Please consider submitting a proposal for the following special session at the 2016 MLA Convention in Austin, TX. We are especially interested in proposals from graduate students preparing for the job market, or currently on the job market.
This roundtable will consider how discipline-specific “lore” continually lures graduate students, contingent faculty, and even full-time faculty into an already overcrowded market. This panel seeks to initiate discussions about the psychodynamics of job candidacy in disciplines confronting changes in academic, institutional, and economic trends.
Instead of providing advice about getting a job, this session seeks to evaluate that advice and how it upholds or challenges common practices in graduate programs and academic departments. Additionally, panelists are encouraged to consider the ways that job market “wisdom” affects individual job seekers’ emotional, physical, and/or financial health.
Submissions may address, but are not limited to:
How the job market solidifies or challenges hierarchies within an academic department or discipline
Necessary changes in conventional wisdom about the academic job market
The mental health of academic job seekers
The academic job market as a gauge for the health of a discipline
The effect of the academic job market on enrollment in graduate programs
The business of getting an academic job: consulting services, advice books, dossier services
The stigma of an unsuccessful job search
The availability of advice on finding a career outside of academia
250-word abstracts to Carrie Johnston (johnsci [at] quincy [dot] edu) by March 6