Hi Friends,
Just thought some of you might be interested in this. This one of my professor’s blogs. He teaches medieval lit here at UVA, but blogs about intersections of literature, academics, and culture. More long form essays than little tumblr blurbs. Lots of thought provoking election year stuff at the moment. Y’all should check it out.
Here is the ‘follow on Tumblr’ link
Zach
Two of the best covers ever. Modernists just don’t get stuff this good. More reasons to stick with pre-1800 stuff and avoid all that Post-Interesting stuff. (Taken with Instagram)
I love working with such cool people. The best thing about being a medievalist is getting to roll- getting medieval- with other medievalists. We make virtue of necessity and transgress all disciplinary bounds and generally have a lot of fun together and occasionally someone (never me) comes up with something brilliant. One of my biggest goals in the great grad school hunt was finding a place with a vibrant medieval community and UVA has one for sure. Life’s crazy thus the paucity of posts, but the people are good.
It is a generally known fact that I am rather unromantic about my PhD/being a career academic. The reasons for this are rational, true, and- I think- healthy.[1] Yet this is not the whole story. Last week, my first week in Charlottesville, I took a run up to campus. When I run I listen to music.[2] That evening, as I ran up The Lawn and the steps of the Rotunda- ‘Encore’- blazing in my ears, I realized several things in succession or all at once. Memory is a bitch like that; it’s hard to figure out how and why things cohere. I realized how blessed I am that at each step my education- BA, MPhil, and now PhD- I have lived and worked in truly inspiring places. Each campus has its own unique charm but they are all the same in that their specific geographies militate in favor of productive reflection. Asbury is the quintessential liberal arts college and an All American small town, Oxford is iconic in the strongest terms, and UVA is perhaps the cradle of American public education.
What exactly do you mean when you say, “Oxford was no longer worth the money”? Do you think that it isn’t worth doing a PhD in Medieval Studies at Oxford? I’m asking because I’ve been planning on applying for it.
Answering here b/c I get more formatting options…
Good question. Its actually several questions. A few points.
Also, NB, these are just my opinions based on my specific circumstances, some are addressed below, some I will not address ever on tumblr. It is no way a criticism of the Oxford DPhil model in principle but rather a discussion of a choice between two excellent options based on what I wanted for my life at a specific, individual, moment.
1. Oxford is a DPhil, not a PhD. I am not being pedantic. This is a difference.
2. Medieval Studies or English Literature 650-1550 or Medieval History. This determines your departmental housing, which is crucial. I was Eng. Lit.
3. Money question: ‘worth it.’ I will presuppose that you are not independently wealthy and will in fact need/want an academic job to pay bills.
So our first question: do you want to work in the US or in the UK? A Dphil is a research degree. You come over, you do your thesis, you graduate. A PhD is both a research degree and a professional internship of a sort.
Anonymous asked: How did you "gain access" to the academic world? How did you manage to publish your first paper/give your first lecture etc.?
Honestly: hard work, talent, and luck in that order. I am by no means ‘there’ either. I am between my masters and PhD, which I will start this fall, but the only way one actually ‘gains access’ is by obtaining an actual academic job. It is crucial to note, though, that the ‘academic world’ is a professional market separate from the life of the mind. Living an intellectual life does not require an academic job, in fact such jobs may actually preclude or inhibit many sorts of intellectual ventures.
Entering the academic profession is rather straight forward. BA, MA, PhD, Job or more rationally BA, PhD, Job. The problem is that there will always be more PhD’s than there are jobs, especially good jobs if one harbors research ambitions. If you love books and love to teach you will in all likelihood be more satisfied teaching at a posh private high school than a low end college. If one commits to the career academic track, though, it requires you, or at least it did me, to both work harder than I ever have and to emotionally divest myself from the process and realize that no degree or job could ever define me body, soul, and mind.
A PhD is about getting a job not finding yourself or giving yourself to a book/subject your really like- unless of course you are independently wealthy and have no need to recourse to employment to sustain the lifestyle you desire. I would say that the first step is to be honest with yourself about what you want out of life, what you are good at, and what path has the most rational likelihood of bringing you happiness. If there is a teacher/prof whose life you envy in a very wholesome sense, ask to have buy them coffee/drink/whatever and simply say: ‘I admire you, I want a career/life like you, how did you get here and what advice do you have for me?’ Then listen. They may not say what you want to here. But listen. You always win be being sincere, humble, and listening.
Then establish a plan, way points, goals, etc. INCLUDING, and this is crucial, the level of short term pain/sacrifice you are willing to tolerate to get what you want in the future. And know that what you think are short term sacrifices, esp. in the world of relationships, have long term consequences. Establish in your mind an absolute level of debt you are willing to accrue and do not exceed it. Debt will make you hate the very reason you acquired it in the first place. I left Oxford for the sole reason that it was no longer worth the money. For a time it was, but I reached the point where the expected outlays did not justify the expected returns and consequently I sacrificed the short term (3-4 years) of genuine fun and academic and personal pleasure I know for a fact to be found at Oxford for the chance at a career on both sides of the Atlantic. So the long answer to your question is that I don’t quite know how it happened that I gave my first paper, but I do clearly know the path I put myself on, which is the important part. If you put yourself on the path, work hard, are kind to people, demonstrate a level of talent- and the ability to knuckle down and just out work everyone else is a talent- and show you give a damn but, however, you are not defined by your degrees, good things will happen.
If you try to go into the field b/c you think it looks fun/it will validate you/people will look up to you/you will have an easy job/etc. it will break you. My life looks fun on tumblr precisely b/c I only blog the fun parts. All of the Oxford pix are on my way to and from work. What is not blogged is the day to day tedium and petty frustration and anxiety that comprises most of adult life regardless of job.
*sorry if this seems patronizing or pedantic. I mean it quite sincerely. As David Foster Wallece says, I wish you so much more than luck.
Frequently I am asked what the academic life is like. First, I have no idea what this is or when it starts. For me I would say it really started in a basement hallway of Reasoner Hall at Asbury College when I skipped a class to talk to a prof about Beowulf. As to the nature of this life, all jokes aside, it is a good life for those who can live it. Anyhow, I have been unreasonably blessed with good friends and mentors in my field. Below is a bit of advice from one of my best friends. Will keep his identity covert save to say he has made his own way, now occupies a major continental chair, and previously held prestigious posts at Princeton, Oxford, and in London. He is also an even better person than scholar.
Data is, of course, open to interpretation and specific salaries vary radically by field. And, for example, a handful of superstars pulling down a million or two a year (not impossible for say, the dean of an Ivy League Law School or maybe a hot shot scientist who will bring in tons of gov’t research grants) would wash out a lot of 50k English lit salaries but still blow up the average. Also, many of the top salaries are crushed by cost of living/high local taxes, and the drop off after Public/Rich universities is scary.
“Moreover, since research professors must have graduate students, every major department must have its own PhD. program whether or not its graduates have any hope of finding jobs. The authors cite a telling statistic: between 2005 and 2007, American universities awarded 101,009 doctoral degrees but in those years created just 15,820 assistant professorships. Few graduate students have any realistic hope of pursuing careers in the fields in which they are being trained. Many of these redundant PhD.s wind up driving taxicabs or managing restaurants, but many are also recruited back to campus as adjuncts to teach courses for a fraction of what tenured professors are paid. The authors estimate that 70 percent of all college teaching is performed by adjuncts, graduate assistants, and other non-faculty personnel.”
Seriously, anyone considering a graduate degree, especially in the Liberal Arts, should read this.
Un buen día en Montserrat! La temperatura fue perfecto y la roca fue cool! El estilo allí es más dura, pero me gusta mucho!
SOLO MISSION: BEAR AND BACK
Note to self: 100+ mile rides are highly more enjoyable in good company. Longest solo ride to date. Won’t do that...
Instagram Roundup, It’s been a lot of cycling.
BUMMER.
If a person is stuck in the stacks fantasizing about librarians, I’m assuming it’s because they can’t find their book and need help real...
By request.
It takes an ocean not to break.
