Offers a different (liberal arts) perspective on the job market for PhDs in English from an undergraduate department chairman. Asks for better information about graduate study possibilities. Argues that the problem is to learn how to better advise aspiring PhD students, and to provide support for them. (PA)

Outlines two major problems facing English department administrators in their attempts to hire adequate new faculty: (1) reduced institutional resources; and (2) the complex problems connected with faculty retirements. Suggests methods by which administrators can best cope with limited hiring opportunities. (HB)

Presents an interview with Richard Lanham, Professor of English at UCLA, about his wide-ranging career, which has included work in rhetoric and style, composition theory and the teaching of writing, the implications of electronic text, and copyright law in the entertainment business. (SR)

Discusses the role of the English department head in a time of shrinking budgets. Considers popular and governmental conceptions of college faculty productivity. Calls for increased attention to undergraduate teaching. Criticizes attacks labeling college faculty as lazy and incompetent. (HB)

Considers the role of the English department malcontent, who constantly seems to spoil any chance of departmental consensus. Discusses the typical life of the English department. Analyzes departmental disputes with the aid of Jacques Lacan's notion of "jouissance." (HB)

Discusses the role of the teacher as authority in the classroom. Questions whether an assertive teacher can be understood as anything less than an abuser of students. Considers the place of the text in four classroom scenarios with regard to these questions of authority. (HB)

Describes the major changes made by the English department of the University of Louisville in terms of how they define themselves and their mission. Notes that in exchange for all full-time faculty teaching at least one section of first-year composition annually, the administration allocated seven new tenure-track positions in the English…

Answers two questions regarding preparing English teachers for two-year colleges: whether a PhD is appropriate for teaching in a two-year college (yes and no); and what graduate departments can do to help their students find work (candidates for two-year college teaching jobs need teaching experience beyond traditional freshman composition…

Recounts the rapid rise and recent decline of the once highly regarded Duke University (North Carolina) English department, characterized by disaffection and defection to other institutions of a large proportion of the faculty, disorganized teaching, and an unsettled curriculum. The perceptions of a number of the faculty involved are presented.…

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…

Describes how the Career Management Series was conceived and developed at the Center for Particle Astrophysics at the University of California at Berkeley, demystifying the job search, differentiating between process and skills, and looking at both the academic and nonacademic track. Describes how this model was then successfully adapted to the…

Describes valuable aspects for the author of a career management workshop which emphasized a broad career horizon that included nonacademic career opportunities. Discusses her own and other people's pursuit of work and career to emphasize that it is both possible and urgent for people in English departments to change how they think about future…

Discusses ways to help students see that the pleasures of the text that led them into the study of language and literature can also lead them to rewarding work contexts. Considers curricular issues and the ways small college English departments make decisions about what to cover and what to leave out in an expanding discipline. Appends advice on…

Presents a personal account of one individual's transition from graduate school at a research university to teaching at a small college. Describes her ideas about the hiring process. Discusses how she adjusted to her new career. Considers problems encountered and how she works through those problems. (SC)

Urges that PhD-granting departments consider shrinking their graduate programs, thus reducing overproduction of PhDs and, by reducing the number of sections taught by graduate assistants, perhaps providing new tenure-track positions. Urges also that PhD-granting departments examine staffing practices in lower-level offerings and commit to engaging…