"What Is a Post-Academic?"

(Yes, I'm still on vacation, but I'm at home waiting for some work to be finished on my basement floor -- before and after pictures later perhaps. In the meantime, what else to do but write a short post?)

Some questions around the blogosphere have been raised lately about leaving academe: "if you take a different job, a job other than adjuncting or professing, does it always mean you've left academe? Are you, by default, no longer an academic?"

For many post-academics, the answer is emphatically yes. Many people decide they don't like the work, in one way or another. Others don't like the working conditions. Still others decide they like neither the work nor the working conditions. For all of us, walking away seems a better option than staying in a profession that, as Anastasia points out, does not care about us. Indeed, A Post-Academic in NYC says that "walking away" doesn't even
accurately describe what we're doing because it implies there was somewhere to walk to. And we're all pretty much agreed that there isn't.

But if there are those who emphatically no longer see themselves as academics for one reason or another, where dies that leave those of us who -- wherever we may be working, whatever we may be doing -- on some level still identify ourselves as academics?

Because I know I still do ... it has something to do with a state of mind, with ways of thinking, with ways of relating to the world. I think, in some ways, I was an academic before I ever even thought about becoming a professor.

But I digress. What is a post-academic? A post-academic is simply someone who has worked in academe, who has pursued a career as a professor, however successfully or unsuccessfully, and has, for any combination of the above reasons, chosen to take a step back (or two or three -- or perhaps run at a sprint never to look back) and do something else to earn a living -- for now or for forever.

My point is that a post-academic is never going to go back to being a nonacademic, unless you willfully reinvent yourself as such. For me -- and for a lot of us, I'd gather -- you don't ever really get rid of those habits of mind you developed, whatever it is you happen to be doing for a living now and/or in the future.

And I think it's important to emphasize the academic part, too, even if you never teach
another class, present at another conference, or publish another peer-reviewed article. Because, as much academe has exploited us, academe itself his, country's system of higher education, is losing something when we leave. Not that there aren't plenty enough other masochists to take our places right now but that we were contributing something that had -- and has -- a kind of value our society is unwilling to reckon with. And will continue to refuse to reckon with as long as the true cost is disguised by an underpaid workforce.

On Vacation

Yeah, just as all of you still in campusland are heading back to class, it's vacation week for me. No major plans. Peaches and I are staying home and trying to get some repairs and cleaning done, though hopefully we'll get away to the mountains or the beach for a day or two.

Hurricanes and earthquakes all in the same week ... who knew? Fortunately, Irene didn't do too much damage. Our leaky roof held up. Our basement didn't flood. The power stayed on. All good reasons to take a sigh of relief and sit back and more or less relax.

Anyway, posting might be a bit sporadic for the next week or so.

Hobart says: "Teh humanz, what suckahs! Us kittehs takes teh vacations every dayz!! "

Grad U Library After Earthquake

Yes, the library ... where I still have modest borrowing privileges, though I remain unaffiliated.

No, I didn't take the picture (and sorry for not giving proper credit ... for obvious reasons). The library remains closed while staff work to re-shelve over 10,000 books before the start of classes next week.

Did Anyone Else Feel the Earthquake?

I was at my desk in the office and at first thought is was the construction upstairs gone horribly wrong. Nope. Weirdest thing I ever felt, though. It wasn't strong enough right around here to knock things off desks or cause any structural damage, but I'd say it felt just short of that. If the shaking had been just a little stronger, I imagine I might have lost my balance.

Earthquakes?!! Of all things. Too weird.

Best bad pun of the day: San Andreas called and said, "It wasn't my fault."

Facebook

OK, so according to my stats, somebody's linked to my blog from facebook and readers are coming here from there. That's fine, I think. Publicity is good.

But I just want to put it out there that I am not on facebook -- not now, not ever. I would love to be having conversations with people who might be interested in the topics I post about. C'mon over here and leave a comment if you like. I don't bite (well, most of the time).

I'm way past the point of criticizing facebook users. It's whatever. Do what makes sense for you. Personally, I got pissed off years ago when people (both friends and relatives) I used to exchange emails with regularly got on facebook and basically stopped talking to me. Not out of ill will or anything. Rather, they were just too busy on their facebook pages talking to their "friends" to exchange a personal message or two that they (or I) might not necessarily have wanted the whole world -- even just "facebook friends" -- to read (and really, the fact that "friend" has become a verb is a little unnerving in and of itself).

I get why you people like it and can appreciate some of its uses (my band used/uses it for publicity), but the way everyone just jumped on that bandwagon -- "Why are you on facebook? Duh! Everyone's on facebook!" -- gets under my skin. No thanks.

If you've been reading this blog for any little bit of time, you know that a big part of how I was able to extricate myself from academe had to do with resisting the herd impulse, doing something just because everyone else was doing it -- because "it's what you're supposed to do" if you want an academic career. I'm supposed to watch everyone else's Sisyphean adventures in academic career-land year after year, and then, when my turn comes, just DO THE SAME THING? No thanks.

Not exactly directly analogous, I know. But my point is about thinking for yourself. Whether it's facebook or academe, make your own decisions. Don't let the herd decide what makes sense and what's going to work best for you.

Link to me all you want from facebook, but I won't be meeting you there anytime soon.

Via

Some Advice for Unhappy Grad Students, Disgruntled Adjunsts, and Other Would-Be Post-Academics

Wish somebody had apprised me of this shit once upon a time. Now I have a whole lot of catching up to do:

Graduate school is a trap; orchestrate your exit before you have to leave.
Lots of reasons lead us to graduate school and the pursuit of careers as academics. I'm not here to judge those. I had my own, and, if things were different, I'd be sticking around. But, whatever your reasons for entering and staying for however long you find it sustainable to stay, know that there's probably going to come a time when your options become "either leave academe or stay and be miserable." Nobody's going to tell you this except us crazily sane post-academics, and nobody's going to tell you what the best strategy for planning your exit is. But you need one -- even if you never end up using it, you'll be that much better prepared to advise your own students in the future.

Do your research on what post-academic life has to offer you; you're not going to end up a corporate bot unless you let yourself.
Whenever you do leave, you're probably going to dislike on some level whatever it is you end up doing, even if there are also some things you like -- heck, we all know it ain't like reading Great Books and thinking Deep Thoughts. Prepare for this inevitability by researching possible jobs and careers and acquiring skills and knowledge that will lead you to the greater likelihood of a job with more that you like than dislike (Currently, I am researching day trading, and I expect to be blogging about what I'm learning further, as I learn more -- wish I had done this earlier, like when I hit the dissertation dry spell and couldn't write for three months, 'cuz while there are things I like about my current job, I don't aim to be a secretary forever, and I think I could be really good at this day trading thing, something I never even considered before.).

Anyone that tells you that you're compromising your ideals by looking into alternative careers while still pursuing your academic goals? Tell hem to piss off. They're wrong.
That pretty much says it all. Most likely your adviser, well-meaning as ze might be, will tell you this. It may have been true in the past. It's not now. The only thing you're compromising by pursuing your academic goals WITHOUT looking into alternative careers is your own future -- and your capacity ever to support yourself without the help of your partner, family, loans, credit, or food stamps.

Don't get hung up on the academic job market.
It's just around the corner now. The MLA Job List for 2012-2013 is coming out in less than a month. Don't stress. Your academic career is out of your hands. If you're going on the tenure-track market (fuck postdocs and VAPs), just send out letters to the places you can imagine yourself working. If you can't see yourself working there, don't waste your time. Concentrate on presenting yourself well to the ones that make sense for you. If that's only 3, then only send out 3 letters. The rest is ... not up to you anyway, so don't sweat it. Send out those letters and CVs, go have yourself a nice drink, and forget about it. Odds are no one is going to call you. It'll be a pleasant surprise if they do. In the meantime, work on that alternate career, so that next semester you can tell your Scheduler of Adjuncts (who earns $95K) to pay you more or fuck off, because you have options.

Make some friends outside academe.
They'll really help you put things into perspective. Odds are, you'll find a few smart, funny, creative, totally cool people, and they'll help you see what you're missing out on by burying yourself in academe. Not that a career in academe might not still end up being an option, but life on the outside isn't what you thought it would be as the 22-year-old pseudo intellectual you once were, either. Let's face it, you might still love academic work, but you no longer burn with that dumbass, naive "hard, gemlike flame." Grow up and get to know the world around you. Might turn out to be just a little more interesting than the "life of the mind" -- that narrow little world inside your own head insulated from the outside by academe's musty corridors -- that's trapped you for the last decade. And, even if you end up winning the jobs lottery and staying in academe, you'll be that much better prepared to interact with and advise your students.

Monday Morning AcademiCat

Hobart says: "Kittehs as handsome as I is don't need to be smart. Teh peoplz luuvs you even if you does dumbstupid tings like eat sandalz (Mmmmmmm!). But I iz handsome AND smart (even if I duz dumbstupid tings sometimes), and I like you to pleaze tell me so many times every day."