Question:
Is it impossible to get a lecturing position in History?
Patty-Sue
2008-06-30 19:06:02 UTC
I'm currently completing my PhD in History and am feeling a bit anxious about my future in academia. I really want to be a University History lecturer. Is this just a futile dream because of the lack of positions out there? Should I start thinking about an alternative career that's more realistic?
Six answers:
ljwaks
2008-06-30 19:20:59 UTC
HI, Europe:



Your dream job in academia is by no means impossible, but it is by no means certain to come true either.



The current professorate is near or at retirement age. Some positions will be filled. Many other part time and adjunct positions will be available, although it will be hard to put several of them together into one decent job. I do, however, know several people who have worked as adjunct lecturers, done a terrific job, and landed full time lecturer positions.



Here are the real questions:



(1) What is your research field, and is it in specially high demand (e.g. Modern Iraq history)?



(2) Have you made plans to publish your dissertation? Are you presenting your research at conferences? Are you preparing journal articles, or even publishing already?



(3) Do you have any special background achievements (running a student organization; supervising undergraduate research projects, acquiring research or training grants)?



(4) Are you working with a highlyvisible historian who is well networked in the profession and is willing to go to bat for you?



Working in a high demand field, publishing, and showing special ways oif contributing to a department, will place you at an advantage. Having an enthusiastic and highly estemmed major professor will, also.



You may not be able to do much about (1), but it's never too late to start a project in a new area. You can do plenty about (2) and (3).



It will be a buyers market, so you will have to create a competitive advantage for yourself.
?
2008-06-30 19:27:57 UTC
It's not impossible, but then it's not impossible to win the lottery either. I realize it's a bit late now, but you might have found more job opportunities if you had first gotten an ALA-accredited Master of Library Science degree and then done a PhD in a specific discipline. Well, or had gotten a PhD in Finance or Accounting, but if you're a History person that might not interest you.



Sorry to be such a downer, but I work in higher education and that's honestly the way I see it. Good luck!
gestapoid
2008-06-30 19:11:39 UTC
I really wanted to teach Political Science at the university level but the job market is absolutely atrocious. We're talking so bad that people from very good schools are teaching at community colleges. I work with a woman with a PhD from Harvard who is teaching at a community college.



This is just anecdotal evidence but the job market for all the social sciences/humanity disciplines are really, really tight right now.
anonymous
2016-10-08 04:39:11 UTC
It specific does! i don't have a difficulty with that IF the universe could be 'turtles each of ways down' too. i.e. If God could be countless super yet by capacity of an identical concept the universe could too & the massive Bang could be led to by capacity of an unseen phenomena like a intending universe all of us know no longer something of or possibly a multiverse. notwithstanding a theist says they are what legal bodies call 'specific pleading' - asserting 'you are able to no longer say the universe had no reason yet i will say God did no longer.' OR: 'i will say God is eternal yet you are able to no longer say the universe is.' substantial names like Sir Roger Penrose & Stephen Hawking now have self assurance the universe could have been 'born' from a intending one subsequently the massive Bang is barely considered one of a limiteless variety of cyclical phenomena without commencing up. - Turtles each of ways down in essence!
anonymous
2008-06-30 19:09:32 UTC
Are you in the US? If so, check out this site. It has postings for such jobs



http://www.h-net.org/jobs/



I teach history at a university in the US. The job market is actually better than has been for years in my particular field. If your subfield is Latin America, Asian or African history, you are in even better shape.
sandy
2008-06-30 19:15:02 UTC
If you are completing your PhD, I'd think you would ask this question in a more informed forum.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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