Serfs of Academe
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Serfs of Academe
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Re: Serfs of Academe
#2appalling lack of public support for educational institutions. I hope the chase for lucre was worth it.
Re: Serfs of Academe
#3Readers who are able - for some peculiar reason - to read Hebrew may also be interested in the book, in a similar vein, edited by Drs. Mishori and Hazan named "Abusive Employment", which has multiple chapters regarding employment, precarity and unionization attempts in Israeli academia, and the rest regards the Israeli economy more generally.
The book is made available for public download through this page:
Re: Serfs of Academe
#4I've heard ghastly horror stories from PhD friends of mine at the Ivy I attended. I don't think the average person appreciate how unbalanced the power dynamic can be for doctoral students. An advisor can exert a fearsome pressure on their subordinates. You can also get lose funding, forcing you to pay an outrageous rate of tuition to the university (100k~ per annum) if you can't find another source of funding.
Re: Serfs of Academe
#5When I was 19 I worked at Dominos Pizza, and they offered me a management track position. I would attend Dominos University, a management training course where they would teach me the art of pizza restaurant management and advanced pizza making skills. The starting salary for management back in 2007 was $38k per year with 10% bonus, and included health insurance, paid sick leave, etc.
I say this because - why do these adjuncts subject themselves to such torture? If you are smart enough to teach medieval poetry, you can run a pizza restaurant. These people fetishize university life and kill themselves for no reason. It's absurd. Universities get away with paying horrible wages because there is a seemingly endless line of people willing to be homeless in order to teach undergraduates and grade papers. Insanity
Re: Serfs of Academe
#6An acquaintance teaches a course one night a week at the local community college. The pay is really low - $1200 per semester course. On the other hand, he has interned and/or hired some of the best students, so there are other advantages besides spare cash.
Re: Serfs of Academe
#7When I was 19 I worked at Dominos Pizza, and they offered me a management track position. I would attend Dominos University, a management training course where they would teach me the art of pizza restaurant management and advanced pizza making skills. The starting salary for management back in 2007 was $38k per year with 10% bonus, and included health insurance, paid sick leave, etc. I say this because - why do thes…
Because some people want to live in a world where we as a society can value things like medieval poetry and have thriving ecosystems around that.
There's a seemingly endless line of people willing to enslave themselves to a broken system rather than fold and turn into a Dominos manager like the system wants.
Re: Serfs of Academe
#8I've heard ghastly horror stories from PhD friends of mine at the Ivy I attended. I don't think the average person appreciate how unbalanced the power dynamic can be for doctoral students. An advisor can exert a fearsome pressure on their subordinates. You can also get lose funding, forcing you to pay an outrageous rate of tuition to the university (100k~ per annum) if you can't find another source of funding.
Not just PhD programs, but also masters programs. Especially for foreign students because not only is the pay a factor, but also their visa status can be held over the student's head until one more* paper is published.
*it's always "just one more"
Re: Serfs of Academe
#9When I was 19 I worked at Dominos Pizza, and they offered me a management track position. I would attend Dominos University, a management training course where they would teach me the art of pizza restaurant management and advanced pizza making skills. The starting salary for management back in 2007 was $38k per year with 10% bonus, and included health insurance, paid sick leave, etc. I say this because - why do thes…
Because some people want to live in a world where we as a society can value things like medieval poetry and have thriving ecosystems around that. There's a seemingly endless line of people willing to enslave themselves to a broken system rather than fold and turn into a Dominos manager like the system wants.
There is no system, it's all just people. If you want academics to study medieval poetry you're welcome to pay them directly to do it, or establish a charitable foundation for that purpose. Personally I have other priorities and don't want any of my taxes or school fees used for that purpose.
Re: Serfs of Academe
#10When I was 19 I worked at Dominos Pizza, and they offered me a management track position. I would attend Dominos University, a management training course where they would teach me the art of pizza restaurant management and advanced pizza making skills. The starting salary for management back in 2007 was $38k per year with 10% bonus, and included health insurance, paid sick leave, etc. I say this because - why do thes…
I'm conflicted but tend to agree. The other day as I was reading some academic job market horror story on Twitter, it occurred to me that this is the market's way of saying we have too many candidates! Go away! It's like you have a train full of people, and new people are continually trying to embark, even though it gets harder and harder for each new person.
In the long run, medieval poetry PhDs probably will end up in well-paying (if less inspiring) jobs like running pizza restaurants - but don't underestimate the awfulness of the short-term.