• A PERFUNCTORY AND HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE GUIDE TO THE CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY JOB MARKET (2020)

    Author(s):
    Henry Colburn (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Group(s):
    Ancient Greece & Rome, Ancient Near East, Archaeology, Classical archaeology
    Subject(s):
    Classical antiquities
    Item Type:
    White paper
    Institution:
    Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Tag(s):
    job market, Classical archaeology, Classics, Greek and Roman archaeology
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/36qy-d865
    Abstract:
    I wrote the first version of this guide in the summer of 2018. For the first time in my career I had received a multi-year fellowship, and I had been told that the position had a good chance of continuing beyond the initial fellowship period, if not of becoming permanent. So, since I did not expect to have to search for employment again, it seemed like an opportune moment to compile my reflections on the classical archaeology job market in North America. This guide was the result. Now, two years later, I find myself in the cardinal opposite position. Owing to budgetary constraints created by the COVID-19 outbreak, my employment will not continue into the fall. No other academic opportunities have been forthcoming, and I expect the 2020-21 academic job cycle to be the leanest yet. Therefore, I am prepared for the end of my academic career, and this may well be my last revision to this guide. The main additions to this version of the guide are two appendices and a postscript. The first contains summary tables of the typologies of jobs and institutions described herein, for ease of reference. The second contains a list of recurring fellowships of potential interest to classical archaeologists. The postscript discusses my departure(s) from academia. As in earlier versions, I do not claim to provide any definitive answers, nor even to raise any intelligent questions. My only goal in offering this guide to the academic community is to use my experiences to shed whatever light I can on what is an opaque and frequently terrifying stage in any scholar’s career, especially given that most classical archaeology graduate programs fail to provide any meaningful preparation to their students in this respect.
    Metadata:
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf colburn-guide-to-the-classical-archaeology-job-market-aug-2020.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 483