How to analyze fiction

Medievalist said:

Let me put it this way . . . if you're teaching English comp, English lit or the humanities in general at the college level, don't count on it.

I have a Ph.D. I have a little over 15 years experience in the college classroom teaching writing and lit. I have rave evaluations from students and supervisors, and two teaching awards.

There are no jobs. There are no jobs for my peers, either. UCLA has completely closed its Writing Programs, and laid off all the lecturers (67). Colleges everywhere are not hiring adjuncts/lecturers. UCLA has asked all faculty and staff to take unpaid "furlough" days indefinitely.

There are a number of other colleges doing the same thing.

There were a total of 20 tenure track job openings in 2009 so far for English/Comp. Some of the lit jobs are for fields--if you do post colonial you have a better chance.

The local community college will pay me, at the higher level of the pay scale, 868.00 for a thirteen week semester. That's not a month; that's for the term per class.

My friend with the Harvard Ph.D. and six years of teaching has been looking for a job as an adjunct lecturer for fall; she's done two years at her current school, and that's the limit for a contract. They aren't allowed to hire her for another term.

She's going to move to Kuwait to teach English there. She can't get a teaching job here, and has just lost her job as a writer for a tech company. They laid off the entire QA and documentation departments, and have asked everyone else to take two days of unpaid leave a month.

The Chronicle of Higher Education is urging humanities departments to cut graduate admissions by at least half.

This has been getting worse for the last several years; it's not finished getting worse.

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