{"id":1219,"date":"2012-05-07T08:24:12","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T15:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2012-05-07T15:38:10","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T22:38:10","slug":"the-digital-humanities-postdoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/the-digital-humanities-postdoc\/","title":{"rendered":"The digital humanities postdoc"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last few years, I’ve noticed a certain kind of job ad appearing with more and more frequency. I think of it as the “make digital humanities happen” postdoctoral fellowship. Often based in a library, these positions’ descriptions include some combination of “liaison,” “catalyst,” and “hub,” with a heavy dose of coordinator syndrome<\/a> thrown in. The person is meant to generate enthusiasm for DH among faculty, perhaps serve as a consultant, and head up a new DH initiative. I do understand why a postdoc is attractive to institutions.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They know that faculty like talking to people with Ph.D.s.<\/li>\n
  2. They’re not sure they want to go all-in on DH, and thus the built-in term limits of the postdoc make sense.<\/li>\n
  3. They want someone young and hungry, willing to take direction, with a lot of ideas and energy.<\/li>\n
  4. Often, the source of funding for this position is insecure; perhaps it’s provided by a grant.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I’d like to suggest that this particular kind of postdoc, except under very special circumstances, is not, in fact, a postdoc, but a temporary staff position. A postdoc, I maintain, should be characterized by some combination of generous mentorship and\/or the freedom to do one’s own research.<\/strong> Many of these postdocs provide neither; indeed, in some cases, the hiring institution has not even worked out who this person will report to.<\/p>\n

    Who gets to say what a postdoc is?<\/em>\u00a0I do. We all do. A “postdoctoral fellowship” is what we collectively agree that it is, and I say that we should hold employers to some standards. For whatever reason, a “postdoc” sounds more prestigious than “employee with no job security.” Let’s call it what it is.<\/p>\n

    There are good DH postdocs out there, definitely, but they do not involve being dropped, resource-less, to serve as a “catalyst” in an institution with no DH activity.<\/p>\n

    Institutions considering hiring a “make DH happen” postdoc, should I think, reconsider. Not because it ain’t right, which it ain’t, but because it won’t work. A postdoc, no matter how committed, ingenious, and entrepreneurial, cannot just make digital humanities happen at any institution.\u00a0This piece<\/a>, by Stephen Ramsay, mirrors my feelings on the subject very well.<\/p>\n

    If you yourself are offered this kind of postdoc; well, that’s complicated. The job market is what it is, and one doesn’t always have the luxury of haranguing one’s hiring institution. Here’s what I recently advised someone who emailed me with this question:<\/p>\n

    \n
    If you do decide to pursue this job, I recommend, first of all, that you read\u00a0this piece<\/a>, by Bethany Nowviskie. I can attest to the truth of everything she says. In addition, given the particulars of the job you describe, I would:<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
    \n
    \n
      \n
    1. Get the library to define your reporting and evaluation structure. Who’s your boss? Who are your colleagues? How will your work be evaluated?<\/li>\n
    2. Negotiate for some amount of time (20%, for example) to be devoted to your own research.<\/li>\n
    3. Campaign for professional development resources, including training, conference travel, and research travel. Be explicit that this conference travel will not necessarily be to the American Library Association; it may be to the MLA.<\/li>\n
    4. Inquire as to the possibility of this becoming a permanent job. How will this happen, and when will you know? Sometimes EOE guidelines require that a library advertise a job, even if it’s been “promised” to you. Be sure that this is not the case for you, and get it in writing. Hell, get everything in writing.<\/li>\n
    5. Ideally, your professional development would include site visits to other institutions with successful DH initiatives. These were definitely the most educational, useful things I did as a postdoc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      Be clear that you require these things\u00a0so that you can do a good job<\/em>. Because you do.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      As the Library Loon says<\/a>, “Be wary of postdocs in the library not because they\u2019re Ph.Ds, not because they don\u2019t hold MLSes, but\u00a0because they\u2019re on one- or two-year contracts.”<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      In the last few years, I’ve noticed a certain kind of job ad appearing with more and more frequency. I think of it as the “make digital humanities happen” postdoctoral fellowship. Often based in a library, these positions’ descriptions include some combination of “liaison,” “catalyst,” and “hub,” with a heavy dose of coordinator syndrome thrown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,3],"tags":[333,247,248,332],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career","category-digital-humanities","tag-academia","tag-labor","tag-postdoctoral-research","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1227,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions\/1227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}