A new hard copy issue of
Perspectives on History is out and I now feel like I can reproduce in full my article that appeared in the April issue. If you want the traditiona citation it is: Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, "
Reform Time: Some Proposals to Help Solve the Job Crisis" Perspectives on History, vol. 54, no. 4 (April 2013), 38-39. Here is the article:
The biggest problem now facing the history discipline is the job crisis. In
2011, Anthony T. Grafton, then president of the AHA, and James Grossman,
executive director, published
"No More Plan B: A Very Modest Proposal for Graduate Programs in
History" in
Perspectives on History, generating much
discussion. "We're trying to say, 'Wake up. Times have changed. There are more
opportunities and that's a good thing,'" Grossman said in a subsequent
interview.
Grafton and Grossman realize the history business has serious problems and
made an effort to be constructive: offering more sessions at the AHA annual
meeting on career issues and using the AHA website to make the profession "less
hierarchal." Still, they argue that solutions to the job crisis must come from
history departments that produce the PhDs.
I understand their view, and it is legitimate—the AHA is an umbrella
organization and can hardly order a history department to do something—but they
are arguing for their limitations. I found much of the essay vague, but I was
also disturbed by an important implication of their approach. The authors have
written off scholars who have finished their PhDs and are now in the
unemployment lines. They discussed making changes to shape the future, but said
little about helping some of the most vulnerable members of the AHA in the
present.
There is still a lot that the Association can do even within the existing
structure. The purpose of this article is to offer some realistic ideas in that
regard:
1) Sponsor a conference on what the AHA can
do: Make this a weekend, nonacademic conference. Invite 30 to 40
historians (much more and it becomes counterproductive) who have taken the lead
on job issues. Make the mission of this conference one of brainstorming on
concrete initiatives for the AHA to undertake. Maybe there's little the
Association can do, but outside perspectives might generate new ideas that the
AHA had not considered.
2) Sponsor a conference on what departments
can do: This will prevent departments from having to reinvent
the wheel. Make this a weekend, nonacademic conference, like the one above.
Invite 20 to 30 department chairs and directors of graduate education, who can
speak for their institutions and are deeply involved with graduate student
education, to brainstorm and generate ideas. Possible discussions might include
creating departmental alumni networks, reducing the course load, time given to
write the dissertation, and so on.
The two ideas above are different from the AHA's Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation-funded initiative to explore nontraditional careers. While this
project will be extremely helpful in garnering data, my proposed conferences are
about tapping into the significant creative energies of the profession, being
"less hierarchal," leveraging the authority of the AHA, and pointing a diffuse
discipline in certain general directions.
3) Create a new AHA division for K–12
teachers. This division can offer important advice to interested
AHA members on the requirements for teaching jobs, which can vary significantly
from state to state. The AHA has secondary school representatives on the
Teaching Division and the Council, but these individuals cannot offer systematic
programs to help AHA members find employment.
4) Discount advertising: The
AHA should offer steep discounts to organizations other than history
departments—archaeology departments, public history firms, state agencies that
do historic preservation, etc.—for job announcements in Perspectives. By steep discount, I mean one dollar per ad, two
dollars for longer ads.
Apparently this idea has been discussed and rejected. Some members
of the AHA Council believe that budget-constrained departments should not pay
more than a corporation. The problem with this argument is that it puts the
interests of departments ahead of the larger needs of the discipline, newly
minted PhDs, and the AHA itself. This suggestion would make the AHA an asset for
organizations other than history departments, in order to be inclusive to all
those who study the past; increase employment opportunities for AHA members; and
increase the membership of the organization.
5) Add other disciplines to the AHA presidency
rotation: In the past the AHA had presidents in closely related
disciplines like political science, library science, and archaeology. Since the
end of World War II, the AHA has been dominated by academic historians. It is
time for the AHA to make efforts to bring others into the organization.
Broadening the leadership of the AHA is the first step in expanding the
organization's knowledge of other careers where the history PhD can find
employment and contribute to our understanding of the past.
6) Develop an AHA alternative career speaker
series: Most AHA members have gone from grad school to
employment as professors, and often do not have ideas about or contacts in other
fields. Many historians in alternate careers have done significant trailblazing
that the rest of the discipline does not appreciate. An AHA-sponsored speaker
series can make these experiences better known while enhancing the reputations
of archaeologists, political scientists, librarians, archivists, journalists,
documentary filmmakers, historical preservationists, professional writers,
museum curators, and editors who explore the past. This series will start the
conversations that Grafton and Grossman want to have take place. Academic
historians are not talking to these professional communities regularly and the
AHA should take the lead in initiating these conversations.
7) Develop conversion programs: The AHA
should invite a number of these other professions to a series of small weekend
workshops on the skills needed to work in other fields. While a PhD in history
is a great credential, the training does not always translate easily to other
professional career paths. The AHA needs to help its members find ways to
leverage the assets of the degree.
So, how does a history PhD trained to become a professor convert to
another field? To provide an answer, a conversion program needs to address
certain questions: Will new PhDs need another degree? Are internships important?
Where do you go to find these jobs? In which organizations and conferences
should one participate?
The products of these small workshops can include: a series of AHA
pamphlets, such as The History PhD as Documentary
Filmmaker, etc.; a series of sessions at the AHA annual meeting;
templates or syllabi for similar efforts by history departments; or an AHA
speaker series on alternative careers. At the last annual meeting, the AHA took
a good, first step in this direction with "The Malleable PhD"
mini-conference—eight sessions exploring employment opportunities in business
and government. More such efforts are needed on a systematic basis.
8) Develop an incentive program for closing down PhD
programs: Many of these proposals are designed to alleviate
symptoms. The root of the problem is the overproduction of history PhDs. None of
the symptoms will go away until that problem is resolved. Reducing the number of
individuals holding the history PhD is a good thing for those who already have
it; when supply goes down, demand—the form of job opportunities and
salaries—goes up.
As a result, the AHA should encourage departments to shut down their PhD
programs. Market forces will necessitate this type of action anyway. The number
of history departments with PhD programs is not sustainable because faculty in
these programs often carry light teaching loads, and PhD programs do not
generate as much revenue for departments as undergraduate courses. The problem
is faculty will resist because professional reputations are bolstered by
advising PhD candidates. Another consideration is that the AHA has no authority
over departments.
The AHA can, however, offer incentives to encourage departments and
individuals to do voluntarily what administrators will force on them eventually.
The AHA can offer free job ads and lower rates on departmental directory
listings to departments that drop their PhD programs.
This is unlikely to be enough; departments are made up of scholars who place
their careers above the interests of their institutions. The AHA, however, can
appeal to their concerns. Members of departments that voluntarily shut down
their PhD programs can be rewarded with guaranteed inclusions in AHA
publications: five book reviews in the American Historical
Review; a promise by the AHR to review their next
two books; an article in the journal within five years, or a promise that their
submission will only be sent to three reviewers and that only two positive
reviews will be required for acceptance; or a guaranteed article in Perspectives for each member of the department. These historians
can also be promised sessions at the annual meeting. The AHA can hedge its bets
by limiting this program to, say, the first five or ten departments that
downsize.
Okay, these are my ideas. I am offering them in an honest effort to follow up
in a tangible way on the "Plan B" article. If readers of this publication have
better suggestions I would love to hear them, and I suspect so would the
AHA.
