Historian at large.
Museum educator at The Mark Twain House & Museum.
Founder and editor at Contingent.
Alto at Voices of Concinnity.
About
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13 responses to “About”
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Hey Erin! Have you considered teaching or seeking employment at a Historically Black College or University? There are several HBCU Liberal Arts institutions: Tougaloo College, Bennett College, Spelman College, Allen University, Claflin University, North Carolina Central University, etc. that would appreciate you.
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You are so not alone! I am 35 and starting over too. I am a historian. I was a postdoc at Yale and now I’m pursuing acting and film at fucking 35. It has been a hard transition, but if you tap into new passions and dreams, you may ultimately find out that this was the best thing that every happened to you. Or not. But we only have one life, so fuck academia and don’t look back! Lot’s wife and all that 🙂
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Hi Erin: Success in the Academy and success in the raw, unfiltered, unpredictable, profoundly unfair, however very real world are miles apart.
I blame the academy, and those who continue to function to promote this distance, since our jobs are to enhance chances for success and raised intellect in our students. It ain’t easy, but if you turn your intellect toward truth and helping as you do in your classes, there is much gratification and much of the same rewards you were expecting to enjoy. Only often the pay is better. And no chair or dean or academic council to overrule you, or deny you….the market will do that and you adjust. BTW: Ability to survive and prosper in the real world has been persistently ignored in our grad schools, in all but the physical sciences. And you are revealing the price we pay. I do hold some negatives for those who considered the Academy as a lifelong dream, esp enjoying the cocoon it provides, then pontificating to students as if they own the rights to all knowledge. Students are catching on. -
I’d love to read your dissertation. It’s the sort of history that interests me — and that I actually buy. Thanks for your work.
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Dear Erin, I love your insight, your wit, and your wisdom. There are so many in the field of education (K-12 and higher) that easily toss aside people’s efforts to strive, to be successful. I hope that you find a creative outlet, beyond the sad world that education has created. Be an historian, and find a place that will give you space, time and income to follow your love and your dreams. You are allowed, and encouraged to grieve. Too many in the field pay lip service to wanting change and improvement, yet they do not follow through. All of the problems in education are self-inflicted. Keep telling your story, and the stories of the work you have done. I hope that some day you find your place. I hope that an alternative path, such as a history association, museum, archive, or agency will have you. Its not us, its the field.
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Good to get out while you still have a chance at another career. I stayed in the adjunct cycle too long, and now I’m close to fifty and there is really no hope for finding anything other than adjunct or fast food work. I’m guessing it will be easier when you have made the transition and aren’t constantly reminded of what we have lost. I am every day, around tenured faculty who are happy and content with a system that works for them, the library that I don’t have time to use, the old research files I’ll never return to, the books I can’t bring myself to donate.
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Erin,
I’ve just read your article in the Chronicle.
We run a program at NC State for postdocs and late stage doc students interested in transitioning to industry careers. Its a week long immersive experience-
I’d love for you to join us.
https://grad.ncsu.edu/students/professional-development/accelerate-to-industry/My very best wishes to you. Thank you for articulating and sharing such a difficult experience.
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It is weird that while everyone suggests you teach at a CC or high school, in your post you say that that isn’t feasible.
Give yourself time to grieve, research next steps in terms of future needs of society, ( medical, technology careers) your experiences that translate onto jobs. They are there, you just have to word it differently.
As part of the baby boomer generation (the tail end) it was always weird to me that society changed so much that we now have multiple careers within our lifetime. What makes me even more quizical about my life is that I am not only a high school grad, have my AA, BS, and MA (the only one in the family) and I don’t know if I am financially better off. My dreams of an excellent, financially, and challenging career was derailed by a change in leadership. I sometimes wonder if I should have been a hairdresser. All mine made double or triple what I made at any job I worked at.
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I would not give up. I would look for teaching possibilities abroad, at good community colleges and at elite private schools where you can still retain your identity as a scholar. I have had a exciting career with full time teaching appointments at universities in the U.S. and abroad and finally ended up with tenure at a community college. I’ve published in the U.S. and China , had exhibitions and gave lectures at major universities. For me the academic struggle has been worth the free time to travel, bring up children, do researcg and live an interesting life.
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Thank-you for the marvelous article that you contributed to the Chronicle. I want to add a few thoughts, but first I must preface my remarks with the admission that I am one of the lucky ones with tenured position. For many worthy scholars, mine is an enviable position.
The second part of your article touched me. As a graduate student, I enthusiastically worked to make myself an expert in Brazilian history. I spent as much time in Brazil as I could financially afford. I became fluent in Portuguese to the extent that I lost my ability to translate Portuguese idioms into English, i.e. I thought in Portuguese. I photocopied a substantial reserve of material that could be used for future publications. I accumulated a small library of works in English, Portuguese and Spanish that might enhance my writing and teaching expertise. Everything that I read and all the texts that I accumulated nourished my dream of adding something significant to my academic discipline and to scholarly inquiry in general. My dissertation drew compliments from my examiners and most thought that I excelled at Brazilian history, history in general, and in critical thinking.
The kudos that I received as a graduate student did not translate into a tenure-track position at a four-year college or university. Instead, I landed a tenure-track position at a community college in San Diego, an outcome that many would envy but that also ended my contributions to Latin American history.
I contacted every academic publisher interested in Latin American history about publishing my revised dissertation. None expressed interest. Especially hurtful was the response by Duke University Press, which had published The Brazil Reader that I co-edited with my advisor. Although one reviewer recommended my monograph’s publication with or without revision, Duke rejected my manuscript on the basis of another reviewer who criticized the manuscript without specific references to the manuscript. Around the same time, Duke informed me that I would not edit a second edition of the Brazil Reader even though they were initially enthused about my participation in the project. My conclusion, although unsubstantiated and completely a suspicion on my part, was that an academic press would not publish a research monograph authored by or a reader edited by a community college faculty member.
The sad part is that I wanted to add something to my field. I knew that I would probably remain a community-college instructor, but I hoped to make my research and ideas public. I hoped to influence a future generation of scholars with my ideas. Instead, my ideas will remain unknown and my contributions to the field will be nullified. This hurts!
How does this relate to your article? As a graduate student, I wanted to add something to my field. I accumulated a wealth of secondary and primary material, plus my own writing and analysis, with the intent of contributing to the interpretation of Latin American History and history/philosophy in general. All of that is now forgotten. As Chair of the Social Sciences Department at a community college, I am more concerned with enrollments, interviewing new adjuncts, and finding open classrooms than providing students and faculty with scholarly historical analysis. I have become a lower-level bureaucrat. I am at ease with this outcome since it provides me with a decent financial future.
Yet, I still remember that at one time I hoped to add something to the interpretation of twentieth-century Brazilian history and history in general. Perhaps, I overestimate the quality of my research and ideas. But, I remember that other people respected me and welcomed my ideas. They now have forgotten me as I dwell in the academic gulag known as the community college system. I am so disappointed that my research and interpretations will never be disseminated. I do not want or expect a position at a four-year institution, but I regret that my contributions to the field will be forever lost.
And so, as your essay states, knowledge is lost. Please do not interpret my tirade as an egoistic claim that my works and ideas are superior. I just want to say that an enormity of ideas, by me and others, are lost in the syrup churned by the academic process that is no more than a lottery whose jackpot is a tenure-track position at any institution of “higher education.”
As chair of my department, I know that many of our instructors possess a wealth of knowledge. Sadly, their ideas will never influence thinking in their fields or add to the general teaching of their disciplines. This is a terrible loss to scholarship and pedagogy.-
John, first, I feel your pain and your story saddens me, however, have you thought about turning your dissertation into a nonfiction book? I would read it, and I bet others would too. Please don’t let all that good work fall into the growing void. Don’t let the out of touch frozen establishment kill intellect. Be a part of the pendulum that will eventually swing back and knock them off their stupid horses. Nonfiction is the easiest thing to get a traditional publisher to publish, and you have the credentials they’re looking for.
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Hi Erin, I’d like to read your dissertation in its entirety because I find I’m working on a project very close to yours, just slightly earlier (1804-1820). I couldn’t find your email address and I don’t have a twitter, but hopefully, we can get in contact because I really do want to know what you think about conversions during this time.
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