Happy Academic

This blog is an interesting counterpoint to the Invisible Adjunct view of the modern academy. It's probably a sign problems definitely exist that the "Happy Academic" isn't saying everything is fine and we should all become English professors, but rather that it's just fine for a bunch of people and better than many alternatives. Some of my readers might like this category of posts, including Ph.D. program survival tips.

I'm still not going to panic too much about my own life prospects, as since I got here in 1999 the Ph.D.-tenure track conversion rate is 100% among people I know in Islamic-history related fields. The Village Voice seems to support that impression:

"The MLA estimates that students who entered English programs in 2003 had a 20 percent chance of coming out with a tenure-track position. The situation is better in history, where the number of new Ph.D.'s in 2003 almost equalled the number of new jobs, after a decade of 'overproduction,' with growth coming in trendy specializations like the Middle East."

Let's just hope this keeps up!