PhD Humanities - Just Don't Do It!

[Party_Key]

I accidentally found this thread.

I have thought about this a lot. To me, studying a pure liberal arts degree wasn't an option because I have had a hard life and know what it's like to be poor. It's horrible when you can't even buy things that you need. At university, I always ask myself, "what is the purpose of this course?" If a course exists, it has to have some purpose. The purpose cannot be "enriching one's life or value." That's naive.

Most employers don't want to hire pure liberal arts grads. People say there are successful business (wo)men with a liberal arts degree. In my personal opinion, they don't understand basic statistics and mathematics. We are simply saying that a liberal arts graduate is more likely to be unemployed and/or a doing low-skilled job. We are not claiming that everyone that studies a liberal arts degree is doomed.

Moreover, some believe that most jobs do not require specific skills. Most jobs do not require specific skills, therefore it doesn't matter what you study at university. The second claim doesn't follow from the first definition. The correct statement is most jobs do not require specific skills, but employers prefer STEM grads anyway.

Worse, law school is no longer an option for liberal arts grads. Business schools prefer engineers.

[nerdspeak]

The correct statement is most jobs do not require specific skills, but employers prefer STEM grads anyway.

Haha TRUTH.

[t1racyjacks]

I should think that most of us who are applying for a 'humanities phd' are aware of the horrid job market out there. The question is really how much one wants to do this and what other job options we have and like (if any) VS the risk one chooses to take. It is a choice and I don't think there's much use in whining about the way the job market is if we've already made the choice... One can only hope to be lucky.

[uromastyx]

This is the humanities! I'm pursuing the PhD because I am passionate about my interests and the acquisition of knowledge.

I won't pass up my academic dreams due to fears of the job market.

 

(But hey, ask me again in 20 years. )

[Seeking]

I think there is a lot of truth in what he says, though the point about the Humanities being the disciplines for refining human personality and not vocational training courses is also correct.

 

I guess he wants to make those students aware, who may not know about the harsh realities.

 

Almost every response to his article - mostly from the Humanities faculty and some from the students - has agreed with him. See link - 

 

http://chronicle.com/article/Letters-About-Graduate-School/63938

 

There is a need to look at it from a historical perspective.

 

The idea of Humanities evolved in times when everyone didn't depend upon a job to survive in the world. There were other means of sustenance available to people, especially to those who went to study in the universities.

 

Besides, the teaching of Humanities as a means to refine human character evolved as a reaction to the earlier times, when people from different sections of the society were expected to go for different kinds of vocational training. This is why Humanities don't give a vocational training to their students.

 

Since then, our society has changed drastically. Today, most people depend upon a job in order to survive, regardless of the discipline they study. In such an environment, while the essential sense of Humanities as disciplines to refine human character and going to a university for pure passion of the discipline is not to be forgotten, there is a responsibility upon the Grad Programs to seriously try to resolve the problem of underemployment and unemployment in the Academia, especially in the Humanities.

 

As for the availability of academic jobs in the Humanities, the career prospects in Humanities is a reflection of the economic health of a country.The general slant is that when the economy is robust, academic jobs in the Humanities will grow. Shrinking number of academic jobs in the Humanities reflect that the economy is declining. (This is with specific reference to the Humanities, not to other disciplines). This is because in any society more number of people successfully make an academic career out of the Humanities when the society in general is prosperous. In times of economic decline, careers in vocational fields grow in number.

 

The question of whether we should study a subject for its market value or for our passion for the subject is also linked to the question of how holistically developed the society is.  

 

In most underdeveloped societies such as in the Third World, people study a subject for its worth in the job-market. This is because education is their means to advance their economic condition. Studying a discipline purely for the love of the discipline is a mark of a highly developed society. Mostly, in the developed part of the world people study a subject purely because they love it.

 

By extension then, in a developed country if there is a growing number of people opting for a discipline because of its value in the job market or if more and more people feel that the Humanities should be linked to the job market, it is a sign of declining economy of the country. As the economy improves, the academic career prospects of the Humanities Graduates should also improve and more people will also automatically go into Graduate school because they love their subject.

 

So, the effort should be focused on improving the economy of the country.

Edited February 14, 2013 by Seeking

[wideawake42]

whoops, see below

Edited February 15, 2013 by wideawake42

[wideawake42]

I would just like to point out, for the sake of comforting all of us in the same boat, that all of the professors at my undergrad school (a no name state school, and it was a liberal arts major) did their PhDs at other no name schools that are unranked for my field, and they are professors in TT jobs or tenured jobs who are getting paid well, even if it's not very prestigious. They all agree that the job market is soul crushing, but also all agree that the emphasis on pedigree and "go to a top 20 or you'll die!" is overblown.