This statement: “It’s like an urban legend among job-seekers. Teaching is everything! Your “teaching portfolio” is the Grail!” Really? I was never told that nor did I ever think teaching was valued; on the contrary.

Adjuncts put a lot into teaching because there has been a structural separation between teaching and research, with the former being devalued (always with an eye to reducing costs per credit hour) and the latter being valued (particularly if it brings revenue to the university). But research budgets are also being cut, and tenured professors are also being squeezed. This is a far bigger transition – and it’s global – than any career advice can solve. While I blame nobody for jumping ship – fleeing academia – some of us will stay in it no matter what; we will have to have a different kind of conversation.

As a union activist, I think this is a labor issue that should be approached as any other labor issue. The ideology of academia (be smart, work hard, succeed) hinders class consciousness; The fact that the path to a PhD might be filtered by socio-economic status might not be helping matters.

I wish we had a really good handle on the economics of career development in anthropology. Since we don’t have a clue, career advice can easily become nothing more than rationalization for a seriously exploitative system that has emerged for a variety of very big structural reasons.

Went into private contracting. Still not making much money and have no bennies (I’m floated by my computer-progammer hubby), but I work only about 5 days per month for about the same pay as 2 courses while teaching. Considering I’ve got 2 kids, one of whom is still in diapers, it works. Still, I was sad when the back to school sales started.

Speaking out about labor conditions in that circumstance may be seen to compromise the spouse’s position and might cause friction in other ways. Mitigating that is going to be difficult. But also the experience of being an adjunct spouse may be better in terms of respect and collegiality than for non-spouses.

In my own case the worst thing about adjuncting is the lack of collegiality, you don’t really have colleagues when you are an adjunct, as Kristina pointed out. I have taught classes for a short term at a small SLAC where I didn’t meet any of the faculty until I basically started knocking on doors until I found someone to introduce myself to. I have yet to meet anyone there who hired me, and I’ve taught there four years now. Being an adjunct is exceptionally isolating.

Another negative thing is negotiating HR, it is such a nightmare. What kind of job makes you look up all the contact information and contact everyone involved in the infrastructure of your employment? Usually before you are even on the payroll, no less. Its absurd there isn’t more of a welcoming procedure for adjuncts, in general.

The lack of health insurance is also a problem, it drives me nuts that I can say “I graduated with a PhD, and that amounts to being fired and rehired without benefits” because the pay is identical to when I was a teaching fellow, but with no health insurance or opportunity to purchase health insurance under a group rate. Being able to access the same health insurance the grad students have would help a lot.

I did have a plan B and C and D, but the market crash makes all of them look highly unrealistic. I am unwilling at this point to invest anymore into education, it seems like an expensive risky proposition. Applying for administrative jobs has gotten me no where though, so I may be driven to it.

“You’re right, Ryan, that I am now outside looking in. But I think it’s good to have adjunct-allies in this conversation as well…”

Hmmm. My wording may have been a little unclear: I mean to say that I am on the outside looking in! But I agree with you that having adjunct-allies in on the conversation is definitely a good thing.

And I think you have a lot of good ideas here for trying to move things forward.

http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/01/24/adjuncting-and-stockholm-syndrome/

The main reason I hated being an adjunct wasn’t the pay (which was ludicrously small, yes, but I was luckily in a position not to mind terribly), it was the lack of collegiality and respect. It was being treated like a temporary, expendable employee.

Coming into a new adjunct position (i.e., not at your PhD institution) means getting up to speed incredibly fast in order to deliver the best course instruction to students that you can. It means not really knowing how to get things done (e.g., add students to the class), not knowing what your rights or benefits are (do you know if you’re eligible for any sort of retirement contributions?), and not knowing whom to turn to when a problem arises with a student, a TA, a supervisor, etc. That’s what troubled me the most about adjuncting – feeling like I didn’t have an ally in the department or the university. I think this was compounded in some cases by the fact that many potential colleagues didn’t get to know me because I was going to be gone in a semester or a year.

Maybe we could start some sort of adjunct mentoring program? Adjunct conditions vary by university (and sometimes by department), but new adjuncts (and new-to-a-university adjuncts) could really benefit from a simple booklet or webpage that explains some of their rights and benefits, and perhaps lists a faculty mentor or ombudsman-for-adjuncts. This could easily exist within the AAA if it doesn’t already, at least as an outline. [For example, I found out that I was eligible to contribute to a 403(b) as an adjunct at UNC; but it took me a while to find that information and even HR was a little confused.]

This wouldn’t change adjunct pay, but at least it would help bring decent working conditions to adjuncts in anthropology. It would also help faculty and departments hiring adjuncts to realize the ways they can and should support adjuncts that require very little of their time or effort. A little lunch invitation goes a long way toward making an adjunct feel welcome and appreciated.

Lulzing at the idea of an “expiration date” for anthropologists. Some of us (me included) are getting downright moldy.

As for moving abroad, I would recommend against the UK. Aside from the generally tight market, the changes being forced through by the coalition government do not bode well for the future of British social science. There’s a great deal of uncertainty there. I’m largely ignorant of the anthropological situation outside the US/UK, where I have concrete experience, but I suspect there is nowhere to hide with any degree of security from the neoliberal monster, and at any rate we’d just be shifting the problem geographically to places where scholars may already be struggling for a foothold in their own places. Our best chance is probably to unite and fight rather than duck and cover.

Thanks for the comments. Lots of good advice for those of us who are getting close to finishing, but still on the outside looking in when it comes to getting jobs with an anthro degree.

“As Matt suggests, it’s important to have a Plan B (and C and D)…”

Agreed, and it might be time for this need to be reflected in the actual training of anthropologists, at least more of them. I think a lot of programs still gear their programs toward producing more people who go into academia. But the grads CAN’T all go there–so there are certain trends and habits in grad training that might need some rethinking. Working outside of academia should be less of an afterthought, IMO.