Which Humanities degree is the best for jobs?

[Minerva1917]

Which departments in the humanities are the best and worst for landing academic jobs?

I got my master's in English literature, but have been thinking about getting my PhD in history or sociology. Three professors (in English and History) strongly advised me to go into English, which apparently is one of the best (albeit still extremely competitive) for academic jobs. They also said History is one of the most difficult. How true is this? Is there any way to validate these claims?

[ExponentialDecay]

You can validate these claims by looking at job market data

 

tl;dr job markets in all of these fields suck and you shouldn't expect any academic job at all

Edited February 15, 2018 by ExponentialDecay

[Minerva1917]

Yeah. That's very true Where do I go about finding this job market data though?

[ExponentialDecay]

the MLA publishes this data for languages and literatures. I assume MHA does the same for history, etc. a few journal articles have been published in recent years on the humanities job market. you can find all these resources on google.

[rising_star]

It's the AHA (American History Association). Their jobs data is linked in various posts in the history subforum. American history is certainly an incredibly competitive field. But also, tenure-track jobs are disappearing all across the academy.

[TheWalkingGrad]

In this link there's a story that just came out at the Chronicle of Higher Education that is relevant to your question. Honestly, the situation is dire for everyone, but my impression is that the humanities are in worse shape than everyone else.

[maxhgns]

Philosophy probably has the worst job market, especially relative to the number of job seekers. Just about every open specialization job gets 650-1200 applications (I know, because I apply for all of those!), and even relatively niche specializations get 100-300. History is not far behind, however. This is because history and philosophy departments tend to be fairly small, and don't usually exercise a whole lot of power in the university (meaning they're not prioritized for hires). The English market is hard, to be sure, but English departments tend to be huge, and exert a lot of administrative power. Graduates of top programs don't struggle all that much on the market.

I have no evidence for this claim, but I suspect that religious studies/theology has the best job market in the humanities, especially if you include non-academic jobs. At least as far as the US is concerned.

[Bumblebea]

Yeah, there are next-to no tenure-track jobs anymore. English may be the best bet, though, (and still a lousy risky one) if only because colleges still need people to teach writing. Philosophy and foreign languages are looked at as "optional" courses (with few majors) and history is getting there. People do not go to college to major in humanities anymore, and universities are relaxing requirements so that they do not have to even take general education courses in these subjects.

Of course, even the "you must take writing" thing is losing steam. Many universities are allowing students to test out of entry-level composition classes with a very nominal score on AP/SAT tests. The university where I got my PhD--a very economically viable public university--is looking to shrink its number of humanities majors to almost nothing by 2020.

[Nico Corr]

Mark Cuban states Philosophy majors have a leg up in the tech market. If you can't get a job in academia, you apparently won't completely be up shit's creek;

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/20/mark-cuban-philosophy-degree-will-be-worth-more-than-computer-science.html

[Xenia2191]

On 2/15/2018 at 7:15 AM, Minerva1917 said:

Which departments in the humanities are the best and worst for landing academic jobs?

I got my master's in English literature, but have been thinking about getting my PhD in history or sociology. Three professors (in English and History) strongly advised me to go into English, which apparently is one of the best (albeit still extremely competitive) for academic jobs. They also said History is one of the most difficult. How true is this? Is there any way to validate these claims?

Sociology is a social science not in the humanities department. You could probably apply though if you're good with theory. 

[ExponentialDecay]

Maybe we'll go back to a time when you could only study the liberal arts in prestigious schools and everything else is basically a glorified polytechnic.