{"title":"On precarity in academia","authors":"Philippe Stamenkovic","doi":"10.59391/inscriptions.v3i2.66","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Precarity in academia is notoriously widespread. The main reason is certainly the fierce competition which has turned the academic job market into a meaningless jungle. It is a terrible waste, in which countless brilliant academics struggle to secure a position, often to an advanced age (when they do not leave the field altogether), with damaging consequences on their personal and psychic life. In this article I recall my own experience of this terrible state of affairs, insisting on the vicious circles in which the “outsider” trying to get in can be caught. I also comment on the hypocrisy and humiliation to which I was personally confronted, which stands in sharp contrast with the “good intentions” which can be seen everywhere in the literature. I conclude by asking tenured, privileged academics to show decency to the precarious workers of academia, who lead a difficult life and deserve respect.","PeriodicalId":32883,"journal":{"name":"Inscriptions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Inscriptions","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.59391/inscriptions.v3i2.66","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
Precarity in academia is notoriously widespread. The main reason is certainly the fierce competition which has turned the academic job market into a meaningless jungle. It is a terrible waste, in which countless brilliant academics struggle to secure a position, often to an advanced age (when they do not leave the field altogether), with damaging consequences on their personal and psychic life. In this article I recall my own experience of this terrible state of affairs, insisting on the vicious circles in which the “outsider” trying to get in can be caught. I also comment on the hypocrisy and humiliation to which I was personally confronted, which stands in sharp contrast with the “good intentions” which can be seen everywhere in the literature. I conclude by asking tenured, privileged academics to show decency to the precarious workers of academia, who lead a difficult life and deserve respect.