There have been a spate of posts about why folks have quit academia…. so much so that Dan Drezner issued this challenge:
Has anyone written a “Why I Haven’t Quit the Academy” post yet?
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) October 27, 2013
So, I decided to figure out why I did not quit. Sure, looking backwards from where things stand now, it would have been a mistake to quit. Things have worked out really well for me, but that was hardly foreseeable and there were a couple of points along the way where quitting might have made sense:
- It took me three years to land a tenure track position, enduring a second year of VAP-ing (being a visiting assistant professor) at a place where I had lost the competition for the TT position in my first year. A year of dead man walking was not entirely super.
- I had a TT position in a dysfunctional department in a place I didn’t want to live. I spent several years trying to leave, but did not cash in on the few interviews I was able to get each of my last few years there.
- While on a fellowship in DC, I could have bailed, but I did not look for any policy jobs in the DC area.
- I spent several years trying to get out of Quebec, but did not consider seriously quitting the academy
The reality is that I never really seriously considered quitting, although that would have become a serious consideration had I not gotten the TT job in the middle of my third year on the market. Why didn’t I quit or think about it seriously when things looked bad.?
- I never had to adjunct. I can barely imagine how folks can endure adjuncting for any lenght of time.
- I have a crappy imagination? In grad school, when I tried to imagine alternative career paths, I came up with no realistic options: I could be a policeman, a firefighter, etc. I just didn’t think I could do anything else. Turns out that there is nothing else I would rather do.
- I am risk averse: I’d rather live where I would not want to live and profess and have a certain paycheck than try to do something with far less job security.
- I really, really like this job.
Yep, even as a VAP in a department containing a few hostiles, I really liked teaching, I really enjoyed researching stuff that I found interesting, and I really liked being in control over what I was doing when I was doing it. This business has a lot of constraints—well, one big one: you cannot choose where you live. But you can control pretty much everything else.
I have endured more bad department chairs than good ones, yet the nature of the job means that they can only do so much damage. In my previous job, the chair and I had a very hostile relationship, but there was only so much he could do to me. I could still engage in the research that thrilled me (see the forthcoming book), I could still teach sharp students and do it in a fun way (no Halloween costumes this year, alas), and I could still do the service stuff for the discipline.
All along the way, I have depended on smart, sweet people who helped me get through the hard times. Indeed, I have had a heap of fun along the way, with many lunches, poker games, parties, and other interactions that made the going easier. I so enjoy going to conferences as these provide opportunities to catch up with the folks who were so very supportive and meet new folks.
So, why didn’t I quit? The job itself is very sweet if one values the freedom to engage one’s curiosity and delights in exchanging ideas with young people (ug, that makes me sound old). Combine with the amazing people that I have worked with, drinked with, teased, been teased by, and so on, and it is easier to see why I have not looked to the exit.
Other than Phil Schrodt’s missive, who else are you thinking of?
For a start, see this https://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/24/quitting_academic_jobs_professor_zachary_ernst_and_other_leaving_tenure.html?utm_content=bufferfe65e&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer
In response to Drezners tweet though, ‘why I quit’ isnt an interesting questions (no offense to this post which is, of course, interesting)
It’s like ‘why I didnt smoke crack’, or ‘why I didnt join Al Qaeda’..who cares? (Once again, I genuinely enjoyed the post, so no offense meant. Jesus theres a lot of caveats here)
Maybe it’s just sour grapes on my part, not having had a chance to quit or not quit academia b/c I didn’t get a TT academic job in the first place, but this post seems smug and self-congratulatory to me and, in brief, somewhat pointless. I mainly blame Drezner’s tweet, which was even more pointless.
Tis why I initially did not jump at the chance when I saw the first and then the second and then third “why I quit” pieces. But I have been called smug before, so I am ok with that. As I note, I had some significant bumps at the start, but I could not imagine doing anything else–both because I have a lousy imagination and because this job suits me very well.
I can’t help feeling that this piece misses a (the?) point of the “I quit academia” essays that have been published, namely that they highlight serious flaws in the labour economy of Higher Education that those of us who haven’t quit academia need to take notice of and respond to (or at least try to).
I haven’t quit academia because I’ve been fortunate to be selected for jobs that have allowed me to pursue doing the things that I love and be paid decently for it, and so haven’t been put in the insidious position of having to decide whether to quit in order to try and earn enough money to live on or save/salvage my health.
I directly benefit from the labour of sessionals/TAs/adjuncts, and they are undoubtedly one of the reasons I haven’t quit academia, simply because without them the workload would be impossible. Acknowledging this so directly is more than a little uncomfortable, but it’s a timely reminder that those of us who have been lucky (and this is not to imply that people have not also worked hard or overcome difficulties or setbacks) and have the privilege of viable academic jobs need to listen carefully to what those who have quit or who are contemplating it are saying, and try and find ways to mitigate the negative impacts that trying to “make it” in academia can have on people’s lives.
“I can’t help feeling that this piece misses a (the?) point of the “I
quit academia” essays that have been published, namely that they
highlight serious flaws in the labour economy of Higher Education that
those of us who haven’t quit academia need to take notice of and respond
to (or at least try to).”
Do you have a link to the other ones by any chance? I only read Schrodt’s and his seemed more concerned with the creeping hand of age and the futility of research fads….. Id be interested in seeing a perspective on the role of adjuncts etc
Rebecca Shuman did a piece on them for Slate.com recently: https://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/24/quitting_academic_jobs_professor_zachary_ernst_and_other_leaving_tenure.html
Thanks!
While I think PTJ’s point that you should be an academic only if
you can’t imagine doing anything else is valid, Steve commendably shows
that “can’t imagine” is often nothing more than risk aversion and lack
of imagination. No doubt people find ways to rationalize their decisions in hindsight and it’s amazing what you will put up with in order to maintain stability. And let’s not forget that ultimately Drezner and, to a lesser extent Saideman, aren’t exactly examples of people who slog it out in the wastelands of the middle-academy. For all he might protest, Drezner is basically a moose-head so is it any wonder his job seems like paradise?
whats a moose head,out of curiosity?
Can’t believe there is no mention here of the difficulties of publishing. Peer review has become insane. It has pushed me over the edge a few times.
This seems hard to square with comments we hear about the proliferation of publishing outlets. I presume you mean that top-journals are basically impossible and second-tier journals are *why bother.*
Steve, you don’t mention what your spouse or significant other does. The piece reads a bit as though you were the only person involved in your career decision. A lot of the quitting stems from the impossibility of reconciling two academic careers, or reconciling an academic career with whatever else one’s spouse does, various factors that render one geographically immobile — and that’s actually where a lot of the adjuncting comes from as well. I don’t know enough about your situation to know how it contributed to the ability to ‘hang in there’ — Multiple VAP’s in various parts of the country undoubtedly get tricky once there are two careers in the mix, for example — unless you enjoy commuter relationships. (For example, if during your DC fellowship your spouse found a great job in DC, might you then have jumped ship as well?)
Mary, good question. My wife is a freelance editor and aspiring novelist, which she started once we moved to UVM since there was no publishing industry there. Once she adopted this kind of career, location really did not affect her. The low income did affect our decisions since we could not ever ride on her income, which obvious makes quitting less thinkable.
The DC year happened in part to get her close to family rather than making a job more likely.
We definitely had heaps of family conversations along the way, so it was really our decisions, not mine. My wife and daughter cannot imagine me doing anything else either ;)