| October 4, 2016

Marybeth White, Contract Professor, Religious Studies

Marybeth White, Contract Professor, Religious Studies

BY: as told by Marybeth White / as written by Catherine Nygren

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Marybeth WhiteI started my doctoral work in Religious Studies at Wilfrid Laurier in 2004, researching Lao Buddhism in Canada. My supervisor was enthusiastic, and she was excellent at guiding me through work and professionalization. As a Master’s student, a sense of community pervaded the cohort, largely because a central meeting room connected grad students and professors, whose offices were located along the hallway. In my PhD, however, the meeting room was moved to a much smaller room and not all of the professors’ offices were located on the same floor. As a mature student not living in Waterloo, it was more isolating.

Although I had a couple scholarships, my funding ran out as I started my fourth year. I had three children and a mortgage, my scholarships were taxed (before they became tax exempt), and Laurier didn’t allow PhD students to be part-time—it was brutal. Along with TAships, I worked at the Oxford Learning Centre and as a delivery driver for an organic spice company. Eventually, I had to teach full-time in order to cover the cost of tuition, which dramatically slowed down my dissertation progress.

The expectation of graduating in four years (and the associated funding packages) are very difficult to achieve. The average ethnographic study takes seven years, and with two years of coursework and exams, more than another two years are needed for language requirements and field work—you can’t gain access to a community that would facilitate in-depth understandings over the course of a few months.

Since graduating in 2012, I’ve been teaching as a contract sessional, which means reapplying for jobs every four months. I had been applying everywhere in North America, but recent family dynamics now have me revisiting the idea of re-locating too far from my immediate family. I gave myself five years to try to find a position within academia, and though it breaks my heart, if I don’t get a permanent position within the next few years, I will consider looking beyond academia as well.

Financial strain was the largest obstacle in the way of completing my PhD, and it is a similar problem for me now. You can’t get a tenure-track position without doing research and publishing, but it is difficult to research and publish because you need to teach in order to pay the bills. The system of universities hiring contract academic staff for low wages, no benefits, and no security is damaging not only to individuals, but to the quality of research in the Arts in general. It is a concerning future for “higher education” and liberal arts.

 


Header image by Kiran Jonnalagadda from Bangalore, India (Buddha Sculptures) [CC BY-SA 2.0].


 

POLL: Sessional / contract work

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Marybeth WhiteI started my doctoral work in Religious Studies at Wilfrid Laurier in 2004, researching Lao Buddhism in Canada. My supervisor was enthusiastic, and she was excellent at guiding me through work and professionalization. As a Master’s student, a sense of community pervaded the cohort, largely because a central meeting room connected grad students and professors, whose offices were located along the hallway. In my PhD, however, the meeting room was moved to a much smaller room and not all of the professors’ offices were located on the same floor. As a mature student not living in Waterloo, it was more isolating.

Although I had a couple scholarships, my funding ran out as I started my fourth year. I had three children and a mortgage, my scholarships were taxed (before they became tax exempt), and Laurier didn’t allow PhD students to be part-time—it was brutal. Along with TAships, I worked at the Oxford Learning Centre and as a delivery driver for an organic spice company. Eventually, I had to teach full-time in order to cover the cost of tuition, which dramatically slowed down my dissertation progress.

The expectation of graduating in four years (and the associated funding packages) are very difficult to achieve. The average ethnographic study takes seven years, and with two years of coursework and exams, more than another two years are needed for language requirements and field work—you can’t gain access to a community that would facilitate in-depth understandings over the course of a few months.

Since graduating in 2012, I’ve been teaching as a contract sessional, which means reapplying for jobs every four months. I had been applying everywhere in North America, but recent family dynamics now have me revisiting the idea of re-locating too far from my immediate family. I gave myself five years to try to find a position within academia, and though it breaks my heart, if I don’t get a permanent position within the next few years, I will consider looking beyond academia as well.

Financial strain was the largest obstacle in the way of completing my PhD, and it is a similar problem for me now. You can’t get a tenure-track position without doing research and publishing, but it is difficult to research and publish because you need to teach in order to pay the bills. The system of universities hiring contract academic staff for low wages, no benefits, and no security is damaging not only to individuals, but to the quality of research in the Arts in general. It is a concerning future for “higher education” and liberal arts.

 


Header image by Kiran Jonnalagadda from Bangalore, India (Buddha Sculptures) [CC BY-SA 2.0].


 

POLL: Sessional / contract work

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