Antiquitopia

The following was just sent to me from Paul Karoff of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It partially tells us what we already know--that the division of the humanities is undergoing a major shift in personnel, relying upon part-time and non-tenure-track faculty (although right now I would be happy just to have a job next year!)--but gives more precise information (particularly when you click on the link ), which leads to essays on how this is working from field to field: Humanities Enjoy Strong Student Demand but Declining Conditions for Faculty New Data Available on College and University Humanities Departments CAMBRIDGE, MA – The humanities continue to play a core role in higher education and student interest is strong, but to meet the demand, four-year colleges and universities are increasingly relying on a part-time, untenured workforce. Those are among the findings from the Humanities Departmental Survey, conducted by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a c...

In the NYTimes : September 2, 2009 Purge of Iranian Universities Is Feared By MICHAEL SLACKMAN CAIRO — As Iran’s universities prepare to start classes this month, there is growing concern within the academic community that the government will purge political and social science departments of professors and curriculums deemed “un-Islamic,” according to academics and political analysts inside and outside Iran. .... Ayatollah Khamenei said this week that the study of social sciences “promotes doubts and uncertainty.” He urged “ardent defenders of Islam” to review the human sciences that are taught in Iran’s universities and that he said “promote secularism,” according to Iranian news services. “Many of the humanities and liberal arts are based on philosophies whose foundations are materialism and disbelief in godly and Islamic teachings,” Ayatollah Khamenei said at a gathering of university students and professors on Sunday, according to IRNA, the state news agency. Teaching those “scienc...

The NYTimes posted basically what I already knew: the current academic job market is TERRIBLE. Between curtailed budgets, hiring freezes, and retirement-age professors holding on because they've seen their 401K's/pensions/savings shrink significantly, the job openings have dropped significantly. People who would be getting jobs, are staying back in the post-doc programs and, therefore, keeping people just coming out from getting those positions--so there is a trickle-down effect that intensifies the joblessness. March 7, 2009 Doctoral Candidates Anticipate Hard Times By PATRICIA COHEN Chris Pieper began looking for an academic job in sociology about six months ago, sending off about two dozen application packets. The results so far? Two telephone interviews, and no employment offers. “About half of all the rejection letters I’ve received mentioned the poor economy as contributing to their decision,” said Mr. Pieper, 34, who is getting his doctorate from the University of Te...

I just finished reading The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities by Frank Donoghue, who is an Associate Professor of English at Ohio State University. I read this because the chair of my department has asked the entire department to read it, but I would recommend it to all humanities professors or professors to be. And while it focuses on the humanities, many of the observations affect the future of the university world as a whole. Unlike similar books, Donoghue takes a long perspective. Most books speak of a crisis in higher education beginning in the 80s, perhaps the 70s in the clash between corporate business values and the values of the university. He claims, instead, that this tension has been around for over a century, at least since the rise of monopolistic capitalists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But this is not just a book about corporate values of competition and the bottom line versus the last bastion of pro...