensius, who in c. 287 BC sponsored the Lex Hortensia giving civil rights to Roman plebeians.

We think that despite the current unpleasant realities facing academia many positive steps could be taken; see ‘What to do and why’ (or, if you are really brave, ‘Full report’) for exactly what these are, but to oversimplify grossly our goals are both to reduce the oversupply of disappointed would-be academics by making it easier to leave academia, and to make life better for PhDs who choose to remain in academia without a permanent job. We welcome anyone who shares these goals and is in broad agreement with our proposed actions to join us and help implement them (see ‘Please join us’ and leave an endorsement on this page if you can), and we ask people with other agendas to respect ours and leave us to it.

We are not fighting against anyone or anything and are not affiliated with any movement, political party, or country. Nor are we trying to help individuals gain employment or to interfere in any way with decisions on who should get the limited number of academic jobs available; as we have different subjects and different views on what constitutes good academic work in our fields, we wish to avoid internal dissension by remaining strictly neutral in such matters so we can work together to make life better for a group that badly needs such help.