AHA 09 and the Townsend Report

MLA 09 and the report on the dismal job market in the humanities were the big buzz ~ or gut punch. This week it's the AHA's Townsend Report on that profession's dismal job market and the annual AHA Conference.

Winter break seems to have slowed down the California flow somewhat. Soon enough California and other states joining it in the higher ed meltdown race ~ New York seems the likeliest contender ~ will be back front and center, flanked by stories of record enrollments at community colleges and online for-profits. 

I started out collecting "adjuncts in the blogosphere" links for an Adjunct (or Academic) Labor Blogroll to grace our sidebar. On seeing how many of the "adjunct faculty" news alerts are AHA related, I decided to post just about that before turning my attention back to adjunct blogs (and thoughts of adapting the 350 Blogging Challenge to adjunct or whatever we call ourselves issues ~ the last being yet another topic, but not today.

In the meantime, here's more on the AHA report and reactions to it:

The American History Association's Townsend report, "Troubling News on the Job Market for History PhDs"

And reverberations through the academic blogosphere:

• "More Labor Pains" in another history blog More or Less Bunk, (title from Henry Ford quote)
• "Sympathetic labor pains," in the same blog 
• "Checking in on the AHA-hahahahaha? (Lolsob.)" at Historiann 
• "Tales From the Pit, part deux: Classy Claude files his report on AHA 2009," also at Historiann 
• Marc Bosquet's "At the AHA: Huh?" and
• "Who’s A Historian to the AHA?", both at How the University Works
• "History “Job Czar” Shuts Down Phd Production (PhD “Oversupply” Continues For Two Decades)," part 3 of a 3-parter in response to the annual job report for historians. in The Valve
• "'Tis the season to lament the state of academic employment" in US Intellectual History, a group blog (think The Valve); post by Andrew Hartman commenting on, among other aspects of the stated topic, the Bosquet series

Happy New Year: philosophy & other advice for #adjunct faculty

Break is almost over but today is still a holiday even if my New Year's Eve was quiet and sober. MLA09 was well covered by tweet, not just mine.  Summing up tweet (MLA 09 in under 140) and the entire #MLA09 archive, a cast of thousands: download from site or subscribe to feed.

I've been diligently collating more materials than I can possibly use ~ but will somehow try. In the meantime, here's a little something to help you be more philosophical about what's facing us in 2010. Enjoy...





More to enjoy. I discovered a blogging soul mate at I Used to Be Disgusted But Now I Try to Be Amused, self-described as "a low-level academic who likes to vent his spleen a little too much." Inspired, insightful snark, and we like the same books and movies. Granted, I'm not much on basketball but there's always beer.

• A Modest Proposal to Deal With the Rise in Unemployed History PhDs
  
• Administrative Buzzwords and Phrases, and What They Really Mean
• What a Glenn Beck Student Essay Would Look Like

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