SAN FRANCISCO — Shakespeare, Edith Wharton and Internet poetry were supposed to be among the main topics of discussion at the largest gathering of humanities professors in the nation. But the sour economy and shrunken job market for academics proved to be more dramatic than any novel or play.
An estimated 8,500 professors and wannabe professors of English literature, composition and foreign languages gathered for the annual meeting this week of the Modern Language Assn., a convention that traditionally combines high-flying literary debate with a gargantuan employment fair. Job-seekers were disappointed that many colleges had reduced or canceled faculty hirings because of shrinking endowments and state funding cuts.
"It's definitely a tough year," said Rosemary G. Feal, the association's executive director. Faculty jobs in English language and literature listed for this year's meeting fell 22.2% from last year and foreign language positions dropped 19.6%, she said. Those were the steepest declines since the association started employment listings 34 years ago.
The projected openings -- 1,420 in English and 1,350 in foreign languages -- are not historic lows, she said. But deepening the uncertainty, an increasing share of English department jobs are for part-time or temporary positions that do not include the possibility of lifetime tenure, according to an association report released at the four-day convention, which ran through Tuesday at several downtown San Francisco hotels.
Feal's advice to young people with PhDs? "My immediate response to anyone looking for a job is bon courage, as we say in French, good courage," she said, adding that prospects may improve in a year or two.
The immediate outlook seemed a bit grim for recent doctoral graduates, including Katy Masuga, 33, who went to the convention without any concrete interviews scheduled. Some of the 40 positions she had applied for had since been canceled and she was scouring last-minute employment postings at a job center at the Fairmont San Francisco Hotel.
After earning a comparative literature doctorate last year at the University of Washington with a specialty in 20th century English, French and German writers, she is teaching there part-time and hoping for something more secure. "I have no clue what I'll be doing next year at all," she said.
