ABOUT ME and these pages

"Dic mihi quod feci nisi non sapienter amavi" * -- Ovid

My name is Theresa Muir, and I completed a Ph.D. in musicology in 1997. My dissertation was on the reception of Wagner in England from 1855 to 1895. Love of music, a strong desire to study it on a deeper level, and to communicate with others about it, have been at the center of my life for many years. Since I was an "upper" undergraduate, my ambition and goal was to be a member of a university or college faculty.

Since receiving my doctorate, I have been frustrated in this pursuit. Without casting blame, I found I was extremely unprepared for the realities of the academic job market, and what I needed beyond a degree in hand to be competitive. I was likewise unprepared for the working world outside of the "ivory tower," and although I needed to start earning, I found that the experience and credentials of which I was extremely proud, and for which I'd worked extremely hard for many years, meant little to prospective employers. It was as if my doctorate had turned me overnight into some weird creature who didn't fit in anywhere.

I began to notice something else strange. My friends who had got tenure-track positions were a lot less happy than any of us had expected. A lot of them were stressed and beset with frustrations: little time to do the research they needed to advance, school politics, culture shock in new locales and disappointing students were only a few. Academic life can play havoc with family life and relationships. An effect of the poor job market is more demands and pressure on the junior prof or candidate, who should ideally have no other attachments and responsibilities in life -- but realistically, few of us come so entirely free of attachments and responsibilities. Several of my friends were feeling that "the job" hadn't made their lives all that much better than their grad student lives had been.

On the whole, since the Ph.D., my life has been a nightmare. This has been my experience. It is not necessarily that of others (see the Advice page for some more positive views), or will be that of you, the reader. I do wish I had been better prepared, had more information, had more idea of what would be facing me. I have some thoughts about this, and expect to put some essays about this up here. In the meantime, I want as few others as possible to have the experience I've had.
I believe the doctoral programs and the scholarly societies have an absolute responsibility to gather and publish statistics on the employment of Ph.D.s in their particular fields. This is the greatest service they could do for their students and junior members -- their future -- and some have already done so.  I urge anyone reading this who belongs to a scholarly society that you go to them, and make noise, and demand that they make such a study.
Until I find some kind of home in or out of the "ivory tower," I want and need to maintain my scholarly work, and the "outside" world is generally not set up to encourage scholarly pursuits. They take time and money, and people who are not presently affiliated as student or faculty, have several handicaps and obstructions to the scholar's life. Most bosses will not understand your need to research, write, attend conferences, etc. Libraries and collections have been snippy about letting unaffiliated scholars use them. And not having the title "Professor" and an affiliation below your name can be a kind of psychological barrier between you and your colleagues (at a conference in England, someone scanned my name tag, and harrumphed "Well then, um, ah, what are you?"). The financial and time pressures on the unaffiliated are so great that I am sure that there are many Ph.D.s who cannot hold on, and disappear entirely from the scholarly life and discussion.
Last fall, at my society's (The American Musicological Society) annual conference, I started something clumsily called the Independent Scholar's Initiative (more about that to come), and I intend to pursue that. I would like particularly to hear from others who are trying to find their way after the degree-- since there is so little community for jobless post-docs. I would love to see stories of independent scholars who are making things work for themselves. Maybe you'd like to talk to a chapter meeting or conference. And please let me know about any useful info you find in your net travels.

     *"Tell me what I have done, except to love unwisely."

THANKS: This site could never have become a reality without Dr. Joe Burns's wonderful HTML Goodies. Some of the art images are from Mark Harden's Art Archive
PLEASE: The special "Ivory Doghouse" graphics (home page logo, "angelic" and "scholarly" dogs) were designed and created by ME. DO NOT COPY.

This site © copyright 2000-2001 Theresa Muir, Ph.D.