by J J Cohen
The MLA Job Information List went live yesterday.
I'm writing letters for several people on the market this year, so I'd been anxious to see how many medieval and early modern positions would be posted. Answer: not a whole lot. It is still a bit early, so a few more positions will no doubt appear, but by my very quick count there looks to be no more than 10-15 tenure track positions in each time period. Do the math: if 200 people apply for each, then ...
Here's wishing all the best to ITM readers on the market. At this point custom dictates that I should insert some gallows humor to lighten the mood, but really, it's just too depressing to contemplate the number of very good candidates who will not find employment this year.
The "list" (such as it is) for history is a bit crueler: AHA updates every Friday, so job-seekers keep holding out hope for that late announcement to be posted. I think maybe they only give up after Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, job-seekers! And this year, you can have the cold comfort that your prospects are no worse than anyone in this economy, no?
As someone who could very well be one of those people who doesn't find a job this year (statistically speaking, of course), I fully support your use of gallows humor in this and any other subsequent post about the job market.
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