As the job market in English and foreign languages has gotten worse and worse in recent years, the Modern Language Association has sharpened its focus on professional development, while continuing to give pointed advice about job seeking and hiring to candidates and search committees. But more than 50 years ago, the MLA, whose annual meeting starts Thursday, included job-market guidance for graduate students as part of a compilation of faculty job openings that served as the forerunner of what is arguably one of the association’s best known products: the MLA Job Information List.
We're sorry. Something went wrong.
We are unable to fully display the content of this page.
The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network.
Please allow access to our site, and then refresh this page.
You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one,
or subscribe.
If you continue to experience issues, please contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com
As the job market in English and foreign languages has gotten worse and worse in recent years, the Modern Language Association has sharpened its focus on professional development, while continuing to give pointed advice about job seeking and hiring to candidates and search committees. But more than 50 years ago, the MLA, whose annual meeting starts Thursday, included job-market guidance for graduate students as part of a compilation of faculty job openings that served as the forerunner of what is arguably one of the association’s best known products: the MLA Job Information List.
The Chronicle took a look at A Placement Guide for Graduate Students — in all its single-spaced, typewritten glory — to get a sense of what graduate students were told about finding an academic job in the mid-1960s and how much of it holds up today. Below the posted document, distributed in May 1965, we highlight six points of interest that show how the job market, demographics, and norms about work and life have changed.
♦ ♦ ♦
ADVERTISEMENT
In the 1960s, when jobs with a chance to earn tenure were the norm, new Ph.D.s were more likely to make their first stop their last — or at least a long-term one. Now the prevalence of non-tenure-track positions with tenuous job security means that scholars often go on the market multiple times in an attempt to land a permanent position. Yet even after earning tenure, some assistant professors may decide to move on.
♦ ♦ ♦
ADVERTISEMENT
Making a home in the community may have been more plausible in 1965 when the median price of a new home in the United States was $20,000 — about $160,000 in 2019 dollars. But today the cost of goods in some places can make settling in to a new locale a hard task.
♦ ♦ ♦
Publish or perish may not have been mantra in the ’60s, but it’s a given at plenty of institutions now. The rules for tenure still vary, and some are unwritten — and for junior faculty members, it’s not clear what counts and what doesn’t on their journey to associate professor with tenure.
ADVERTISEMENT
♦ ♦ ♦
Since landing a tenure-track job has proven to be a long shot for many English Ph.D.s, geography may not be a dealbreaker to accepting an offer. Some cities, however, are hotspots of sorts for English language and literature professors.
ADVERTISEMENT
♦ ♦ ♦
Collecting intelligence on a potential workplace has always been a good move. The guide also urges graduate students to talk to members of their department and to reach out to “faculty members who remember you from your undergraduate days.” Today, however, the person “who has been on the scene” isn’t so likely to be a man.
♦ ♦ ♦
ADVERTISEMENT
This first line on the list of what to make part of a vita remains accurate (though today we’d add an email address, website, or social-media handles). But the next two pieces of information requested of candidates simply flout current employment discrimination laws. Here are a few things we know about the personal lives of humanities Ph.D.s.
Audrey Williams June is a senior reporter who focuses on data research. Contact her at audrey.june@chronicle.com, or follow her on Twitter @chronaudrey.
Audrey Williams June is the news-data manager at The Chronicle. She explores and analyzes data sets, databases, and records to uncover higher-education trends, insights, and stories. Email her at audrey.june@chronicle.com, or follow her on Twitter @audreywjune.