Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom

by Katina L. Rogers

"PUTTING THE HUMANITIES PHD TO WORK rethinks the purpose and employment potential of humanities doctoral recipients. As the number of tenure-track faculty lines decrease, and more universities turn to under-paid and contingent adjunct instructors to teach their courses, it may seem like a gamble for someone to enter a doctoral program. But as Katina Rogers points out, doctoral programs are only a gamble if one sees tenure track faculty positions as the only legitimate employment option for humanities PhDs. Instead, Rogers argues that as tenure-track lines decrease-not, as she finds, because of an overabundance of doctoral recipients, but rather because of university austerity measures-the academy must rethink what postgraduate "success" looks like. Rogers posits that removing the premium-both professionally and culturally-on achieving tenure-track positions would allow for a more expansive view of what doctoral training in the humanities can achieve. Drawing on her own experience as a humanities PhD who forged a career outside of tenure-track academia, Rogers's book is guided by, and seeks to answer, two What can be done to normalize a wider range of career pathways for humanities PhDs? And how might a more expansive view of what designates postgraduate "success" help improve the humanities and benefit the public? Chapter 1, which focuses on the academic labor market, examines universities' reliance on adjunct faculty positions, and investigates why tenure-track faculty positions have become increasingly difficult to obtain. Chapter 2 examines how current university practices perpetuate systems of inequality that result in the underrepresentation of women and genders of all races and ethnicities in the academy. Chapter 3 explores work-such as digital dissertations, policy research, and activist engagement- that expands scholarship beyond the university. Chapter 4, which is addressed to faculty advisors and program directors, offers guidance on how advisors can mentor graduate students to consider a wider range of employment pathways, as well as suggestions for more long-term department and program reforms. Chapter 5, addressed to graduate students, offers case studies and suggestions for planning careers outside of the academy. This book will be of interest to graduate students, graduate student advisors, as well as scholars of higher education and critical university studies"--

Genres: Nonfiction

229 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 17, 2020

About the author

Katina L Rogers is a writer, educator, consultant, and independent scholar. She is the author of Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom (Duke University Press, 2020) and Presence of Absence: Meditations on the Unsayable in Writing (punctum books, 2024). In 2021 she founded Inkcap Consulting to work with universities and nonprofits to design and implement creative, sustainable, and equitable structures for humanities education. Her work has been featured in Slate, The New York Times, LA Review of Books, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Reviews

[Sarah]

I loved this book! The author argues that sending humanities PhD students into the workforce beyond the university is good for everyone—students, departments, universities, and the wider world. The book addresses labor issues in higher education: “the single greatest threat to the integrity and health of higher education is the increasing reliance on short-term adjunct instructors,” who now make up over 76% of all teaching positions and receive less than $3,000 per course. Doctoral degree recipients working beyond the classroom, on the other hand, have higher rates of job satisfaction than those even in tenure-track faculty positions. So, how to begin? People who pursue PhDs are “deeply curious, exploratory, and passionate about their work… imagine what could happen if doctoral students were invited to apply a similar approach of inquiry, creativity, and exploration” to their career searches. You can and should apply research skills to the job search itself: “approach your search as you would a research question—with curiosity, close reading skills, an eye for patterns, and perseverance.” The most challenging element will be the work of translation—"showing a prospective employer exactly how your experience within academia can be an asset” in a very different context. The “single most important way you can set yourself up for successful outcomes in your career searches,” is to get to know people in positions and fields that interest you and “organically expand your circle of connections.”

[Jay Jolles]

Should probably be mandatory reading for incoming humanities phds and/or those who advise them. It’s true that there wasn’t really any info in here that’s revolutionary but it was laid out in a compelling, accessible and most importantly actionable way.

[Kari]

Eh. Some good advice but it doesn't feel terribly revolutionary to me. These things are always depressing.

[Amanda]

A thoughtful and thorough meditation on how Humanities programs, and Higher Ed more broadly, can be made more equitable, inclusive, and publicly engaged -- and how they can better serve students by preparing them for a range of roles, rather than the narrowly defined academic path alone. Rogers clearly encapsulates the painfully familiar, deep structural problems facing Higher Ed. While my own experiences have made me cynical, it's good to see people with a genuine commitment to making things better offering creative and actionable solutions.

As a PhD who is transitioning out of academia after 6 years on the job market, I had hoped that the book would be more geared more toward folks like me. Parts of it are, especially the fifth chapter. The advice there is helpful -- and consonant with the information I've gleaned from other sources (like my University's Career Office and Beyond the Professoriate). But I think the book would better serve administrators and faculty who are looking for ways to make a difference, as well as graduate students early in their studies who are considering taking nontraditional paths in their research and in their future careers. If you're someone like me, who is looking to transition out late in the game and just needs help, I wouldn't say this is essential reading.

In sum, it has a much broader focus than I expected, but it does what it sets out to do well.

[Dan Gorman]

The contents of this book are familiar in the best possible way. Katina Rogers has distilled the implicit norms and problems of the academy, the possible reforms that are perennially debated at conferences, the latest research on humanities career outcomes, and the spirit of labor activism into a book that provides a roadmap for graduate students. I hope this book has a significant impact on higher education, especially as the pandemic forces universities to respond to society-wide changes.

[Catherine]

absolutely everything about the humanities PhD could be so much better