But when I see so many gifted people still in academe, scraping by on adjunct income with no real prospects for earning a decent living, my heart goes out to them and I want to say: You are too gifted and intelligent to be wasting your time in a profession that does not want you. Just as importantly, the world is not benefitting from your talents. Look elsewhere!
The above quote comes from Kevin Walzer, who has written about the academic job crisis "in the Chronicle and elsewhere" and who has a new blog called (appropriately enough) Kevin Walzer's Blog. Among the topics he plans to address are "writing and publishing poetry, earning a living in the business world, fooling around with computer technology (and occasionally harnessing it for useful purposes), and being a former/recovering academic." I look forward to reading more.
Looks to be another good read. Any idea how to contact the author? I'd like to alert him that XML syndication and RSS autodiscovery seem to be turned off.
Posted by: Ceec at June 3, 2003 08:34 PMI think the same could be said about untenured staff. It drives me mad that in my department the only people without representation on the dpt board are the untenured staff, even though we cover 50% of all undergraduate teaching.
Posted by: jb at June 3, 2003 08:53 PMI'm also a recovering academic, and loved that blog post. I was doing a PhD in comparative literature at Stanford. Now I've made my way in the computer industry -- I had had an interest in programming before, but then began to study it in earnest -- and I'm always surprised by the quality of intellectual life you can find outside the academy.
Posted by: All Day Permanent Red at June 12, 2003 07:54 PM