[csaa-forum] Re: glass ceilings and publishing outside the academy

[Kath Albury]

r.wilken at pgrad.unimelb.edu.au wrote:

> Hi all, while a newcomer to this list and a relative latecomer to this discussion of academic life and publishing, I would like to add my own observations (both bleak and optimistic).
>
> I can relate to the need to find respite on a Welsh beach (although at this time of year a Melbourne beach would do just a well), for I am what academic job ads describe as a PhD candidate 'near completion'. At present, however, this seems more like a euphemism for 'the slough of despond' or 'utter confusion'; that which is supposed to be winding up is taking on Sisyphean proportions. (By a perverse and possibly dubious kind of logic, my partner - who has her PhD - says this is a sure sign I am near the end.)
>
> My own despondency is, I suspect, not helped by a greater sense of futility in the face of a very unpromising academic employment climate. More than once I made the naive mistake of thinking that academic job ads were genuine when they stated that a job was open to PhD candidates 'near completion'. In truth, however, this statement seems more like a joke in poor taste, one designed to make postgrads with academic aspirations miserable and spend time they can't afford applying for jobs they won't get. I have learnt this by trial and error. The feedback I have managed to gather (and believe me, getting any comment on unsuccessful uni job applications is no mean feat; feedback is, in my experience, reluctantly given if it is given at all) has been especially dispiriting. I have come to accept the statement that 'it is not a question of quality, it is just that applications that don't have a completed PhD won't be considered'. Why then bother including it at all? But I have more!
>   trouble with the following: 'in addition to a completed PhD and established publication record, you will be better placed if you have one or more books published with a major publisher.' And this is for a Level A position, and before the main selection criteria are even mentioned! Mind you, mine was an honest mistake, as I knew of at least person who had secured a position without either of the above (although I'm beginning to wonder if this was in fact a dream I had ... or an urban myth). Nevertheless, such tales do lead one (or at least me) to wonder if the whole academic job market is either horribly riddled with politics and nepotism, or a complete - and completely mysterious - lottery. And so it has come to pass that, even with a soon-to-be-completed PhD and what I consider to be a fairly healthy publication record, the university employment horizon is looking increasingly bleak (aside from the treadmill life of the sessional, that is, whose prospects, it seems to me,!
>   vary little from those of the seasonal fruit picker). So, and without
>  meaning to sound too downcast, at age 35, and in light of the above, I am having to reluctantly face the prospect that my dream of entering academic life possibly won't eventuate. Even so, it is a prospect I continue to resist (in spite of the many hurdles that prospective academics are made to jump through).
>
> All of this has made me think afresh about what I hold as important in my life, like my family and thinking/writing. With respect to the former, having two small children is a great tonic for a whole host of disappointments (one example is seeing the excitement of my 2 year old when he recognised for the first time the letter 'L', the letter his name begins with; moments like this put a lot in perspective and prompt an appreciation of the simpler things in life). With respect to the latter, I am trying to remain creative and write as much as possible regardless of the forum. In other words, while it has taken me a while, I have come to a similar conclusion to Phil Barker when he writes that the Academy does not have to be the only place where thoughtful intellectual work can take place. Nor do I believe that it is correct, as Mel fears, that having a job at university is the only way that your thoughts can have any public legitimacy. The real issue I think, as Phil suggests,!
>   is not so much the forum for the expression of these thoughts but how, as an independent scholar/researcher/writer, one can support this intellectual output. This is indeed a difficult issue, and I don't pretend to have the answers, but I'm hoping that the following, with which I will conclude this lengthy post, might at least encourage Mel and others.
>
> Some time ago, for my own amusement and encouragement, I began compiling a list of writers I admired who worked outside the academy and/or held down not-so-glamorous jobs to support their writing (doubtless it will grow to become a very long list given the economic realities of most forms of creative output, but writing in particular). For example, there is Naguib Mahfouz, admittedly not an 'academic', but a Nobel prize winning novelist who worked for the Egyptian public service in the mornings and wrote in the afternoons and evenings. Then there is Roland Barthes who, unless I am mistaken, did not secure an academic post until quite late in his writing career. There is also Georges Perec, one writer I find particularly inspiring; this keen observer of the everyday and master of the literary constraint worked for many years in a medical library writing a weekly crossword and numerous other pieces while travelling back and forth each day on the Paris Metro.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rowan Wilken.
> r.wilken at pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
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