Rethinking Careers, Rethinking Academia

by Joseph Fruscione and Erin Bertram

When many of us were doing our PhDs, we had few—if any—resources for exploring career options outside academia. Departmental workshops with PhD graduates working outside academia, conference panels to discuss alt-ac careers, and graduate curricula offering concrete, meaningful guidance for careers besides the professoriate…they happen, but not as commonly in the profession as we’d like to see. The same can be said for “alternative” work being widely accepted as legitimate, successful career paths. Given the current academic job market, continued neoliberalization of the American university, and increased precarity of the academic workforce, many new PhDs and long-time NTT faculty are seeking other career options.

That’s why we’re here.