Humanities scholarship labor crisis: How the infrastructure of research is falling apart. | Slate

by John Warner

Writing in Inside Higher Ed, University of Texas at Austin history professor Steven Mintz sounded the alarm about a crisis in education that probably isn’t on the radars of most people, declaring, “The Humanities’ Scholarly Infrastructure Is in Utter Disarray.”

That sounds bad! But … what is the “humanities’ scholarly infrastructure”?

Most understand that in addition to teaching, college professors in humanities disciplines also do “research.” “The humanities’ scholarly infrastructure” is the mechanism that allows that research to be produced and disseminated. These journal articles, conferences, seminars, and edited volumes are where original ideas and concepts that will eventually become the boogeymen of right-wing moral panics first take shape, as the sum total of our collective knowledge is advanced. This published research becomes the criteria by which the vast majority of tenure-track faculty at selective institutions—particularly those at elite private and public research universities—are evaluated for tenure and promotion.

Someone has to do all the work of reading, vetting, editing, and publishing all that scholarship—as well as organizing and attending and presenting at those meetings. The people doing that work are, typically, the same folks who are tasked with producing the original research: tenure-track and tenured college faculty, and those who hope to land that kind of job. But this system is breaking down. As Mintz declares, “Editors … are desperate to find scholars to review articles, prospectuses and book manuscripts.” Department chairs needing external reviewers for candidates for tenure and promotion are struggling to find willing participants.

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