Economic Outcomes for Humanists
Post-PhD Preparation
Alumni Experiences in Their Own Words
Stories from the Field A University of California Data Project
This data booklet made possible by:
Inclusions A Note from Humanists@Work
2
Economic Outcomes
4
Where Do Humanities PhDs Work?
13
8
Stories from the Field: UC Focus Groups
What Did the PhD Mean To You?
20
Professional Preparation
24
Adjuncting in Focus
32
28
Emerging Practices
Resources & Further Reading
36
34
Process(es)
Tweetable Points (aka, Key Findings)
42
Acknowledgments
39
A Note from Humanists@Work
Linda Louie, Zia Isola, Kelly A. Brown, Aileen Liu, and Michael Ursell Humanists@Work Colloquium, UC Irvine, 2019
T
his is a data project-one that relies upon both numbers and images to tell important stories, and so we hope you’ll enjoy the design as much as the data. A project funded by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), Stories from the Field analyzes survey data collected from University of California PhD alumni. The CGS survey, administered by the UC Office of the President and all 10 campuses, was sent to PhD cohorts graduating in graduating in 2001-2, 2002-3, 2008-9, 2009-10, 2013-14, and 2014-15 in order to learn about their economic outcomes and general state of professional being. There are many caveats about the data presented in Stories–far too many to mention here. For example: the data sets, especially for humanists, are small. Probably too small to analyze at a granular level. Definitely too small to extrapolate from. But we did anyway. We were also selective in terms of which data sets we included. Indeed, the story is much bigger, and more complex, than what you’ll read in Stories. We invite you to visit the UCOP dashboard to explore the larger data set on your own. The focus group data, however, stands without apology. The UC system was the only CGS grantee to pilot simultaneous focus groups and surveys, and we unabashedly recommend that future data projects, especially those interested in the impact of the humanities, pursue integrated qualitative and quantitative engagements with their alumni. But for those who prefer to read the last line of a novel first, jump ahead to our Tweetable Points section to read about our key findings.
I
s a project that analyzes the economic and professional outcomes for PhDs relevant in the midst of all that we face–in our homes, across the United States, internationally? We think it could be. Those of us engaged in Humanists@ Work (Humwork) have always found it important, if tricky, to acknowledge both the precarity and privilege in pursuing a PhD in the humanities. At the time of writing this, we are over a year into a global pandemic, where unemployment, major health disparities, and potential evictions impact our communities in an unequally devastating manner. Further, we find ourselves witness to institutions reaching breaking points, from the unsustainable burden of student debt to the insurrection by armed white supremacists on the US capitol building on January 6th. After a summer of militarized assaults on Black Lives Matter demonstrators, we acknowledge, again, the stark unevenness in how our institutions treat our communities.
S
you read the booklet. We hope this will, at the very least, stimulate conversations. And for those with institutional heft, we hope our emerging practices will be of use as you make decisions about the future of graduate education.
T
his is a project about data. Stories is as much an analysis about what data was collected about whom (and who is missing) as it is an examination of the numbers. For the Humwork community, process has always been critical to the work of professional development. Our community began forming in 2014 and has grown to include over 1,500 participants through workshops, national institutes, conferences, partnerships, and a LinkedIn group. Throughout our experiences, and driven by graduate student interests, Humwork has articulated the needs of scholarly and professional development alongside an attentiveness to how we talk about what we do, and the impact we want to have. For many Humworkers, impact is what motivated their graduate studies, and based upon what we heard in focus groups, impact is also key to understanding professional paths post-PhD. One question we often heard in Humwork gatherings was: Who do we want to serve with our knowledge? And in these conversations, knowledge was always connected to communities outside and alongside the university. To be clear: community, and the different ways it is understood and enacted across our Humwork community, is what motivates this data project. It’s the ground upon which the focus group project was developed. And it’s what we want to grow as a result of sharing Stories.
o why a 30+ page booklet on PhD outcomes? In these times of upheaval, we hear government and industry leaders ask for more critical thinkers, for better communicators who can write and speak across languages and to different publics in order to restore faith in fragile and failing institutions against a rising tide of conspiracy theories, paranoia, and pervasive lies. A clichéd, hollow request from the usual suspects? Perhaps. But as we heed their call, we do so–in the spirit of Humwork–precisely with the critical eyes of astute readers of culture: aware that the past year has also revealed how corporations, states, and tech monopolies exacerbate suffering and social warm thanks to all who contributed to this divisions. In this light, it seems imperative that we booklet, and especially to the Humwork begin to trace the impact of doctoral training upon graduate students and PhD alumni who those who completed advanced degrees. So much have generously given so much of their time and more needs to be done to better understand the energy over the past seven years. ways in which advanced humanistic expertise is at work. We need to better know where humanists end up, how they apply their expertise, and the ways in which their presence in the wider world affects the shape of society. We also need to acknowledge how humanities expertise may not permeate as widely as it could due to some narrow definitions of Kelly Anne Brown, PhD what success looks like for humanities PhDs. You’ll Associate Director | UCHRI encounter some conflicting perspectives on this as UC Focus Group PI
A
Economic Outcomes Earnings by Cohort Earnings byExit Exit Cohort Earnings by Exit Cohort 9% 9%
22% 22%
26% 26%
13% 13%
35% 35%
16% 16%
2001 2001 2001
14% 14% 18% 18%
30% 30%
19% 19%
18% 18%
38% 38%
22% 22% 6% 6%
12% 12%
8% 8% 15% 15%
7% 7% 7% 7% 10% 10%
4% 5%4% 5% 15% 15%
36% 36%
33% 33%
23% 23% 43% 43%
49% 49%
31% 31%
32% 32%
35% 35%
19% 19%
33% 33%
27% 27%
2009 2013 2002 2008 2014 2002 2008 2009 2013 2014 2002 2008 2009 2013 2014 Humanities Humanities Humanities <$50K $50K - <$80K $80K - <$100K <$50K $50K - <$80K $80K - <$100K <$50K $50K <$80K $80K <$100K
16% 16%
18% 18%
12% 12% 5% 5%
11% 11% 6% 6%
24% 24%
25% 25%
15% 15% 21% 21%
33% 33%
32% 32%
17% 17%
18% 18%
18% 18%
18% 18%
8%
7%
8%
7%
19% 19%
30% 30%
15% 15%
17% 17%
25% 25%
18% 18%
27% 27% 12% 12%
2014 2001 2009 2013 2002 2008 2001 2002 2008 2009 2013 2014 2001 2002 2008 2009 2013 2014 Other Disciplines Other disci pli nes Other disci pli nes $100K - <$150K $150K or more $100K - -<$150K $150K $100K <$150K $150Korormore more
SOURCE: UC Office of the President Report on "Employment and Doctoral Experience of PhD Recipients." SOURCE: UC Office of the President Reportofon "Employment and Doctoral Experience PhD Recipients." SOURCE: UC Office the President Report on “Employment andofDoctoral Experience of PhD Recipients.”
E
conomic outcomes matter. And the data for humanities PhDs isn’t great, especially when you compare earnings, unemployment, and the need for second jobs for humanities PhDs to all other disciplines. Some lowlights:
• For graduates in years 2008-9, 2009-10, 2013-14, and 2014-15, the percentage of humanities alumni earning under $50,000 is more than double that of those in the other disciplines. Earnings do improve for humanities PhDs over time (look at the 100K+ earners), though still at roughly half the rate when compared with other disciplines. • The percentage of humanities PhD alumni not employed is significantly higher when compared to other fields, and can vary from 4-13%, depending upon the cohort. Compared to a national average of 3.7% (when data was collected, August 2019), and to substantially lower numbers for other PhD alumni, this is a major concern. Alongside this, the number of PhDs with a second job (considered a marker of underemployment) is roughly two times higher for humanities than all other disciplines. • Humanities PhDs who go into careers alongside and outside the academy seem to do better in terms of economic outcomes. Though they may start at lower salaries, they tend to rise much faster. The quantitative data here does not capture the lived experiences that we heard about in our focus groups, for example.
San Diego Humanists@Work participant, San Diego Central Library, 2015
5
Unemployment % Not Employed by byExit ExitCohort Cohort
%
1
4%
7%
4%
5%
93%
3%
4% 1% 7%
9%
9%
%
1
2%
4% 13%
2% 4% 4%
5%
93%84%
90%
2009
4% 4%
2013
Humanities 2001 2001
90%
2014 2002 2002
Employed Employed
4%
4%
3%
3%
94%
Humanities Not Employed Not Employed
2002 2013 2013
2008
2%
7%
4%
3% 5%
4%
9%
6% 9%
88%
13%
4%
4%
3%
3%
94%
90%
4%
88%
84% 92%
94%
93%
94
92%
2009
2013
2014 2002
4%
5%
Not Employed
Unknown
4%
3%
3%
94%
93% n=4717
91%
2009
2013
4%
20
Othe
4%
4%
5% 4%
4% 3%
3%
4%
90%
90%
92% 91%
93%
93%
84%
2002 2013
4%
4%
13%
93%
All Other Disciplines 6%
4%
93%
91%
Unknown Unknown
3%
4%
3
4%
Other Disciplines2001 2014 2014
Employed
Unemployment by Exit Cohort
4
84%
Unemployment by Exit Cohort 4%
n=637 93%
3%
4%
6% 4%
90%
88%
2009 2009
4%
5%
4%
13%
94%
2001 2008 2008
3%
92%
90%
88%
2008
4%
9%
94%
90%
2002
Humanities 6%
Unemployment by Exit Cohort
2008 2014
2009
2013
Humanities 2001 2001
es
2014 2002 2002
2001 2008 2008
2009
2009
Other Employed Not Disciplines Employed Employed Not Employed Employed
Not Employed
6
Unknown
2002 2013 2013
2008
Other Disciplines 2014 2014
Unknown Unknown
2014
Connected Academics Summer Institute, UC Irvine, 2016
PhDs with a Second Job by Exit Cohort
n=546
n=4213
7
Where Do Humanities PhDs Work? EDUCATION • • • • •
Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian, UC Davis Director of Diversity Programs, Center for Biomedical Science & Engineering, UC Santa Cruz Digital Instruction Designer, Pearson English Department Chair, Pacific Collegiate School Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
TECHNOLOGY
EDITING & PUBLISHING • • •
• • •
Danish Language Specialist, LinkedIn Software Developer, Google Ontologist, Indeed.com
Digital Product Analyst, McGraw Hill Education Executive Editor, Los Angeles Review of Books Associate Editor, Film Quarterly Journal
GOVERNMENT • • • • •
Writer/Editor, US State Department Programs Officer, National Academy of Sciences Communications Analyst, US Government Accountability Office Director of Communications, Institute of Education Sciences Deputy Director, City of San Jose
NON-PROFIT • • • •
Assistant Curator, Minneapolis Institute of Arts Director of Communications & Marketing, Santa Barbara Foundation Senior Director of Advocacy & Outreach, World Vision United States Programs Officer, National Academy of Sciences
Data from the UC Office of the President, the Council of Graduate Schools, and Humanists@Work offers a view of humanities PhD career paths that extends far beyond the tenure-track. While the majority of PhDs do pursue jobs in the education, non-profit, and government sectors, a growing number are taking a leadership role in their professions as managers, consultants, and independent business owners.
MARKETING • •
Director of Marketing, Social Reality Account Supervisor, 360i
CONSULTING • •
SELF-EMPLOYED • • •
Management Consultant, The Boston Group Founder/Director, Indigenous Consulting Services
Translator Independent Filmmaker Media Consultant
MANAGEMENT • • •
RESEARCH • • •
Co-Founder/CEO/Director, Jumpstart Labs Senior Research Project Manager, Zehnder Communications Researcher, Riot Games
•
Assistant Curator, Minneapolis Institute of Arts Director of Communications & Marketing, Santa Barbara Foundation Senior Director of Advocacy & Outreach, World Vision United States International Project Manager, British Library
Crunching the Numbers
H
umanists@Work has been tracking UC PhD alumni, thanks to the work of PhD students interning at UCHRI over three summers who initiated and managed our alumni tracking project. We thought it interesting to compare Humwork’s self-collected alumni data to that collected by UCOP/CGS PhD survey results. What follows is a comparison of the two sets of data, coded by job sector (e.g. education, communications, etc.) and job class (e.g. research, management, etc.).
Humanists@Work Job Sector Distribution
Humanists@Work Job Class Distribution
n=273 n=261
Editing & Publishing
Non-Profit
Education Marketing Government Technology & Communication
Other
UCOP Job Sector Distribution
UCOP Job Class Distribution
n=120
n=120
Editing & Publishing
Non-Profit
Education Marketing Government Technology & Communication
10
Other
A Tale of Two Surveys
T
he data from the UCOP/CGS survey and Humanists@Work’s focus groups tell starkly different narratives about post-PhD careers for humanities PhDs. While both data sets indicate a high concentration of humanists working in education, Humanists@Work’s data reveals a far more diverse range of career trajectories. So what’s the difference? Simply put: alumni engagement. The UCOP/CGS survey appears to have disproportionately tapped graduate alumni in tenure-track careers, perhaps because departments and universities tend to be singly focused on this subset of their graduate student alumni. By contrast, the alumni with whom Humanists@Work is engaged span a vast array of fields, including many entirely outside of the academy. This broad alumni engagement, aggregated with the UCOP/CGS data, provides a much more comprehensive view of what futures for humanities graduate students look like.
UCOP and Humanists@Work Job Sector Distribution n=393
Editing & Publishing
Non-Profit
Education Marketing Government Technology Other & Communication
UCOP and Humanists@Work Job Class Distribution n=381
11
Silvie Liao, Simon Abramowitsch, Elizabeth Gessel, Dana Linda Carballo, and Jeanelle Horcasitas Humanists@Work, David Brower Center, Berkeley, 2018
12
from the Field
F
Stories
University of California Focus Groups
rom April to July 2019, Humanists@Work conducted five focus groups with 30 University of California humanities PhDs currently working in a wide variety of positions across a diverse array of job sectors. Focus groups in Santa Cruz, Berkeley, San Francisco, Davis, and Los Angeles drew alumni with PhDs from eight UC campuses, representing the diversity of the system in terms of their disciplinary background, ethnicity, first-generation status, graduation cohort, and current occupation. In addition to the focus groups, we conducted three in-depth interviews with select participants in order to diversify campus representation. We conducted these focus groups for two reasons. First, we wanted to supplement the quantitative, data-driven CGS survey project with qualitative responses that could encompass more fully the range of experiences of UC PhD alumni. This was especially important because these alumni are often quite poorly tracked (if they are tracked at all) by their departments when they do not pursue the expected course of academic teaching positions. We wanted to ensure that their reflections and experiences – which are increasingly the norm rather than the exception for humanities PhDs – were a constitutive part of the project’s focus and results. In order to target this group, we limited our participation to those alumni who were not teaching in any capacity (TT or adjunct) in higher education. Second, after more than five years of Humanists@Work programming, we came to understand just how hungry UC PhD alumni are to engage with one another, both for professional networking reasons and a desire to continue the stimulating conversations of their graduate school years. As such, the focus groups were an outgrowth of, and contribution to, a developing understanding of emerging practices and the potential of what alumni engagement for PhDs can accomplish. The experience of conducting these focus groups was transformative for the Humanists@ Work team. Our conversations were emotional, inspired, candid, humorous, intellectually engaging, and so much more. While sharply critical of the university, these alumni nonetheless remain perhaps the best advocates for the benefits of advanced humanistic training. They, and we, hope their experiences may serve as models for how the university might better address the needs of current and future humanities graduate students. What follows are six major thematics that emerged from our focus groups. Moving forward, we see the need to conduct additional focus groups, concentrating in part on PhD alumni in adjunct positions, in order to have a fuller picture of post-PhD employment. A special thanks to Jacob Heim for his leadership in, and co-facilitation of, the Humwork focus groups.
Focus Group Participants
10
Distribution by Graduation Cohort Year 2011 and Earlier
11
2012 - 2015
Campus Distribution
9
2016 to Present
Field Distribution
The Future of Work
I
n discussing the future of work, we had expansive and free-form conversations that touched on the many transferable skills gained in a PhD program (as well as anti-skills, all of which you can find on humwork.uchri.org), the future of education in general and the university in particular, and whether a PhD is the best, or even right, vehicle for training a future workforce. Many alumni noted that what sets them apart from their work colleagues is a creative adaptability and intellectual risk-taking that they honed in graduate school. The alumni expressed concern that as departments stress shortening time to degree and a need to “professionalize,” the space for creative risk-taking will diminish, and PhDs will enter job markets untrained for specific jobs AND without the unique attributes that accompany graduate school experiences where intellectual risk-taking is encouraged.
14
Leaving the Academy
W
e began each focus group asking alumni if they began their careers wanting a tenuretrack position (at least a quarter did not), and for those who did, at what point (and why) it changed. What followed were wide-ranging conversations that touched on issues of departmental culture, privilege, family commitments, and much more. None of the alumni who “left” the university did so because they felt they couldn’t cut it as academics. While some were disillusioned by the continuing adjunctification of the workforce, others pursued forms of work that they felt would have greater, and/or different, impact–either with students, or non-university publics. Notably, more recent alumni referenced the impact of the 2016 election on their desire to move into other fields of employment, while others, especially first generation and alumni of color, mentioned that even had they wanted to pursue TT teaching, they were financially unable to seriously pursue this objective given their debt and lack of family resources. But for all of the alumni with whom we spoke, there was the acknowledgement that even if still employed by the university, or working far beyond, there was a distinct break once they decided not to pursue tenure-track teaching. For many, this corresponded to roughly the time they transitioned from qualifying exams to independent, dissertation-focused writing, recognizing that they desired future work lives that were engaged in more collaborative and less solitary activities.
“Constantly being told you’re not enough … hampers seeing yourself as developing transferrable skills.”
“Real world impact—it means something. [Outside of the academy] I have the resources to make a difference.”
–UC PhD Alumna
–UC PhD Alumna
15
Grad Experiences & Expectations
San Diego Humanists@Work, San Diego Central Library, 2015
W
e thought that alumni would have much to discuss in terms of the surprises and adjustments they encountered transitioning out of graduate school and into their careers. While we heard some interesting responses to this topic, our alumni were much more eager to talk about the surprises and adjustments they had to deal with as they entered graduate school. Many spoke of finding themselves ill-prepared and underinformed with regard to the jarring realities of life as a PhD student, with many indicating a lack of much-needed guidance as they sought to navigate the unspoken norms and expectations of the academic culture they had stumbled into as first-year students. In more than one focus group, alumni emphasized the welcome change in their current careers, where expectations
16
are made clear, versus the opacity of graduate school. Many highlighted this as one of the things they were most glad to have left behind in transitioning out of academia, remarking that the clarity of expectations at their current jobs was a welcome change. Furthermore, alumni wished they had been warned about the trajectory of increasing loneliness and isolation that the PhD entails. It’s interesting to note that a clear majority of those we spoke with were able to identify the point when they decided to leave academia as coinciding with the transition from coursework and qualifying exams to the solitary task of dissertation research. Across all the focus groups, alumni insisted on the need for earlier, more frank and informative conversations with prospective graduate students about the nature of graduate school.
O
ne of the more troubling topics alumni addressed about their graduate school experiences was the need to heavily editorialize the way they presented themselves to faculty. Quite a few alumni observed that within their departments, faculty would consistently prioritize those students whom they perceived to be the most “serious” — which, in practice, often translated as not having any commitments outside of the PhD program. Grad students who had partners, children, or other family to care for, who needed to take on another job to make ends meet, and/or who had any other outside commitments found themselves hiding these aspects of their lives from faculty or else risk being written off as a “bad investment.” This frequently led to a sense of being “fractured,” of having to separate different aspects of one’s life to an unhealthy degree. In one form or another, this issue came up unprompted
in all of our focus groups and whenever it was articulated, other alumni would confirm this from their own experience, often expressing surprise that this was not as isolated a phenomenon as they had supposed. The need to hide oneself took on other dimensions as well: for instance, we heard a number of stories about faculty implicitly allocating their time and attention with a strong bias in favor of those intending to become professors, which contributed to a culture of having to play along or else get left behind. Students who decided middegree to pursue non-academic careers felt the need to hide this decision from their own advisors, in some cases for years.
The F ra c ture d
Grad Self
One alumna’s remark (which was met with general agreement) was that in order to be successful in grad school, she needed to be selfish. Of course, some could afford that more easily than others. When discussing these observations with each other, alumni voiced concern that the advantage to unattached grad students may be acting as an implicit structural sorting mechanism, causing candidates from economically advantaged backgrounds to be disproportionately represented among those PhDs who end up securing tenure-track jobs. Although all of the participants in our focus groups chose nonprofessorial careers post-PhD, the issue of what a successful career is in the eyes of their programs was very much in the background of our conversations.
17
Berkeley Humanists@Work, Doña Tomas, Berkeley, 2018
Alumni Engagement
T
he relationship between PhD alumni and their doctoral-granting institution is fundamentally different than that of the relationship between undergraduate alumni and their universities. This premise guided our conversations with UC PhD alumni, and we heard voracious support for an alumni engagement strategy that is attentive to these differences. Across the conversations there was near unanimous vocalization on the following two details:
Alumni want to maintain some form of contact with the university, and are very interested in supporting the intellectual and professional interests of current graduate students. Alumni would like more active connections and engagement with their departments, including but not limited to tracking the careers of all PhD alumni on departmental placement pages. Alongside hearing that PhD alumni are tired of being hounded for money, those who are not working at the university expressed a desire for access to university library resources in order to continue their scholarship, while all alumni would appreciate reconnecting to the intellectual communities they developed in graduate school.
18
Professionalization Work & Language
W
e were curious to hear alumni reflect upon the work of professionalization–how they understand the term and/or the practice, and what kind of advice they have for their departments and current grad students. Alumni who graduated before 2010 heard our question as primarily related to preparedness for the professoriate, while more recent graduates (2013-ish up to the present) understood professionalization to include some preparation, if even haphazardly, for diverse careers. While some alumni worry about “over professionalization,” either for the professoriate or other careers, and its emphasis on being marketable, other alumni implored their department to become more engaged in helping students prepare for post-PhD career trajectories. Some key issues our alumni raised:
The disregard for collaborative work while in graduate school does not translate well when moving beyond the tenure-track (and even on the tenure track).
While the PhD fosters curiosity, creativity, and some intellectual risk-taking, it often disregards the question of how to use those qualities to achieve impact.
One recurring question across all focus groups: What is the PhD meant to teach, and what does it actually teach?
All students would benefit from more comprehensive training in teaching methodology.
“The entrepreneurial element of hustling and being creative and different [in a PhD program]...it’s very dynamic, and helped me in my career to make my own opportunities.”
–UC PhD Alumna
19
“The PhD experience taught me the rigor of the humanities and, perhaps most importantly, that there are many lives of the mind.”
“My PhD experience can be synthesized as (humbly) embodying the professionalization of intellectual and academic inquiry.”
“I learned how to think, and I forgot how to feel.” “My experience has shown me the reality of being overeducated and under-employable.”
“I think of the PhD as a ‘thing’ that forced me to ask tough questions—especially about myself, about what matters to me (intellectually and otherwise)—which I am still in the process of answering.”
“The PhD experience provided me the life skills to survive through difficult, conflict-ridden work environments. It helped me see the importance of my colleagues’ intelligence and contributions regardless of their level of degree attainment.”
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Humanist on a Walk Series, San Jose and Los Angeles
What Did the PhD Mean to You? Asked to answer the question “What did the PhD mean to you” in just one sentence, Humanists@Work focus group participants defined their degree experience in their own words and on their own terms.
“The opportunity to be confronted with every form of insecurity and self-doubt while simultaneously gaining a level of self-awareness and cultural capital that empowered me to transcend my socioeconomic origins.”
“The PhD experience was an opportunity to spend time diving deeply into subjects and matters I cared about, while also preparing for a future career.”
“It meant that I now know I can achieve any intellectual task that I set my mind to, but it also meant financial hardship, depression, and becoming alienated from everything I care about.”
“One of my advisors told me that the PhD is probably the most selfish thing one can do because you’re essentially absorbing yourself in study of your self-chosen, obscure topic for years on end. I came to realize this was true for me: the PhD was the most selfish, hard-won, worthwhile thing I’ve ever done for myself.” 21
Professional Preparation
How Important Are the Following Attributes/Skills in Successfully Performing Your Work at Your Primary Job? If You Had to Start Again, How Likely Would You Be to do the Following? 59%
Leadership
63% 79% 80%
Adaptability/flexibility
87% 91%
Analytical thinking
82% 84%
Attention to detail
69% 65%
Self-control
Initiativ e Would Pursue a PhD
Would Pursue a PhD in the Same Field
Humanities Humanities
Would Pursue a PhD at the Same Institution
81%
86%
Other Disciplines All Other Disciplines
NOTE: Figures above aggregate "Very Important" and "Extremely Important" responses. SOURCE: UC Office of the President Report on "Employment and Doctoral Experience of PhD Recipients."
A
longside economic outcomes, we consider professional preparation of PhDs a critical area for graduate programs to consider as they look to supporting future cohorts:
• Across the board, humanities PhDs reported less satisfaction with their experiences than peers in other disciplines, though the numbers are still quite strong in terms of satisfaction with choice of degree, field of study, and campus. • The differences in what attributes and skills are critical for humanities versus all other disciplines was interesting to note: while skills like adaptability, analytical thinking, and leadership were similarly important for humanities and non-humanities PhD alumni, there were noteworthy discrepancies when it came to qualities like innovation, concern for others, and social orientation. We separated the results on the following page into 2 charts: the top one reads skills where there's less than a 5% difference between humanities and all other disciplines while the bottom chart outlines skills where the difference between humanities and other disciplines is more stark. We would encourage departments to ask challenging questions about how these outcomes may be influenced by a variety of career choices.
[Reflecting on the future of work]: “ The PhD might be seen as a recognition of the ability to deal with and/or process lots of data, execute something with it, prioritize what’s important, etc. As there are fewer positions and people are asked to do more, multidisciplinary skills and talents, teaching yourself new skills, and ability to meta-relax is crucial.” –UC PhD Alumnus
How Important Are Are the Following Attributes/Skills How Important theFollowing Following Attributes/Skills in How Important Are the Attributes/Skills inin Successfully Performing Your Work atatYour Primary Job? Job? Successfully Performing Your Work at Your Primary Successfully Performing Your Work Your Primary Job? 59% 57%
Leadership Leadership Social orientation
63%
44%
79% 80%
60%
Adaptability/flexibility Adaptability/flexibility Innovation
67%
87% 91%
66%
Analytical thinking Cooperation Analytical thinking
72%
82% 84%
73%
Concern for to others Attention Attention to detail detail
56%
78%
69% 65% 70%
Self-control StressSelf-control tolerance
81%
Dependab ility Initiativ Initiativee
76%
Humanities Humanities Humanities
83%
86%
All Other OtherDisciplines Disciplines
All Other Disciplines
NOTE: Figures above aggregate "Very Important" and "Extremely Important" responses. NOTE: Figures above aggregate "Very Important" and "Extremely Important" responses. NOTE: Figures above aggregate “Very Important” and “Extremely Important” responses. SOURCE: UC UC Office of the President Report onon "Employment SOURCE: Office of the President Report "Employmentand andDoctoral DoctoralExperience Experience of of PhD PhD Recipients." Recipients."
How Important Are the Following Attributes/Skills in
How Important Are the the Following Attributes/Skills inin in How Important AreAre the Following Attributes/Skills How Important Following Successfully Performing Your Work atAttributes/Skills Your Primary Job? Successfully Performing Your Work Your Primary Job? Successfully Performing Your Work atatYour Primary Job?Job? Successfully Performing Your Work at Your Primary 57%
Socialorientation orientation Social Leadership Social orientation
44%
44%
59% 57% 63% 60%
Innovation Innovation Adaptability/flexibility Innovation
60% 67% 66%
Cooperation Cooperation Cooperation Analytical thinking
79% 80%
67% 66%
73%
Concern for others Concern for others Concern for others Attention to detail
56% 56%
69% 65% 70%
Stress tolerance Stress tolerance Stress tolerance Self-control
87% 91%
72%
72%
73% 82% 84% 78%
78%
70%
81%
Dependab ility Dependability Dependab ility Initiativ e
76%
Humanities
Humanities Humanities Humanities
AllOther Other Disciplines AllOther Other Disciplines Disciplines All Disciplines
NOTE: Figures above aggregate "Very Important" and "Extremely Important" responses. NOTE: Figures above aggregate "Very Important" and "Extremely Important" responses. NOTE: FiguresReport above on aggregate “Very andImportant" “Extremely Important” responses. NOTE: Figures above aggregate "Very Important" andImportant” "Extremely responses. SOURCE: UC Office of the President "Employment and Doctoral Experience ofofPhD SOURCE: UC Office of the President Report on "Employment and Doctoral Experience PhDRecipients." Recipients." SOURCE: UC Office of the President Report on "Employment and Doctoral Experience of PhD Recipients."
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83%
76% 86%
83%
San Diego Humanists@Work, San Diego Central Library, 2015
Questions Raised by the Data
A
re humanities PhDs inherently more self-critical of their skills and training than colleagues from other fields? A question worth considering, though no matter the answer we are concerned to see that in almost every knowledge/attribute category, humanists were less confident in their professional preparation than peers in non-humanities fields. This even includes skills like critical analysis, understanding of subject area, working constructively with colleagues, and grant writing! Reading through the UC PhD data, both campus by campus and systemwide, we are left with many more questions than answers. The survey provides perspective on a number of key economic and experiential outcomes that could shape graduate education in beneficial ways. But we wonder: • Would a larger sample size result in similar results, and why didn’t more humanists respond to the survey? • Would increased responses by alumni outside the professoriate result in demonstrating more positive outcomes for humanities PhDs? • How do we inspire departments to better track and engage their alumni? • To departments: how might engaging substantively with alumni in careers outside the professoriate productively impact the future of your PhD program? • In the words of one focus group participant, “why are academic humanists so bad at asking humanistic questions about their own practices?”
How Well Did Your Graduate Program Prepare You in the How Well Did Your Graduate Program Prepare You in the Following Knowledge, Attributes, and Behaviors? Following Knowledge, Attributes, and Behaviors? Criticalanalysis/evaluation analysis/evaluation Critical
75%
Applying research methods
Applying r esearch methods
Communicating ideas clearly
Communicating ideas clearly/persuasively /persuasively Demonstrating an understanding of subject
strating an understanding of subject ar ea and context area andresearch research context
62%
Research ethics/scholarly integrity Research ethics/scholarly integrity
56% 55% 50% 57%
Influencing others/providing direction/encour-
cing others/pr oviding direction/encouraging contribution agingtheir their contribution Working constructively with colleagues
Wor king constructively with colleagues
Humanities Humanities
82%
74% 76% 73% 73% 70% 78%
Developing newideas/processes ideas/processes Developing new
Grant Grantwriting writing
82% 87%
24% 29% Other Disciplines All Other Disciplines
Figures above aggregate “Very Important” and “Extremely Important” responses. gures above aggregate "Well" and "Extremely Well"NOTE: responses. : UC Office of the President Report on "Employment and Doctoral Experience of PhD Recipients."
Sacramento Humanists@Work, Crocker Art Museum, 2015
73%
Did You Work at an Internship During Your PhD Program?
Humanities
Other Disciplines
SOURCE: UC Office of the President Report on “Employment and Doctoral Experience of PhD Recipients.”
Did You Participate in a Program or Experience to Help Develop Your Job Materials?
Humanities
Other Disciplines
SOURCE: UC Office of the President Report on “Employment and Doctoral Experience of PhD Recipients.”
Humanist on a Walk Series, Costa Mesa
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Adjuncting in Focus
A
re adjuncts the future of the university? According to the numbers, that future is already here: In 2016, non-tenure-track instructors amounted to 73% of all teaching positions at US institutions. But while it’s common knowledge that there are too few tenure-track professorial jobs in proportion to humanities PhDs, it is less widely surveyed just how heavily the university relies on adjunct labor. This is especially true for humanities PhDs, who are often tracked into part-time adjunct positions as their first jobs after graduation. Given the significance of this workforce pipeline, any survey and analysis of post-PhD employment for humanities PhDs must devote significant space to the role of adjunct labor.
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What We Know
A
djuncts, along with graduate students, are the most vulnerable members of the academic community. Since the 1970’s, tenure-track positions have dwindled and part-time adjunct positions now make up 40% of all teaching labor. Meanwhile, PhD programs continue to grow and more students with dreams of becoming a full-time professor enter the pipeline each year. The twotier faculty system in the humanities must be addressed with thoughtful solutions, and departments can no longer turn a blind eye to the dismal job market PhDs face. Rather than celebrating the lucky few who land tenure-track jobs while ignoring those who leave academia or find work as adjuncts, faculty and administrators must generate structural solutions to a structural problem. The data indicates that the first step might involve expanding one’s awareness about the problem, as employment surveys typically don’t define adjunct in a way that captures their lived realities.
70% of adjuncts are over age 40
Adjunct household income is highly correlated with marital status
56% of adjunct faculty have masters’ degrees and 32% have doctoral degrees
52% of adjuncts are female
The average pay is $3,000 per course, but 60% receive less One half of adjunct faculty would prefer to have a tenure-track position
“Lecturers are contract faculty: UC administrators employ us on short-term, temporary contracts, most of which last for one semester or one year. The UC administration refuses to provide health insurance to more than one-third of us. The pay is so low–and the jobs are so part-time–that many of us need second and even third jobs to make ends meet.” --Mia McIver, UC-AFT
UC Tenure-Track and Adjunct Faculty by Discipline 0
500
1,000
cipate in You a Arts Program or Experience Did Participate in a Program or Experience & Humanities Develop Your Job Develop Materials? to Help Your Job Materials? Social Science & Psychology
Engineering & Computer Science Business, Management, 65% Law, & Other Professions
nities
pli nes
1,500
35% 65%
35%
84%
84%
Life Sciences Physical Sciences Math
16% Interdisciplinary/Other Education
YES
Faculty, Lecturers NO
Faculty, Ladder-Rank and Equivalent YES NO
SOURCE: University of California Accountability Report, 2019.
nt Report on "Employment and Experience PhD Recipients." SOURCE: UC Office of theDoctoral President Report onof"Employment and Doctoral Experience of PhD Recipients."
“Though UC is a kind of best-case public university in terms of its high share of faculty that are on the tenure track, it has a two-tier faculty in Arts and Humanities.” Chris Newfield, Remaking the University
2,000
In Question: Survey Design
Explicitly include “Contingent or Part-Time Faculty” in CGS survey categories.
}
}
These categories must be constructed with the adjunct, as well as tenure-track/tenured faculty, in mind.
CGS Survey Q12. Which one of the following best describes your employment arrangement for your position? o Regular employment o Temporary/Project-based employment o Temporary/Fixed-term employment o Tenure-track/-eligible o Tenured o Self-employment
CGS Survey Q14. Which of the following best describes your job as? o Administrator o Faculty member o Non-faculty researcher o Postdoctoral researcher/associate o Other staff position
SOURCE: Council of Graduate Schools Career Pathways Alumni Survey, Fall 2018.
The Reality of Precarity Contingent Faculty
Freeway Fliers
“For the most part, these are insecure, unsupported positions with little job security and few protections for academic freedom.”
52% of adjuncts teach one or two courses at a single institution, while 22% teach three or more classes at two or more institutions.
Ends Not Meeting According to a 2015 study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center, 25% of part-time US college faculty are enrolled in at least one public assistance program. SOURCE: AAUP Data Snapshot, 2018 and TIAA Institute Report, 2018.
Emerging Practices Tracking • Better tracking of ALL career outcomes = more comprehensive survey data and understanding of the diversity of post-PhD outcomes. Departments must track ALL of their PhDs. • How might paid graduate student labor be utilized to better track and engage with PhD career outcomes? Engaging graduate students as collaborators in this tracking project can help build grad/alumni networks, and allow graduate students’ interests to inform the breadth of the reach to organizations adjacent to or outside the university.
Survey Design • A honest account of humanities PhD placement outcomes must make the figure of the adjunct central to job placement survey design. Only then will a clearer picture emerge about how many PhDs take adjunct positions after graduation, for how many years, and what percentage of PhDs eventually obtain a tenure-track position. • Any survey of humanities PhDs–especially those from less well funded (and public) universities–must include a question about debt. How much are PhDs in debt, and how has it impacted their professional trajectories?
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Alumni Engagement • Engage alumni in diverse ways, and think about their career trajectories as extensions of the university’s impact in the world. What would a PhD alumni advisory committee look like in terms of helping departments think about the future of graduate education? • Mention ALL alumni on department websites, especially if you intend to reach out and engage individual alumni in departmental events. • Be thoughtful about the relationship you want to develop and/or strengthen, and do not necessarily treat them as you would your undergraduate alumni. This is especially true as it concerns financial giving to the university. • How can the university support alumni career development in no or low-cost ways? For example, many alumni with whom we spoke who were no longer at the university expressed a desire for library borrowing privileges.
Grad Student Experiences • Early career graduate students (especially first year students) would be well served by connecting with PhD alumni in a formal mentorship relationship, especially around sensitive issues that deal with race, class, and departmental culture/favoritism. • PhD alumni expressed the need for programs to better train students in collaborative work and comprehensive training in teaching methodology. • Graduate students should be included in aspects of survey design, methodology, and analysis. What questions would graduate students like to pose to alumni? • Although this project was focused on PhD graduates, much more needs to be done to acknowledge, track, and address the high percentage of ABDs in the humanities. UCOP has very informative dashboards on this topic that we encourage you to consult.
Focus Groups • Qualitative data matters at least as much as quantitative data. Throughout our focus groups we learned, for example, as much about the “anti-skills” developed through doctoral study as we did about transferable skills. This, as well as all the candid conversations about graduate school experiences, is only possible through person-to-person engagement. • Focus groups also serve to network alumni with one another. Although we gave small gift cards to participants, we also understood focus groups to contribute to the broadening of our alumni’s networks, enriching their professional and personal lives. Alumni expressed a desire for more such opportunities, organized regionally to promote career prospecting.
Resources & Further Reading We read and watch and listen and engage with so many resources about and adjacent to issues of professionalization as we develop ideas for Humanists@Work activities. The following list of resources, readings, initiatives, and writers isn’t meant to be exhaustive; instead, it highlights some of the work we think you should know about (if you don’t already):
BY THE NUMBERS: ON DATA For those interested in data projects about PhDs post-degree, check out: American Historical Association: Where Historians Work American Academy of Arts & Sciences: Humanities Indicators University of California Office of the President: Doctoral Student Experience Survey Council of Graduate Schools: Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement McGill: TRaCE National Science Foundation: Survey of Earned Doctorates Stanford University: Graduate Professional Development Framework
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS & RESOURCES Your grads and faculty should definitely know about: Imagine PhD American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellows Program Modern Language Association Faculty Toolkit
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Humanist on a Walk Series, Irvine
WHAT WE’RE READING & WATCHING We’re reading and watching far more than we can share here, but some favorites include: • Modern Language Association’s journal Profession, especially “Beyond the Numbers: Plotting the Field of Humanities PhDs at Work” and “The Work of the Humanities.” • The Graduate Advisor. Leonard Cassuto’s monthly column in The Chronicle of Higher Education. • Anything Katina Rogers has written about, including her new book Putting the Humanities PhD to Work. • Jeffrey Williams on debt and the university. • Fred Moten and Stefano Harney reflecting on the politics, ethics, and cultures of debt. • Humwork fellow-traveler and interlocutor, David Laurence’s map of career trajectories assumed by graduates of modern language doctoral programs.
ABOUT HUMANISTS@WORK: SOME OF OUR FAVORITE PROJECTS Humanists@Work created several dynamic video and text-based series that address critical and often unacknowledged aspects of the graduate student experience and post-PhD working life. Some favorites: Stories from the Field. A series of videos and in-person panels (recorded at Humwork workshops) featuring UC PhD alumni and moderated by graduate students. Candid Conversations. A dialogic video series on topics that don’t often get addressed within workshops on professional development. Conversations address issues like debt and mentorship. Disrupting⁄/ive Expertise. A session from the 2017 Riverside Humanists@Work workshop that explored the topic of humanities expertise outside of traditional professionalization frameworks that seek to quantify expertise according to transferable skills. Unbecoming Academic. Video and podcast on the concept of value in order to develop a study of humanistic inquiry and career diversity. Graduate Student Experiences. A series of 40+ blog posts and articles by UC graduate students on topics like: • #BlackLivesMatter and the Work of the Humanities • A Call for Community: A Survey of Humanities PhD Students on Professionalization and Support • Why Wait? A 4-part series on how to begin a job search
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Process(es)
T
his large, collaborative project is a joint effort on behalf of the Council of Graduate Schools, the funder for the national data collection project, the University of California Office of the President, all 10 UC campuses, and UCHRI, the systemwide humanities research institute. If your reading of this data booklet suggests that there were several distinct, interrelated data projects informing the analysis of PhD outcomes, you’re right. While the CGS survey tool was utilized (with some additions) by the UC Office of the President to collect data from UC PhD alumni, UCHRI and Humanists@Work developed a separate, but related, UC alumni focus group project with its own qualitative and deeply humanistic methodology. Our analysis of the survey and focus group data was informed by over seven years running Humanists@ Work workshops across California, and hearing from both UC doctoral students and UC PhD alumni about the topics of post-degree success that mattered most to them. Our methodological approach is interpretive at its core, values the anecdotal alongside the statistical, and understands that humanistic principles are necessary to guide a project by and about humanists. We also attempt to note our shortcomings in the data collection, analysis, and display. While we worked hard to treat the data with rigor, we also wanted to practice a different process of data analysis in order to create multiple data-driven narratives for you to consider. The PhD Career Pathways Survey is a partnership between the University of California and the Council of Graduate Schools. The purpose of the survey is to better understand how graduate education supports both current PhD students and alumni in their career preparation, or current career-related tasks. While the Council of Graduate Schools is specifically focused on PhD studies in the humanities and STEM, the University of California is collecting data from doctoral students and alumni in all disciplines. Items in the alumni survey assess attitudes towards the PhD experience, employment status, and the usefulness of PhD training in current job-related tasks. The 2017 survey was administered between October 20th, 2017 and December 8th, 2017 to 7,100 PhD alumni with a valid email address. The overall response rate was 32 percent. For more information on survey methodology and administration, please visit UCOP employment and doctoral experience of PhD recipients. UCHRI and Humanists@Work were asked by the overall project PI Dean Carol Genetti (formerly at UC Santa Barbara) to analyze the results of the survey as well as host a colloquium as a continuation of our engagement with the project. Stories from the Field is an outcome of this work. Throughout this booklet’s presentation of the survey and focus group data, we made defining choices in terms of which data sets to highlight, and which to leave aside. These decisions were made in alignment with key points that have arisen in years of conversations at Humanists@Work conferences. The repetition of critical issues around salary (and debt), internships, transferable skills, and (in)adequate training across years of Humwork programming signaled a clear interest by both students and alumni in particular data sets. Furthermore, as a systemwide institute, it’s important to our mission that we keep our analysis of the data systemwide, and not draw attention to any one campus.
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W
hen the UC system was initially developing its application for the CGS grant, UCHRI proposed the idea of running simultaneous focus groups so as to attend to more diverse issues that might be hard to address through quantitative data collection alone. Our methodology arose from the realization that focus groups would both complement survey data and fill in some of the data that the survey might not be able to provide. Thus, from April to July 2019, UCHRI and Humanists@Work conducted five qualitative focus groups and three in-depth interviews with UC PhD alumni across the state. Focus groups were held in areas where UC PhD alumni live, with an eye to achieving diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, disciplinary background, first-generation status, graduation cohort, campus affiliation, and current occupation. Conversations with alumni were recorded and guided by a set of questions provided to participants in advance of the conversation. Additionally, each participant was asked to provide a one-sentence summation of what the PhD experience meant to them. In light of Humanists@Work’s experience tracking PhD alumni, and our awareness of the unevenness of how departments track PhDs not in TT teaching positions, the focus group project was designed to highlight those alumni working beyond the professoriate. These voices can sometimes go missing in survey data collection efforts because departments don’t always know where these alumni go post-degree, and hence are unable to provide updated contact information for them. For example, within this project the UC system had a 46% survey response rate for humanities PhDs–higher than the response rate for the project overall–but only had 62% of the email addresses for humanities alumni. Humanists@Work’s concern was that many of the missing email addresses would directly correlate to alumni working outside of TT teaching. Alongside this physical composition, the focus groups were driven by a set of questions that diverged, in some less and some more significant ways, from the Pathways survey questions. As a result, there is a push and pull throughout the data booklet in terms of key areas, like what success looks like and the types of skills necessary to achieve this success post-degree. In order to account for blindspots in both the PhD Career Pathways survey and Humanists@Work focus groups, we compiled data from outside sources to shed light on an increasingly common, if precarious, next step for humanities PhDs after graduation: adjuncting. Both the survey and focus group projects on humanities PhD outcomes have largely avoided discussing how adjuncting constitutes a common next step for humanities PhDs. In order to address this exclusion directly, we pulled together quantitative and qualitative data on adjuncts from external surveys, including reports from the American Association of University Professors, The TIAA Institute, The University of California Accountability Report, The UC Berkeley Labor Center, as well as non-institutional sources such as op-eds and blog posts, to paint a picture of the experiential and structural realities of adjuncting. By including data from outside the project’s scope, we aim to frame the conversation differently. Rather than holding up TT faculty as the epitome of academic and professional success, we hope to encourage graduate programs to recognize the diversity of career pathways their alumni pursue, including into adjunct positions. In other words, we believe that while there is no one model for post-doctoral success, there are layered institutional failures that may cause PhD students in the humanities to feel discouraged and underprepared for navigating diverse job markets and securing fulfilling careers after graduation.
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Humanists@Work Focus Group Questions: 1. How many of you began your graduate career wanting a tenure-track teaching position? When did it change? And why? Can you point to pivotal moments during your doctoral training when you began to change your mind about going on the tenure track? What are they? 2. How did your program prepare you, generally and specifically, for the position (and industry?) you’re in? • Potential follow-up question: how do you think about the issue of preparation now that you’re in this other kind of non- or non-traditional academic position? Grad programs seem obsessed with this question, and we’re wondering how much they need to be, and in what ways. 3. What has most surprised you, or what are the biggest adjustments you’ve had to make, since finishing the PhD and entering the workforce? 4. What preconceptions did you have about your field that have turned out to be false? That have turned out to be true? What role, if any, did your experience as a graduate student have in forming those preconceptions? 5. What do you foresee as some important developments in the future of work (across industries) in the next decade or two? What does it look like specifically for your industry? 6. How likely would you be, in your current profession, to hire someone who just earned a PhD from a program like yours? What would be your biggest concerns about such a candidate? What factors would you pay the most attention to in determining whether they were a good fit? 7. In general, do you see your former professors and friends/colleagues from grad school as a valuable part of your professional network? If not, can you think of anything that would change that? 8. What should we ask you? What questions are most pressing?
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Tweetable Points
aka, Key Findings
W
e know there’s a lot to digest in this data booklet, and creating a summary document is on our minds as a possible future outcome. But in the meantime, here’s a series of threaded 280 character tweets that detail some key findings. Please, don’t forget the tag!
@UCHRInews
@humanistsatwork
And if we never send the summary, we promise to archive the tweets. *An important note about comparisons between humanities PhDs and their peers in other disciplines: for the purposes of a general analysis, we separated humanities from all disciplines surveyed, and so “all other disciplines” is shorthand for the following fields combined: Arts/Interdisciplinary/Other Engineering/Computer Science Health Sciences/Professional Fields Life Sciences/Physical Sciences/Math Social Sciences We found some noticeable comparisons between the humanities and other fields, and strongly encourage you to visit the UCOP data dashboard to access the full data set and examine more extensively the disciplinary similarities and campus differences. https://bit.ly/3uAza4P
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Economic Outcomes • Across all cohorts, salary earnings for UC hum PhDs significantly lower than non-hum peers. Though salaries for hum PhDs improve over time from degree, even for the earliest cohort (2001-2) the % of hum PhDs earning under 50k/year is over 3X than for all other disciplines. • The % of UC hum PhDs not employed is up to quadruple that of all other disciplines. At the time of survey data collection (2009), hum unemployment was 2X that of the national average, regardless of educational level. • Similarly, underemployment (PhDs with a second job) upwards twice that of all other disciplines.
Tracking PhDs • UC PhDs go into a wide range of careers post-PhD, and depending upon data source, work in sizeable numbers in non-profit, education + publishing, and technology. • Do you know where all/most/some of your hum PhDs work? Only TT faculty alumni? Survey results, when compared to Humwork’s own 3 yr data collection effort, don’t fully convey the range of fields and careers UC hum PhDs pursue post-degree. Better tracking PhDs=better survey data.
Focus Groups • With the survey data as a starting point, we wanted a better sense of what these #s mean in the lives of hum PhDs. So we invited groups of alumni from across CA to talk with us and each other about their experiences and recommendations. Here’s some of what we found: • Although many UC PhDs reported that they began grad school wanting to pursue TT teaching, over a ¼ did not. And focus group participants noted that the break with the desire to pursue TT teaching happened as they moved into dissertation writing. • Many cited this break as related to the increasing loneliness of the writing process and a desire for more collaborative engagements in their work lives. • For UC hum PhDs who pursued careers outside TT teaching, having “real world impact” was an often-stated reason. • A majority of focus group participants discussed feeling significantly underprepared for the realities of life in a PhD program. Issues of class, race, and dept. culture played an oversized role in our conversations with them about their experiences. • The lack of clarity in all aspects of program life was a common reason for pursuing non-TT careers post-PhD. • When asked about transferable skills, (alongside the usual ones) UC PhD alumni most often point-
ed to the ability to see an issue from multiple perspectives, jumping into an issue you don’t know much about and figuring it out, and the ability to grow in an accelerated way. • Alongside this, we heard A LOT about anti-skills–skills that don’t work well on non-TT job markets. Some notables: devaluing collaborative writing, the oversized ego (self as expert above all others), & assessing project ideas based upon authority and trendiness over impact. • UC PhD alumni are eager for sensitive & targeted engagement with the university post-PhD, and overwhelmingly expressed an interest in helping current grad students navigate grad school. But be warned: the $$ ask, if it happens, must happen differently than with undergrad alum. • We found these focus groups immensely helpful in framing and contextualizing the survey’s numerical findings. We need more of this kind of personal, qualitative data alongside the quantitative, and alumni are eager to provide it.
Adjunct • Many PhD outcomes surveys, including Pathways, do not explicitly account for adjuncting. The data we do have paints a picture of precarity: low pay, few benefits, & little job security. How can the survey be redesigned to capture the #s & experiences of adjuncting Hum PhDs? • Questions to ask: Given that adjunct income is highly correlated with marital status, how much does existing financial security impact the decision for Hum PhDs to take or stay in adjunct positions? • What we don’t know: What are the motivations for Hum PhDs to take or stay in adjunct positions? What percentage of Hum PhDs adjunct in order to stay competitive for TT jobs, and for how long? What is the long-term emotional, physical, and financial impact of this?
Professional Preparation • Across all cohorts, UC hum PhDs reported they would def pursue a PhD again, in the same field, and @ same institution, though are least satisfied w/field. Overall, though, their responses were noticeably less favorable than their non-hum peers. • UC hum PhDs expressed low confidence in how well grad programs prepared them in a diverse set of skills & reported less confidence in prof prep than all other disciplines. Only skill at which they felt more confident than their peers: influencing others/encouraging contributions. • Find yourself wondering which skills were ranked as key to job success for employed PhDs? Dependability, analytical thinking, attention to detail, and initiative were all highly valued by alumni.
Acknowledgments UC Humanities Research Institute It takes a mighty institution (or several) to produce such a booklet as this. A special thanks to every single staff member at UCHRI. Over the 7+ years we’ve been running Humwork, the staff at UCHRI have shown incredible commitment to creating and administering such an interactive, multicampus program–the level of attention to details of logistics, finance, scheduling, and programming has allowed Humwork to be responsive, inclusive, and experimental (in all the right ways). A special thanks to David Theo Goldberg, who first suggested that we program something dedicated to grad students interested in pursuing diverse careers post-PhD. It was a good idea indeed. Alison Annunziata Yolanda Choo David Theo Goldberg Anirban Gupta-Nigam Wujun (June) Ke Shana Melnysyn Suedine Nakano Arielle Read Liana Veratudela
Humanists@Work Graduate Advisory Committee Simon Abramowitsch, UC Davis Sowparnika Balaswaminathan, UC San Diego Dana Linda Carballo, UC Los Angeles Sherri Lynn Conklin, UC Santa Barbara Christina Green, UC San Diego Jacob Heim, UC Irvine Jeanelle Horcasitas, UC San Diego Erica Lee, UC Berkeley MaÏko Le Lay, UC Riverside Rebecca Lippman, UC Los Angeles José Medrano, UC Riverside Dorie Dakin Perez, UC Merced Olivia Quintanilla, UC San Diego Fernando Sanchez, UC San Diego Carolyn Schutten, UC Riverside Meg Sparling, UC Davis Helga Zambrano, UC Los Angeles
Designed in collaboration with Zihan (Iris) Li, Rhode Island School of Design
Humanists@Work Colleagues & Friends Elizabeth Allen Kayleigh Anderson Darren Arquero Debra Behrens David Blancha Pamela Brown Shane Breitenstein Jeff and Nora Brown Tongshan Chang Whitney DeVos Rebecca Egger Anna Finn Carol Genetti Beth Greene Robert Hamm Stacy Hartman Giulia Hoffman Hillary Jenks Pamela Jennings David Laurence Linda Louie John Marx Annie Maxfield Molly McCarthy Sarah McCullough James McMillan Tyrus Miller Saskia Nauenberg Julia Nelson Steve Olsen Irena Polic Jared Redick Rachel Reeves Nicole Hardy Robinson Sabrina Smith Amanda Jeanne Swain Robert Townsend Michael Ursell Barbara Van Nostrand Shawn Warner-Garcia Yang Yang
Field
Notes
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Field
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