I did my PhD in religious studies at Wilfrid Laurier, completing my dissertation on ritualizing and learning in two Buddhist Centres in Toronto in 2009. A combination of scholarships, a husband with a good job, and no kids helped financially, and I had great mentors who supported me and openly discussed academia, method, theory, and publishing issues. During my dissertation, however, my father passed away, and after comps I felt disconnected from the community, which wasn’t helped by the commute from Toronto. Following graduation, I couldn’t find work and felt even more isolated.

I started, and am still working on, a new book on spirituality and farming, but it is difficult with no funding or other structural supports. I held a few lecturing positions and worked other occasional jobs while my husband was interning as a farmer, and, eventually, I decided to give up on finding full-time tenure work because of the lack of jobs in Canada and I didn’t want to leave the country. This is my home, you know?

Now, I live on an organic, small-scale, diversified farm. We sell at farmer’s markets and through other field-to-table routes. I also cobble together other work to supplement the farm, including part-time academic jobs, research for an art gallery, and my own online educational company, Love2Learn.

I wish I’d known more about the job market and the impossibility of finding a job if you’re limited by where you can and want to live, though I don’t regret the five years of the PhD. A community of PhDs in similar situations would help alleviate isolation for grad students who aren’t associated with institutions anymore, especially for those of us living in rural areas, where education, especially at the PhD level, is often distrusted.

I did my PhD in religious studies at Wilfrid Laurier, completing my dissertation on ritualizing and learning in two Buddhist Centres in Toronto in 2009. A combination of scholarships, a husband with a good job, and no kids helped financially, and I had great mentors who supported me and openly discussed academia, method, theory, and publishing issues. During my dissertation, however, my father passed away, and after comps I felt disconnected from the community, which wasn’t helped by the commute from Toronto. Following graduation, I couldn’t find work and felt even more isolated.

I started, and am still working on, a new book on spirituality and farming, but it is difficult with no funding or other structural supports. I held a few lecturing positions and worked other occasional jobs while my husband was interning as a farmer, and, eventually, I decided to give up on finding full-time tenure work because of the lack of jobs in Canada and I didn’t want to leave the country. This is my home, you know?

Now, I live on an organic, small-scale, diversified farm. We sell at farmer’s markets and through other field-to-table routes. I also cobble together other work to supplement the farm, including part-time academic jobs, research for an art gallery, and my own online educational company, Love2Learn.

I wish I’d known more about the job market and the impossibility of finding a job if you’re limited by where you can and want to live, though I don’t regret the five years of the PhD. A community of PhDs in similar situations would help alleviate isolation for grad students who aren’t associated with institutions anymore, especially for those of us living in rural areas, where education, especially at the PhD level, is often distrusted.