But he adds that he would have taughtliterature even if he had known that he "had toteach high school."
Nicholas J. Dames, a Ph.D. candidate inVictorian literature, says there is no guaranteeeven for people who are excellent at what they do.
"The market is so hard that it has little to dowith how good you perceive yourself to be or howgood you are in some abstract sense of the word,"he says. "A lot of it has to do with how fortunateyou are."
He adds that there are currently only 12-15jobs being offered for 200 applicants this year inhis field.
Yet for all of their angst about the jobmarket, Reynolds, who is in his first year out ofgraduate school, and Dames, who will receive hisPh.D. this year, have both recently been hired asassistant professors by the University ofCalifornia, Irvine and Columbia University,respectively.
Not Answerable to Society?
Many professors and graduate students say thatdespite the job market, which the MLA report calls"dismal," humanities scholars are needed insociety.
"Our society needs a cultural preserve notentirely determined by market forces," Matz says."The Academy serves that purpose, to a greatdegree. This does not mean it is not answerable tosociety, just that it has the luxury to respondmore slowly and more thoughtfully to culturaldevelopments."
Mary K. Ebbott, a Ph.D. candidate in Classics,says asking whether a career is materiallyprofitable may be misguided.
"People wonder why there seems to be a lack of`values' in our society," she writes in an e-mail,"but they do not realize that society treats asworthless the very way that values are transmittedand instilled--through the humanities."
Reynolds also says instructors in thehumanities should be the conveyors of values."Teachers interact with students every day," hesays. "[Teaching] is a political enterpriseinsofar as formal education contributes to thesocialization and indoctrination of people; it isthe responsibility of the teacher to make studentsaware of the means of ideological inculcation towhich they are subjected, and to provide them withthe critical tools necessary to analyze andpossibly dismantle these means as well as theideology that drives them."
But if political ideologies are inculcatedthrough formal education, what should be made ofthe fact that many people are being dissuaded bycareers in the humanities, or not finding teachingjobs in higher education once they graduate?
Following Passion
Ebbott says people should enter academiccareers in the humanities if they want "a careerthat affords the opportunity of serious thoughtand the contemplation of something other than thebottom line."
And while it is very difficult to get securepositions at institutions like Harvard, KimberlyG. DelGizzo, assistant director at the Office ofCareer Services, says there may be more academicopportunities in "medium sized institutions, smallliberal arts colleges or community colleges."
DelGizzo adds that students who want to go intoacademia should begin the professional developmentprocess early on.
"They might gain a variety of experiences andaccumulate skills such as writing, research,teaching and publishing," she says. "This willassist them in preparing for the academic jobmarket."
Although most students who received Ph.D.s inthe humanities at Harvard in the past went intoacademia, some entered industries such aspublishing, freelance writing, performing arts,foreign service and ministry. Law, entertainment,freelance writing and consulting are otherpossibilities.
The most important consideration, says Brian W.Breed, a Ph.D. candidate in Classics, must bepassion for the field.
"If you ever see a major league baseball playerinterviewed on TV saying that he plays justbecause he loves the game, that is kind of the wayI feel [about Classics]," he says