Documenting Academic Labor
I’m currently waiting for a review copy of Marc Bousquet’s How the University Works, but thanks to Miriam, I spent a few minutes checking out Bousquet’s YouTube channel, which features interviews with a variety of experts on academic labor issues, including one PhD student who discusses the demands that the profession places on graduate students and their families. His most recent video, “Ph.D. Casino,” addresses the daunting statistic that “after a median 10 years of study, and perhaps four or five years of job hunting, 40 percent of language PhDs will not have tenure track jobs anywhere.”
I’ll have more to say about the book in the next couple of weeks, but for now, you can follow Bousquet’s videos both on his YouTube channel or on his blog.
