Because of COVID19 and the economic fallout, 2020 academic hiring is dead in the water. Karen created a crowdsource list of hiring freezes in March, and it’s up to about 350 right now, and that doesn’t include all the campuses within state systems that are listed. Catastrophically bad conditions will certainly prevail for the 2020-2021 hiring season. What to do about it? Karen and Kel talk strategy, going postacademic, and starting the hard work of distancing yourself from the academic cult.
In this episode, the final one we record on the Himalaya platform (the podcast will continue, just on a different platform – follow our social media for links) we talk about the need for a hard reset in the face of the devastating Fall increase in covid infections and the further collapse of the academic career. A hard reset means on one hand, remembering the good systems you might have put in place last March to deal with the pandemic, and bringing them back. On the other hand, recalibrate your relationship to the academy, so that no matter whether you stay or leave, you are operating autonomously and without delusional beliefs in the academy’s “goodness” and academic exceptionalism. This starts a new series on concrete advice to leave the academy. ...
Kel and Karen surveyed search committees this week and they had a LOT to say about what they wish you, the job seekers, would understand. K and K break it down for you, and give you advice on how not give away your shot. ...
Karen and Kel talk about a way to look at productivity that focuses on managing energy, rather than time. Working from Physical Capacity through Emotional Capacity and Cognitive Capacity, and ending at Spiritual Capacity, the pyramid approach is good for managing what feels like infinite demands on finite resources. Although this episode was recorded before the COVID19 outbreak, it speaks to the urgent need right now for academics to manage capacity-overload and always come back to the body. ...
