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since accepting a contingent 4/4 teaching position for next year, i've been getting a LOT of condolences. "you'll make it thru." the job is at a social-justice oriented anthro dept in the South, where I grew up. plz stop eulogizing my career 1/5 #AcademicChatter #anthrotwitter
these responses, well-meant and empathetic, along with the brilliance of my peers who've gotten research-only postdocs, has me second guessing the move - am I setting myself up for a lifetime of teaching? will I be able to shift to a research position in the future? 2/5
but the reality is, in @TMitsuhara's words, this position is god's work, it's giving back to the region that made me. I get to teach and engage with scholars in and of the South. this is THE work I always hoped I might do 3/5
i'm very worried about teaching a 4/4 - I haven't really processed the reality of it yet. i know i won't have time to publish. in-person conferences will be off the table for sure. i won't be adding non-teaching lines to my CV for a couple years. 4/5
but the toxicity of academia has me thinking i'm on my death bed, not an emerging scholar. it has become a radical act to embrace this position, to celebrate it as a GOOD option, esp. in this year's market, rather than a burden or a stop-gap. 5/5
