Blog CCXXIII (223): The Quit Litters

Apparently there is a whole new genre called "academic quit lit."  Basically these are essays from college professors--usually younger ones--who have decided to leave the profession in which they explain their reasons why.  Colleen Flaherty of Inside Higher Ed wrote an article on the genre: "Public Good-byes: Recent Dear John Letters from Academics Leaving Higher Education Signal a Resurgence in 'Quit Lit.'" They were not the only media outlet interested in the topic.  The Atlantic published several essays on this topic.  Ian Bogost's article makes his position clear with his title: "No One Cares That You Quit Your Job."  It is a short, but strong easy and well worth the read.  Megan Garber wrote another article on the topic: "The Rise of 'Quit Lit.'"  She notes that there is a strong theme in this literature: "'I quit,' goes the text. 'And you should, too,' goes the subtext."

All of these articles referenced an article that Oliver Lee, an assistant professor of history at the University of Texas at Arlington, wrote the Vox news and opinion website: "I Have One of the Best Jobs in Academia. Here's Why I'm Walking Away."

I spent six and a half years living in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex; I have been to UT Arlington; I even spent some time looking up Lee's background, and I would never agree with his title.  But it is probably a bit unfair to pick on one professor, even if his essay got a lot of attention.  The Flaherty article makes it clear that a lot of others are quitting academia, and writing about it.  My read of the article is that the people who are going public often have very good options.  Lee, for example, has a law degree, and is apparently starting a legal career.  Others are going into the corporate world where they make much more than a college professor, even one at a very good school. 

Bogost in his article noted: "Why should anyone be impressed that somebody can quit something? Much more impressive is figuring out is how to live with it. More staypieces please." 

That request was easy to fulfill.  James Nikopoulos, an assistant professor of languages and literature at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan--which is probably no easy gig--wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education that the authors of "quit lit" remind him of Arsenio Hall's character in Coming to America objecting to doing manual labor: "I’m badly in need of a manicure."  He offers an important observation: "The fact is that no profession is perfect. Young architects dream of erecting museums but spend more time redesigning kitchens. Even the 'dream' professions are not immune: Aren’t movie stars always complaining about having to answer inane questions in pointless interviews?"

Matthew Pratt Guterl, a professor of American studies at Brown University, wrote a post on his blog entitled: "What to Love."  He decides to take a the-glass-is-half-full approach: "Other realities are out there. Other landscapes for you to inhabit. Or to create. These other landscapes feature faculty who are supportive colleagues and even friends. Students who have big brains and bigger hearts, who are peers and not subjects, consumers, or products. Administrators who spend every single waking moment trying to make everyone’s life easier."  Don't quit.  "Stick around. Fix the place. For others.

You have to build this idyll."

Ann Little responded on her blog as well: "Here’s what I tell myself when I get frustrated:  I work in what used to be called a 'helping profession.'  That is, my job isn’t ripping people off or selling them garbage they don’t need.  My job is offering education and critical thinking skills to students."

Those are good rejoinders to the quit litters.  The basic idea behind the In the Service of Clio blog is trying to offer some advice to younger scholars on how to do things better, and that mostly rejects quit lit.  People quite for all sorts of reason.  A lot of it happens in grad school, where it should happen: "This just isn't for me," etc.  Reading the Flaherty article, I get the impression that the reasons for leaving are often quite petty.  I know of one case where a younger scholar received an AHA book prize, but hated working and living in a small, provincial city like New Orleans, and quit.  On the other hand, life is short and if you are not happy, you only get one shot at life.  Nor should those of us that remain behind dismiss the reasons people have for leaving an academic career: if they have an opportunity to make a lot of money, or do something that is also fun, exciting, and rewarding all to the good. Those are very understandable reasons that can pull someone into something else, rather than getting pushed out of academia.  

The simplest piece of advice I can offer if you are considering quitting comes in the form of some questions:

• Why did you want a Ph.D.? 
• What do you want to do with your career? 
• Can you do that using a university as a platform? 
• Can you use another career as a platform for those objectives? 
• Are these objectives worth the opportunity costs?
• Will another career make things better?  Will it resolve the grievances/shortcomings you are facing in academia?