 Notes
1. The differing objects of desire between Updike's character and Gregory and his peers is a reflection of the differing views of what it means to be a successful professor held by the general public and by members of the
profession: the "comfortable, tweedy, avuncular college teacher as
opposed to the intellectually powerful and highly reputed university
researcher. It is interesting to note that Gregory makes the transformation
silently, assuming his audience of ADE readers will share his
construction of the accepted career goal.
2. For an interesting explication of this metaphor, see Steve Watt, "On
Apprentices and Company Towns." Will Teach for Food. Ed. Cary Nelson.
Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1997, 229-53.
3. Here and throughout this work, I shall cite responses to my
questionnaires using this system: survey number.question number. Thus (3.1)
here is survey 3, question 1. Email me if you'd like the text of the questions from all of the surveys. When I cite an informant's interview (held either face-to-face at the 1995 MLA convention or via telephone), I note that as (interview); information communicated by electronic mail, which I used extensively for follow-up and clarification, I cite as (email).
4. See, for example, earlier issues of Workplace, Nelson and Bˇrubˇ, Guillory, Curren and many others.
5. For an early version of this concept, see Bourdieu, Pierre. Homo Academicus. Trans. by. Peter Collier. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1988. Trans. of Homo Academicus. Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1984. Of course
differences in time and national culture require some adjustment to apply
Bourdieu's idea here.
6. As all of the MLA's data is generated through the self-reports of departments and of members seeking jobs and the compilation of jobs
advertised in the JIL, one must consider it less than perfectly reliable.
Also, the peak in the number of positions in the late 1980's was an
anomaly, a statistical outlier. Though the number of positions has gone up
and down each year, looked at in the long term, the job situation in
English has been out of balance and in collapse since the early 1970's.
7. Curiously, this is one of very few mentions of the financial aspects of this transition, although the difference between a TA or part-timer's
stipend and a faculty salary can be significant. Other than this, only
Peter's later mention of failing to negotiate and Sam's story of
successfully negotiating about the details of salary touch on this issue.
Student loan indebtedness is another financial issue I expected to hear
about that did not arise in the responses, perhaps as grace periods allowed
some of my participants to avoid thinking about them until late in the
year.
8. See for example, Eleanor H. Green's "The Job Search: Observations of a Reader of 177 Letters of Application," Nona Fienberg's "'The Most of It': Hiring at a Nonelite College," Anne Warner's "What a BA College Needs to Know," and Libby Bay's "Teaching in a Community College: Rerouting a
Career." All provide advice about what some institutions want in a job
candidate.
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