“I Know I’m Unlovable”: Desperation, Dislocation, Despair, and Discourse on the Academic Job Hunt
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2012
Description
Failure, according to the academic canonical narrative, is anything other than a tenure-track professorship. The academic job hunt is fraught with unknowns: a time of fear, hope, and despair. This personal narrative follows the author’s three-year journey from doctoral candidate, to visiting assistant professor, to the unemployment line. Using a layered account and through a Foucauldian lens the author examines the academic success narrative, delving into the emotional bipolarity during the job search, and the use technologies of the self. It concludes with a reexamination of academic discourses and the canonical narrative of academic success as well as an appeal to continue to do good work.
Citation Information
Herrmann, Andrew F.. 2012. “I Know I’m Unlovable”: Desperation, Dislocation, Despair, and Discourse on the Academic Job Hunt. Qualitative Inquiry. Vol.18(3). 247-255. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800411431561 ISSN: 1077-8004