The New Normal in the Humanities

Rosemary G. Feal, Executive Director

The MLA at a Glance

•Over 30,000 members in 100 countries •Programs serving English and foreign language teachers •An annual convention, with meetings on a wide variety of subjects, and smaller seminars across the country •The MLA International Bibliography, the only comprehensive bibliography in language and literature, available online •A book publication program issuing about 12 new books each year and maintaining a backlist of over 200 titles •4 major periodicals: the ADE Bulletin; the ADFL Bulletin; Profession; and PMLA, one of the most distinguished journals in the humanities •A quarterly newsletter providing association news, lists of deadlines, and items of interest to members •136 divisions and discussion groups for specialized scholarly and teaching interests of members •47 membership committees overseeing association activities and publications •Leadership in the national education community

Issues concerning the Humanities

• Current trends in enrollments• Current trends in job opportunities for grads• Changes in our profession

1,826

1,100

1,250

1,026 1,069

547633

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

1975

–76

1976

–77

1977

–78

1978

–79

1979

–80

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–81

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–82

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–84

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–90

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–91

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–92

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–93

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1994

–95

1995

–96

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–98

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–99

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–20

0020

00–

0120

01–

0220

02–

0320

03–

0420

04–

0520

05–

0620

06–

0720

07–

0820

08–

0920

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1020

10–

1120

11-1

2 (p

roj.)

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions and All Positions Advertised in the MLA Job Information List (English Edition) and Doctorate Recipients in English (SED)

Positions announced in the JIL, English edition

Ads for tenure-track assistant professors

PhD recipients in English (U. S. Survey of Eearned Doctorates)

42.3

16.8

40.8

30.1

20.6

49.3

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

Full-time tenured and tenure-track

Full-time non-tenure-track Part-time

1995 2009

Percentage of Faculty Members in Degree-Granting U. S. Postsecondary Institutions in Various Tenure and Employment Statuses, 1995 and 2009

49.2%

61.7%

43.4%

29.3%

19.1%

33.0%

5.7% 4.3%6.8%

7.5% 9.6%7.0%

6.5%5.3%

6.8%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

All graduates in English with known employment placement

Graduates in rhetoric and composition

Graduates in English and American literature

Percentage of 2006–07 Graduates Placed in Tenure-Track and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Positions and Other Types of Employment, Graduates in All Fields, in Rhetoric and Composition, and in English and American Literature

Not seeking employment

Not employed, seeking

Outside higher education

Administration and other postsecondary

Postdoctoral fellowship

Non-tenure-track faculty

Tenure-track faculty

A changing profession:

• Shift from tenured and tenure-track faculty to a range of careers– NTT faculty issues– Alt-ac and extra-academic positions

• Shift from scholarly publishing to scholarly communication– from a focus on products to a more fluid process– from traditional forms of scholarship to more digital

forms

Changes create needs for:

• New modes of evaluation for new forms of scholarship

• Transformation in graduate education to prepare young scholars for new kinds of careers

MLA initiatives

• CIT workshops on the evaluation of digital scholarship for tenure and promotion

• Ad-hoc working group on the future of graduate education, led by Russell Berman, building on work done by group on the future forms of the dissertation, led by Sidonie Smith

• MLA Commons: forthcoming platform on which scholars will be able to communicate, collaborate, and publish with one another

What does this all mean for the information industry?