Notes that the question of whether English departments had a future was asked 17 years ago when the author first became a department chair as it is asked now upon her retirement. Discusses things about the profession that have changed, for good or ill. Suggests that the profession's penchant for self-examination has not changed. (RS)

Offers advice to English department chairs on the behavior of academic departments. (AEA)

Suggests that working beyond the academy should be understood not as an abandonment of the academic job market, a response to failure, or a curse: instead, it should be understood as a new avenue for intellectual work, one that neither graduate-school programs nor the Modern Language Association would be wise to ignore. (RS)

Maintains that the humanities get "screwed" in the academy because they are feminized. Explores this process of "feminization," focusing on college English departments. Offers a different view of the relationship between "soft" humanities and "hard" disciplines, reconceived from a feminist perspective. (SR)

Suggests that parenting is still invisible in the academy. Discusses commonalities between parenting and teaching. Concludes that academicians must bring their parenting selves and their children into their work and their workplaces. (RS)

Notes that the hopeful threads binding Herman Melville's book "The Confidence-Man" also weave a valuable lesson for literature PhDs considering their career options. Suggests that the values crucial to a teacher or scholar are also crucial to those who work outside the university: willingness to entertain other points of view and an…

Argues that English departments are experiencing a crisis of identity that is economic, political, and psychological. (SRT)

Suggests that e-mail and the Web can make the hunt for a job in the English profession and the hiring process easier, faster, less expensive, and more effective for everyone involved. Addresses problems using e-mail for the job search. Concludes that the Web functions best as a supplementary source of information for candidates and institutions.…

Sketches an abstracted and idealized profession of English--a profession that fosters no politics and entails no internal conflicts, and whose members care about language and its uses, about the transmission of knowledge and skills, and a capacity for pleasure in the text. (RS)

Presents data on trends in the academic job market, placement rates for PhDs inside and outside the academy, and levels of job satisfaction for those with doctorates. Includes samples of information available from the Modern Language Association and a bibliography of print and online publications that they recommend for planning a career in…

Argues that graduate schools are overproducing literary scholars and underproducing composition and rhetoric scholars, who carry the increasingly bulk of the work in English departments, and examines, in detail, this split between rhetoric and literary scholars. (SRT)