3.520 PhD shortfall and computing humanists (124)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Sat, 30 Sep 89 20:59:02 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 520. Saturday, 30 Sep 1989.
(1) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 21:49:40 CDT (18 lines)
From: "Kevin L. Cope" <ENCOPE@LSUVM>
Subject: Volume Ph.D.s, Teaching Loads, and THE SHORTAGE
(2) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 22:25:31 CDT (8 lines)
From: "Michael S. Hart" <HART@UIUCVME>
Subject: Re: 3.516 the PhD gap (51)
(3) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 11:28:56 BST (49 lines)
From: Donald Spaeth 041 339 8855 x6336 <GKHA13@CMS.GLASGOW.AC.UK>
Subject: Shortfall of humanists (3.471)
(4) Date: Sat, 30 Sep 89 11:26:00 EDT (19 lines)
From: Martin Ryle <RYLE@urvax.urich.edu>
Subject: RE: 3.516 the PhD gap (51)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 21:49:40 CDT
From: "Kevin L. Cope" <ENCOPE@LSUVM>
Subject: Volume Ph.D.s, Teaching Loads, and THE SHORTAGE
As a curious phenomenon, a conservative academic, I have no trouble
at all agreeing with the infamous Lynn that most people would rather
teach than research and that the Ph.D. shortage is trumpery (I've
expressed this view before). I disagree with the claim that all persons
in the humanities ought to be teachers, or that all ought to be researchers.
I'd be happy with a one-course load and plenty of research expectations,
but others would be happy doing no research and teaching all day. The notion
that everyone ought to do the same thing is one unexpected consequence of the
old 1960s egalitarian mentality. And, as is often the case, this kind of
naive egalitarianism turns into a kind of totalitarianism. I'll even
say it baldly and brutally (this ought to get some converstaion going): I
believe that a class structure in the academy is a good things, as long as it
results from choice and merit. People have the right to be different from
one another; only Peter, Paul, and Mary look the same. KLC.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 22:25:31 CDT
From: "Michael S. Hart" <HART@UIUCVME>
Subject: Re: 3.516 the PhD gap (51)
While we are on the subject of PhD unemployment, I noted in a new
publication that the University of Illinois employs over 25,000 -
but that only 10% of these were faculty, and, of course, they are
not all PhDs.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------51----
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 11:28:56 BST
From: Donald Spaeth 041 339 8855 x6336 <GKHA13@CMS.GLASGOW.AC.UK>
Subject: Shortfall of humanists (3.471)
Ah, this looks like a subject which will run and run, so I think
I'll get my two cents worth in now!
I've heard this canard about the imminent shortage of humanists
before (i.e., in years past), but the rumours haven't been
fulfilled. It's wort nothing that there is
a large backlog of Ph.D.s who are not employed as academics, some of
whom have hung on in the hope that new jobs would materialise.
Universities have gotten out of the habit of hiring people who
take too long to get a job or hold too many temporary posts,
but this may have to change.
On the point that is perhaps more controversial--namely whether
the computer can speed up Ph.D. acquisition--I doubt it. In
fact, the tendency may be in the opposite direction. The entry
of data into databases/text retrieval packages is time-consuming.
The availability of computer techniques is likely to encourage graduate
students to take on projects which they never would have dreamed
of in the past, and which would have been considered the proper
reserve for mature scholars or to be impossible. Worse, it is
all too easy for the student to waste months/years keying in
data, happy in the knowledge that s/he is accomplishing
something, but without any clear idea of how the data will be
used. Computers may not have invented blind alleys
but they have made them longer. And
many supervisors do not have the experience themselves to
help.
I'm not sure I accept the premise that Ph.D.s take too long to
acquire. If they do, it is the result of higher expectations
combined with the poor job market. U.S. theses are expected to
be books, showing awareness of a scholarship in the field and
contributing new insights. Ideally, the student will finish
with the first draft of a publishable book and several articles,
essential for the first job and eventual tenure.
Historically, theses aimed lower; they were thorough expositions
of a subject, often containing large amounts of descriptive
material with little analysis. This tradition has hung on
longer in Britain. There's nothing wrong with the latter
approach; but departments may find it difficult to modify
expectations (lower standards, they will say).
Donald Spaeth
CTI Centre for History
University of Glasgow
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 89 11:26:00 EDT
From: Martin Ryle <RYLE@urvax.urich.edu>
Subject: RE: 3.516 the PhD gap (51)
James Halporn implies that only research can save teaching faculty from
offering "the same lectures now dull with repetition." He is not describing
good teachers gone bad, but lazy incompetents. I suspect we all have known
colleagues who were well published but whose class lectures have not been
upgraded in years. Three preparations and eighty-plus students per semester
leaves little spare time for scholarly writing, if one attempts to make each
class period fresh, requires writing of the students, and uses essay tests
instead of multiple-guess. I make no claims that research and publishing are
necessarily antagonistic to teaching, but only that teaching is a demanding,
scholarly, and respectable activity that publishing scholars have no cause to
denigrate.
Martin Ryle
Profesor of History
University of Richmond, Virginia