Bret Devereaux

...because that is the kind of thing that hiring committees value (even if it is no guarentee of actually getting a job) and I can't afford to deviate from that because - again - I must face them every year. Academic freedom doesn't exist in the precariate. 10/20

In theory, of course, history and classics departments - and their permanent faculty - want to be hiring. They blame university administration, which is fair. 11/20

But then, at the same time, what are they willing to do? Are they willing to hire scholars with non-traditional publications? Or with less prestigous pedigrees? Or who focus more on public engagement than on prestige scholarship? Of course not. 12/20

Are they going to reach out to independent and precarious scholars? Stop treating conference badges with SLCs or 'independent researcher' as the academic affiliation as pariahs? Of course not. 13/20

What about job applications with less onerous required documents, since precarious scholars need to do dozens each year? It is literally a zero-cost intervention and - of course not. "Here is our one-year adjunct position, please supply complete teaching portfolio and..." 14/20

I know - we all know - that permanent faculty in history and classics would rather be hiring. Would rather the deans and deanlets and trustees gave you the funds to solve away this problem by just hiring. But they're not going to do that. We all know this. 15/20

So the question becomes, 'what are *you* going to do? What are the major professional associations - the AHA, the SCS, the AIA - going to do?' The miserlyness of universities becomes an excuse for those with power to do nothing. 16/20

There are exceptions, of course - I do not wish to paint with too broad a brush. But where is the SCS or AHA statement pleading for departments to adopt standard application materials? Why not highlight the work of precarious scholars at annual meetings more? 17/20