Elizabeth Connelly ‘25
Staff Writer
Whenever I tell someone what I’m studying in college, their next question is inevitably: “What are you going to do with that?” As an English and Classics double major, I don’t usually have a good response, even with four years of practice. “Teaching” is my go-to answer, or sometimes I deflect and say, “Good question!” Now as a senior, this question is ever-present and all-encompassing. These increasingly common interactions beg the question: why are we so inclined to qualify a subject by its productive value without appreciating learning for learning’s sake? On the first day of my first English class, my professor made it clear that the humanities are a dying field and that we should pursue it if we want to, but only with the appropriate amount of caution. I remember sitting in that class and thinking: “Then what’s the point?”
As the daughter of an ex-academic, I have been warned about the shrinking job market, and our capitalistic society’s disdain for the humanities since I was in middle school. My mom constantly sends me articles to inspire, warn, or possibly scare me out of that career choice. One was about an adjunct professor from California who, after six years of making no money and taking on five or six classes at one time, applied to law school instead. Another article interviewed a recent graduate from Michigan who used her English degree to go into marketing instead of the traditional graduate route. I am not against a career in something more productive and monetarily valuable, but as a senior just beginning the job search and application process, it is frustrating to feel like the race is over before I have even begun.
Lately I have been exploring the possibility of postgraduate studies, and it seems like everyone I talk to or hear from has the same warning answer: “Are you absolutely sure this is what you want to do?” I walk away from these meetings, all run by incredibly supportive and knowledgeable faculty and staff, feeling a bit dejected and still unsure about my future. If I feel pulled towards that more traditional academic route, and everyone is warning me against it, then what? I fully recognize that though I may feel old in the tiny bubble of college, I am extremely young in the outside world, and my professors and mentors who are leading these meetings truly do have students’ best interests at heart, and valuable advice to share. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder why this is the rhetoric around grad school for humanities, and especially for English students.
This is not a Holy Cross issue, it’s a societal one. The most apparent answer is because of the shrinking job market in academia and our society’s disregard for the value of humanities. An article published by the Boston Globe this past May explored the insecurity and anxiety that comes with trying to find a job in academia, especially in the humanities. At best it was sobering; at worst, panic attack inducing. The article ended with a zinger which a PhD student shared: “At my graduation, literally at the ceremony, I turned to my friend and said: ‘Should I apply to law school? Because I don’t think this is going to work out.’” After I got over the initial jolt of anxiety and panic, I looked at what other readers had to say. Commenters ranged from responding to the concerns in the article with personal experience to ideas for a more successful career. One commenter kindly pointed out, “History, English or philosophy are hobbies, not jobs. Get a skill that is useful.”
As an English major, I do a lot of reading and writing, but I refuse to allow it to be boiled down to a “hobby.” The English major allows students to build crucial critical thinking, rhetorical, and compositional skills. Language is power. It allows us to seek justice, inspire change, and communicate inherent human desires and feelings. Through literature, we can express the unspeakable and deepest parts of human nature, and I do not believe that to be insignificant. I don’t want to minimize the systemic issues in academia, and I am not even sure what my future holds. But it seems paradoxical that the way to combat this dangerous sentiment is to give into our capitalistic society’s disregard for the humanities, and push more students towards what the world, and this commenter, deems practical.
Featured image courtesy of Getty Images
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