the chutry experiment

Actually, the load's pretty heavy--a 25-person composition section is practically 1.25-1.5 courses.

As I mentioned in a post over the weekend, my colleagues were pretty sure my new 4/4 load would be lighter than my previous 3/3 (+1) load.

You've accomplished an incredible amount over these three years.

I'm glad you're talking about these issues here. You are dealing with issues that, at one time or another, plague us all and it would probably be better if we all spoke more openly about them. Actually leveraging the power of a network.....now there's a novel idea...

As someone who "opted out" of academia two years ago, I'd be happy to share my perspective if you ever want to chat. You know how to reach me, so give a call anytime.

Hang in there, buddy!

I find your comments (and KF's) about personae really interesting - as a corollary, I think I've cultivated a slightly more uncertain/whiny/confessional persona than I originally may have intended/wanted - and while that persona *is* me, it's not the only me, and it's interesting how different personae allow us to express different kinds of things - and how much they seem to become something independent from ourselves, if that makes any sense.

In any case, I wish you the best in working out your future plans.

I haven't started whining about my job search yet, but I fear there may be an impending onslaught of bitter posts if something doesn't materialize. Of course, I don't technically need a job until late July.. but still, damn it. I WANT TO KNOW WHERE I'M GOING.

It's important to talk about the job search process. There are a number of reasons why, but one is keep those of us who know you updated. If we then become aware of something, we can chime in and hopefully help out where we can.

Jeff

I find that it's useful to have a sense of humor at times like this, so remember that if Jeff Gannon can get a job, there is hope for us all.

Have you looked into the film and tv companies in the Atlanta area? I know that TCM hires film scholars, although I'm not sure if they're hiring right now.

Anyway, of the four jobs I've had, I found two through listservs and newsgroups, and two through networking. So I'd rate listservs and newsgroups over monster.com etc. in case you're searching online.

I've been working most of the morning on designing an exam for my film students, so haven't had time to respond to all your comments. I have figured out that allergies were a much bigger factor this weekend than I initially realized (with pollen counts over 500).

JBJ, you're right about the load at Tech--it's a "heavy" 3/3, for sure. I'll respond to your post about the Chronicle article later, but while I've had a tough year market-wise, I do think the Brittain Fellowship has been a positive experience.

New Kid, yes the persona issue is interesting, and while I haven't consciously crafted a persona, I've certainly avoided blogging certain topics here.

Lori, Jeff, & Chris, you've illustrated one of my reasons for bringing up this topic: we do need to talk more candidly about the job market, if only because it may open up job opportunities through social networks (I never would have thought to look at TCM, for example).

Jen, good luck on your job search. Yes, it would be nice to know where our mutual job searches will lead...

Chuck, I'm so sorry to hear about the state of things, job-market wise. Though I'd hardly call blogging your concerns about that situation -- both as it pertains to you directly and as it reflects on the profession more generally -- whiny, I do understand why you resist. There's something about the field that makes the admission of anything that might even for a second look like doubt feel really risky. I wonder how much it has to do with the illusion we've built up that the system is fundamentally meritocratic in nature; if we acknowledge our doubts, we feel that we are either announcing our lack of "merit" or threatening to bring the entire merit-system down on our heads. And if the latter -- if this isn't a meritocracy after all -- then the threat to our own well-being within the system is potentially that much greater.

This is why I miss Invisible Adjunct; for a brief time, there was a space in which issues like this could me vigorously discussed, without the usual self-protective orthodoxies holding sway.

Don't make any decisions right now (especially not if you're taking antihistamines!). But don't stop talking or writing about the decisions you need to make, either...

KF, when I hear other people talk about job concerns, I don't pertceive it as "whiny," but I still often resist talking about it, for the reasosn that you've described -- talking about "doubt" in our field does feel pretty risky.

I miss Invisble Adjunct, too, and while I'm not taking antihistamines anyway (I'd be a bigger danger to Atlanta's roadways than I already am), I'm not at all ready to make any decisions, though I'll do my best to talk about them....

"Fundamentally meritocratic?"

All I can say is ditto to what everyone else has said about being on the market. For what it's worth, I'm a newcomer to your blog, and I think it's great. I've really enjoyed the varied discussion. I've often thought it would be very interesting to sneak some hidden camera into MLA interviews--Notes from the Academic Underground or something like that. The whole process itself, whininess aside, is worthy of a documentary of some sort I think. Really . . . Well, maybe.

I'm beginning to think that it would play more like reality TV (MLA as Survivor: Philadelphia Hilton), but that could be because I have The Starlet playing in the background....

I'm in much better spirits now, even if I'm still not sure where the job market will take me. Thanks for the kind words about the blog.

The time is long past due for a mockumentary about the graduate student/academic life, particularly in the English Department. In fact, I've outlined several scripts. I think it would work best as animation.

Who's in?

What kind of animation? Hand-drawn? Claymation? Computer generated? I'm not that picky; count me in.

It'd be great to have access to the Hanna Barbera archive, a la Adult Swim, and superimpose primitive animations on it.

Alas, that's not too likely. So we'll need a skilled digital artist, someone willing to committ to backbreaking unpaid labor for the greater glory of the project.

Maybe a South Park spinoff kind of thing. I kind of like the fact that the Canadians look different from the Americans. Maybe the non-traditional theorists could look "different" from the traditional literature group.

Now a reality TV show would also be worth exploring, though I imagine that it might have to go the mock-reality TV route in order to make up for those stodgy moments when everyone is in their offices grading.

Chuck, you might sometime be interested in the distinctions raised in the short piece "The Making of a Para-Academic" where looking for a job is mapped to labour exchange; earning a living to service exchange and a career to the exchange of cultural capital. The invitation is for the intellectual or the academic to try on the positions of proletariat, petit bourgeois and captialist.

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~lachance/para.htm

Won't solve your problems but will offer a distraction.

For what it is worth, I think it is quite healthy that you have expresed the situation in terms of finding the next job and not in terms of furthering a career. It's a focused approach that doesn't slight your significant production of cultural capital.

Thanks for the link, Francois. I'll admit that my focus on getting the next job is motivated more out of being able to pay the bills than anything else, but I've been trying to understand that as separate from what I've been producing in terms of writing, etc.