From: "amandi esonwanne" <eamandi-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: comparative poco lit
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 21:16:32 GMT


I think I can understand Christopher's bitterness. Thankfully, though, Lisa 
provides a balance. I think it is naive to think that there are fancy tenure 
track jobs out there, and I think grad programmes should let there students 
know this and suggest other viable options.

I always thought that being a professor is like a being a priest: you have 
to have the calling. If you love the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake 
(remember Newman on the idea of a university) then go ahead. If not, you can 
also go ahead and after the Ph.D search for jobs other than lecturership or 
quit, like the young woman from Yale, and do something else.

Lisa's suggestion and approach is practical and I'd go for it.

Amandi.


>From: Lisa McNee <lm23-AT-qsilver.queensu.ca>
>Reply-To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>Subject: Re: comparative poco lit
>Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 14:11:11 -0500 (EST)
>
>This response to the question seems unduly bitter. Many faculty are
>retiring now, and in my own field (francophone literatures) many
>interesting positions have opened up over the last four
>years. Universities and colleges are very interested in attracting
>qualified postcolonial studies specialists. That doesn't mean that all
>graduates will receive academic positions worth their time--the MLA
>protests the labor conditions of adjuncts and part-timers all the time,
>with no effect. Let's face it--the supply of PhD's far out-numbers the
>number of available positions, and this is likely to be the case in the
>foreseeable future. Adjunct positions were designed for spouses who have
>PhD's but are not full-time employees. You can't live on those salaries
>forever without becoming bitterly unhappy, but I think that you have to
>weigh the consequences before accepting such a post. I am one of the lucky
>people who did get a tenure-track position, but I never expected to be so
>lucky. I went to grad school with the notion that I was simply allowing
>myself to do what I love for as long as possible. I saw it as a luxury,
>not as a necessity. And if I don't get tenure, I'll probably apply for
>jobs at private schools that might offer a liveable salary, rather than
>trying to hang on at the university. The situation is terrible, and I
>don't like it, but I also know that I have choices, as do we all.
>
>Dr. Lisa McNee
>
>On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Christopher Devenney wrote:
>
> > At 04:13 PM 11/10/00 -0500, you wrote:
> > >Hello all,
> > >         I wonder if some of you could help me.  I have an 
>undergraduate
> > >student in her final year of a combined honours degree in English and 
>French
> > >who is interested in attending a graduate school (not in 2001 but the 
>year
> > >after that) somewhere in the world that would allow her to study
> > >postcolonial literature in both French and English.  She'd like to find 
>an
> > >M.A. degree program that would also support her in her continuing
> > >fascination with literary and other critical theories, postcolonial and
> > >otherwise.  Does anyone out there have any suggestions?
> >
> >
> > I have a suggestion.  Do the right thing.  Tell her the truth, that 
>there's
> > no reason to go to grad. school.  It's years and years of under paid and
> > exploited labor for no reward whatsoever at the end--unless adjuncting 
>and
> > then an endless series of one/two year appointments is your idea of a
> > "career."  Tell her she can read on her own.  Tell her to go and have a 
>life.
> >
> >
> >
> >      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> >
>
>
>
>      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

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