4 ms·
Agreed. Her story is tragic but it's hard to feel sorry for someone who threw away a tenure track position, didn't want to leave NYC, didn't want to leave acade
by idiot900 8y ago
Agreed. Her story is tragic but it's hard to feel sorry for someone who threw away a tenure track position, didn't want to leave NYC, didn't want to leave academia for the sake of her health. All of her self-imposed requirements were ridiculous, and lack of insight is no excuse.
Adjunct professorships are a real problem but this article is below the Atlantic's usual standard.
- xkcd-sucks 8y agoActually getting tenure can be pretty tough and very political. Presumably she estimated that her political circumstances were bad and it that it would be better to start fresh than try turning things around, which is a rational decision that many assistant professors should make but do not.
- idiot900 8y agoThe article certainly doesn't make it look that way. She joined in 2004 and left in 2006. Way too short even for a five year tenure clock, especially when she very much needed the health insurance.
- xkcd-sucks 8y agoIt's pretty easy to figure out who's on your tenure committee, who the competition is, and which bridges have been burned
- jfnixon 8y agoSure, but leaving without securing another tenure-track position? You can't reset the clock, still, leaving early is Not A Good Sign you know how to play the game.
- wespiser_2018 8y agoI would be a little bit careful Monday Morning quarterbacking this: the story is a reflection a her narrative told to a friend, not the reasons for the decisions as she made them. There's can be a lot lost in translation when communicating the decision process around major life events, and tendency to fit everything into a retrospective narrative: i.e. I'm 'here now', and the last thing didn't work out, because i wanted to be 'here now'