Between 1998 and 2014 literary scholar William Pannapacker wrote a regular The Chronicle of Higher Education. Most of these columns were written under the pen name Thomas H. Benton. Pannapacker wrote about the liberal arts and humanities, the digital humanities,...
job market
Americans are quitting their jobs in record numbers
This is a sign that the job market is getting stronger. Here is the Associated Press: A record 4.5 million American workers quit their jobs in November, a sign of confidence and more evidence that the U.S. job market is...
Don’t Vilify Educated People
Have you seen memes like this?: Jonathan Couser, a history professor at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire, has some good thoughts about this meme. Here is what he recently wrote on his Facebook page (used with permission): Bash...
The State of the History Job Market
The number of full-time faculty jobs in history has declined over the past year, but the history job market appears to be stabilizing. The number of Ph.D.s in history is dropping. Here is Colleen Flaherty at Inside Higher Ed: The new...
Job Market Stories
I noticed last night that some folks on Twitter were telling horror stories from the history job market. OK, I’ll play. Here are a few of mine. A professor at an research university asked me during an on-campus interview lunch...
Have You Seen Claire Potter’s Advice for History Job-Seekers?
Several years ago Inside Higher Ed published a few of my pieces on interviewing for jobs at various kinds of history departments. Here is my piece on interviewing at church-related colleges. Here is my piece on interviewing at teaching colleges. I...
Good Advice: A Cover Letter is Not a Vita and a Vita is Not a Cover Letter
Karen Kelsky explains at The Chronicle of Higher Education: Question: I’m preparing my job documents for the fall and looking for ways to economize. Can I just write a really short cover letter since all the information I would put...
Digital Humanities and Your Vita
Will experience, expertise or interest in digital humanities help you land an academic job? In the Fall, my department will be conducting a search for a public historian. While the ability to do digital history will not be one of...
Episode 37: Should You Go to Grad School?
Anyone who has been paying attention to higher ed and the humanities knows that job prospects for recently minted Ph.Ds are abysmal. So why do people keep choosing to engage in such a difficult process that by many measures is...
OAH Dispatch: Sometimes “I just need to listen”
Here is Mary R.S. Bracy‘s latest post from the Organization of American Historians meeting in Sacramento. Click here for Mary’s previous OAH post: “She Persisted: A New Assistant Professor Tells Her Story.” Enjoy! As is usually the case when I...
Post-1865 American History Job at Messiah College: Apply Now!
I wrote about this the other day. Here is the official ad. I hope some of you might consider joining us for a year....
She Persisted: A New Assistant Professor Tells Her Story
I am thrilled to have Mary R.S. Bracy writing for us this weekend from the floor of the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Sacramento. Mary is not new to The Way of Improvement Leads Home. ...
Job Opening: One-Year Lecturer in American History at Messiah College
Anyone interested in spending the 2018-2019 academic year teaching in the Messiah College History Department? One-year Lecturer in post-1865 American history: The Department of History at Messiah College invites applications for a one-year lecturer position in post-1865 American history beginning August...
*Inside Higher Ed* Covers the Erin Bartram Blog Post on Leaving Academia
We blogged about this yesterday. Get up to speed here. Here is a taste of “Calling Academe’s Bluff.” Janet Watson, an associate professor of history at UConn, worked with Bartram in graduate school and reached out to her about her...
Erin Bartram: “The Sublimated Grief of the Left Behind”
I am a big Erin Bartram fan. We have been on a panel together. She has written multiple posts here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. I have learned a lot from her about teaching. Frankly, I can’t think...
Hidden Hiring Criteria in Academia
Back in the late 1990s I was a finalist for a job at Midwestern state university. During the campus visit a senior faculty member, who was not on the search committee, pulled me into his office and said to me:...
More Good Reasons to Study the Humanities
These come from Ilana Gershon and Noah Berlastsky at The Pacific Standard. Here is a taste of their piece “Studying Humanities Teaches You How to Get a Job.” “If you’re studying interpretive dance, God bless you, but there’s not a lot...
Neem: “The STEM rubric undermines the unity between the humanities and sciences.”
Back in June, we published a post on Kentucky governor Matt Bevin‘s endorsement of a bill allowing the Bible to be taught in the state’s public schools. I later published a shorter version of this post at Religion News Service....
Should Young Academics Be On Twitter?
Oliver Bateman, a historian and journalist, explores this question over at The Atlantic. Here is a taste: Scholarly research has lent credence to anecdotal claims about social media’s growing importance as a networking tool for academics at all stages of their...
23 Jobs for History Majors
I just came across a really interesting website titled “Sell Out Your Soul: A Career Guide for Lost Humanities Majors” It is run by James Mulvey, a former English student who now works at a global software company. He started...