Chapter 17: Some Reflections on PhD Education and Careers

For over a decade now, there has been a misalignment between a shrinking market demand for and an oversupply of PhDs in all academic disciplines, but the problem is especially acute in the humanities and social sciences. The outcome of this mismatch is a growing army of underemployed and unemployed doctorates with crushed aspirations and ideals. According to a National Science Foundation survey, the percentage of new doctorate recipients without jobs in the United States (U.S.) jumped to 39% in 2014 (nearly 45% among freshly-minted humanities PhDs) from 31% in 2009, and fewer than half of them were expected to land tenure-track academic positions…