Academic job market thread
A lot of our readers are graduate students or new Ph.Ds. This probably means a lot (or at least some) of us are looking for gainful employment. And the excruciatingly long U.S. job cycle is starting up — oh joy! Several brand name universities and colleges are currently hiring. I am curious to hear from readers on impressions of the current anthro job market. Discussion could include: topical trends in hiring, approaches to letter writing, styles of job talk, styles of rejection letter, convention interviews, on campus interviews, gossip of any kind. I realize there are lots of places on the internet for this sort of discussion, but here we have our own special anthropology club. Anything you want to discuss?
Strong is Thomas Strong, lecturer in the department of anthropology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He has previously held teaching and/or research posts at the University of Helsinki, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Wisconsin, and (oddly enough) the American Academy of Ophthalmology. His publications include essays on the symbolism of blood and body in the U.S. and elsewhere, new cross-disciplinary work on kinship, and ideas of culture loss and bodily detumescence amongst the Dano-speakers of Papua New Guinea's eastern highlands province. His on-going research in PNG concerns transformations in sociality, gender relations, and personhood following the mid-twentieth-century repudiation of the traditional men's cult in the upper Asaro valley. His other interests include 'brand' as an ethnographic and analytic concept, HIV/AIDS (especially in the U.S. gay male community), and celebrity/fame.
I have a burning question for many of you: I need to start thinking about where to apply to Grad schools next year. What interests me is the regional factor. What kinds of regional signigances/values attatched to graduate degrees in terms of employment in the different regions (as I am told often that this is so). For example, a credential from an Australian institution might not be benefical to work in Canada or the US(?). To what extent are these regional values of education real and, if real, why is this the case?
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Humorous observation from Australia:
I recently sat on an interview panel for a well known (non-university) employer of anthropologists. For a position that pays around $70K (AUD) we had very few applicants. Only 3 interviews were conducted. Compare this to 6 years ago when the same position was offered there were 31 applicants and 12 interviews were conducted.
There is something of a shortage of experienced anthropologists -or anthropologists willing to gain the experience- in Australia. Most of the work available here is in applied anthropology, working with Indigenous NGO representative bodies and requires people to live in places that are a long way from the (major) cities (tongue-in-cheek comment: I suspect most Australians hold the belief that if they do not live within 30km of the coast they will DIE).
In a recent discussion with a colleague who works for a well-known NGO, I was told that there are about 620+ outstanding native title claims and not enough anthropologists to do them.
Perhaps we need to start importing anthropologists from the US just like we are importing doctors from India and nurses England.
regards,
Rebecca
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Joshua, my impression is that North American degrees are considered prestigious or desirable in many parts of the world (including especially Australia from what I have heard), but that the reverse does not hold true. However, I am a little naive about these things. Anyone else care to comment?
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I received my PhD in 2003, and now have a tenure-track position at an okay ranked regional liberal arts college. I like it, but would prefer a move to a place with more intellectual climate, either with students (undergrad or grad) or with faculty. So my question is WHEN to try to move, before tenure (2-5 years away), after tenure, now? Whats the job market like for mid- and senior assistants, and what’s it like for Associates?
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LibArtsAsstProf: I would be willing to share my experiences, but offline (by email if you want). I moved at three years into a tenure track position, and am now tenured at my current institution.
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