Since 2009, when I started my PhD, the American historical profession has made strategic errors in how it pursued disciplinary self-survival in universities. As a result, history in American higher ed is worse off now than then. Here's the story of one: "career diversity"
In the early 2010s, in the face of an anemic academic job market, the AHA decided that pursuing "career diversity" was the solution to the academic jobs crisis. Historians SHOULD work outside universities, so why was this initiative misguided? historians.org/jobs-and-profe…
Nov 13, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The big move in the humanities funding world that people are finally talking about is Mellon abandoning humanities research in the academy. But the other big move is that the SSRC is also leaving behind support for the humanistic social sciences in favor of policy.
Both are bad not because the things they support now aren’t worthy of support. I do not believe this. Instead these moves are bad bc it means nobody is left in the humanities research funding realm.
