As a board member of the National Coalition for Independent
Scholars, I would like to point out that there are scholars, both with
and without doctorates, who continue to pursue scholarly work outside the
university. Although I do not have current figures, past surveys have
found that a large percentage of them chose not to pursue full-time
tenured teaching. History department members who are interested in
broadening the opportunities, or at least the horizons of their graduate
students could do so both by supporting national and local independent
scholars' organizations, and by cooperating with us to expand the
opportunities that are available to independent scholars. Two current
difficulties are obtaining access to research libraries and databases
(such as ESTC), and the extreme shortage of research grants that
can be used by independent scholars, who often are not as free as
academics are to travel to other institutions to pursue research projects.
Needless to say, we could all benefit from an expansion of extra-academic
job opportunities for PhD.'s. I believe that we also would all benefit
(even the universities themselves) from an effort to improve the
treatment of part-time teachers.
I would encourage graduate students and those who are considering
graduate education to seek out these independent scholars. They can
offer first-hand information about the pitfalls and pleasures of
a scholarly life without tenure.
Margaret DeLacy