I just finished my PhD in English Literature. Yes, I know it’s “useless”. I’ve been answering the question “what will you work in?” since I started my undergrad 15 year’s ago. The truth is that I’m happy just reading adventure novels or writing about Shakespeare or translating poetry for my blog.
My plan is to get a job at one of my countries’ universities for the fancy credentials and go into highschool education for the paychecks. Expensive private schools love to have teachers with PhDs.
I did my PhD in the UK. An old guy just reached out to me offering unsolicited advice (he’s a friend’s College professor and we’ve exchanged emails and I know he means well. I know he wasn't being malicious, he just wanted to give me some “helpful advice”).
He said “you should get an MA so you can apply for jobs in the US”. I’m from Latin America. I felt so insulted. He’s suggesting I go into tremendous debt to get a degree that is ~lower~ than the one I just received, just on the off chance that Bumfuck University in Middle America will hire me?
This leftist guy in his 70s came out of the Vietnam era still believing that the US is the Best Country in the World, and I’m baffled. He never considered that the top universities in my country are better ranked than 95% of the US ones (yes, if the Ivies came aknocking I would go work there, but he was talking about ~any~ US university).
Even the wokest of the woke have this notion that the US is paradise and that the rest of the world adopted to go live there.
No, Professor, I do not want to go work in an academic system that only covers 9 months of my salary and expects me to get grants that go to the University so they can pay me the other 3 months.
No, Professor, I don’t want to go work for a university that deducts money from my salary to “pay them rent“ for my office space.
No, Professor, I don’t want to live under the threat of mass shootings.
No, Professor, I don’t want to deal with your convoluted healthcare system for the privilege of paying 4x for my insulin.
No, Professor, I don’t want half my salary to go towards rent in a place where I’ll never afford to buy a home.
No, Professor, I don’t want to have to be civil to anti-vaxxers or to have to know who Nancy Pelosi is. I don’t want to deal with discrimination to my culture or my country. I don’t want to look your cleaning staff in the eye and speak to them in Spanish and know that they got here illegally and are afraid to be deported while I’m sitting in my “cushy” job.
The US is not paradise. It's a failed experiment that is collapsing into itself, taking the rest of the world with it. And I would very much rather spend whatever time we have left before the world explodes or burns down contributing to my country’s knowledge than listening to someone from Arkansas debating me on why The Heart of Darkness is not racist while I struggle to get medical attention and go back every night to a small apartment, lonely because your ultra-capitalist society has eroded all social connections and every human interaction has become transactional.