My Experience on the Academic Job Market
It’s almost that time of year again—yes, it’s academic job search time. There’s loads of job market advice out there (as you most certainly know), and now I suppose I’m throwing my hat into the advice ring as well. I thought I’d discuss my personal job market experience because I think it deviates in some ways from the standard experience. Before we dive in, however, I want to underscore the precarity of the job market and acknowledge the university’s role in contributing to the exploitative and extractive environment that adjuncts and non-tenured college instructors face. The precariat makes up most of the academy’s scholars and educators, and we (tenured and tenure-line scholars, administration) have continuously failed to address the demands of these essential educators.
A Teaching Playlist
Music is so important for a lot of us—it can help to relax us when we are feeling stressed, it can pick us up when we need some lift, it—wait. I don’t think I need to sell music. You get it. Anyway, if you’re into it, you might consider putting together a playlist for your class(es). It can set the tone for the day and be a welcoming pedagogical gesture for your students. You might curate a playlist that corresponds to different parts of the class. Maybe you have a playlist you play for the first five minutes of class. Perhaps you play some more high-energy music mid-class after an in-depth explainer on the final essay assignment. Finally, perhaps you have a closing playlist. For some inspo, below are some songs I chose from various instrumental playlists I found on Apple Music (Spotify also has similar playlists).
A Teaching Ritual
I have written about engaging ritual work in teaching here, but I wanted to post a simpler ritual exercise here. I also discuss ritual in my scholarly research—rituals are simply habits. Because we all perform rote tasks everyday, we all have access to ritual—it isn’t a skill one needs to learn. We just need to pay more attention to the rituals (habits) we perform regularly to appreciate their importance.