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Want to be an academic?


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2014 Jun 14, 5:01am   3,219 views  3 comments

by New Renter   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

You may want to think again after reading this:

Academics often bemoan what Marc Bousquet, an associate professor of English at Emory University, called “the qualifications ratchet.” To be competitive for entry-level faculty jobs, Bousquet said, aspiring professors – particularly in the humanities – must have accumulated a body of work that generations ago would have won them tenure.

A job listing published Tuesday by Santa Clara University’s English department struck some observers as the latest occurrence of this brand of publication inflation.

The posting, which advertised for a quarterly adjunct lecturer in English, recommended that candidates possess a few “basic qualifications.” These included: “at least 25 books on topics ranging from the history of Silicon Valley to the biography of microprocessing to interviews with entrepreneurs”; “e-books on topics such as home life in the US, home life in the UK, and water conservation”; a background in electronic media “such as being an editor of Forbes ASAP or a weekly columnist for ABC.com”; and experience hosting “television and radio productions for PBS, cable television, and ABC.”

This litany of qualifications seemed staggering for a position that, although competitively compensated at $6,000 per course, was far from an endowed professorship. In fact, only one person meets these requirements: the internal candidate Santa Clara had already planned to rehire.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/11/santa-clara-adjunct-job-ad-startles-many-requiring-candidates-have-written-25-books#ixzz34dqNvPO5
Inside Higher Ed

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1   Rin   2014 Jun 14, 5:15am  

Or one can be independently wealthy.

I knew someone, who was offered a volunteer job, as a professor.

Thus, it looks like my strategy, hedge fund - > retirement and then, doing my own research, possibly maintain some 'volunteer' affiliation with a university, may be the only way to go.

2   New Renter   2014 Jun 14, 5:25am  

Rin says

Or one can be independently wealthy.

I knew someone, who was offered a volunteer job, as a professor.

Thus, it looks like my strategy, hedge fund - > retirement and then, doing my own research, possibly maintain some 'volunteer' affiliation with a university, may be the only way to go.

From a financial sense your generosity merely puts more money in the pockets of the university's regents and shuts out another hopeful job seeker thus further depressing working conditions and compensation for academics.

If your goal is to educate without lining administrators pockets a better approach might be to avoid a university system altogether via online videos or perhaps teach at a junior college.

3   Rin   2014 Jun 14, 6:28am  

New Renter says

your generosity merely puts more money in the pockets of the university's regents and shuts out

I think it's just to get out the first few papers and afterwards, it'll be the Rin Rockefeller Institute, no affiliation with that postdoc sweat shop in NYC, also founded by my ancestors :)

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