The Medieval Ph.D. Registry Project, sponsored by the Academy’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA), tracks recipients, 1995 and later, of U.S. and Canadian Ph.D. degrees whose dissertations deal with the period 500 to 1500.¹ This update reports on English and History, the two most populous fields surveyed.² The tables include the numbers of Ph.D.s for 1995–1998 and the number and percentage of tenure-track (TT) positions secured. They also show TT positions held by males and females, except in cases where the gender of the jobholder is unrecorded in the database (U TT). The data in these tables first appeared in the November 2000 update.³

We cannot confidently extrapolate from the limited number of years so far surveyed, but a look back gives us much to consider. The bad news is that even in the two best years of the period, 1997 and 1998, North America produced far more English and History Ph.D.s than found TT jobs. Supposing there had been a run of five years comparable to 1997 and 1998, on average at best fewer than 40% of Ph.D.s in English (the average of 36.6 and 42.5) and 35% in History (the average of 36.9 and 31.7) would have secured TT positions. The record for 1995–1998 is, in fact, worse.

Because TT positions, once filled, tend to stay filled for decades, it seems reasonable to expect sustained high numbers of TT openings only when there is either substantial and sustained expansion of the higher educational system, such as occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, or substantial and sustained hiring for other reasons, such as to replace large numbers of retired faculty. In the years 1995–1998 neither condition existed for medievalists in English and History.

There is also plentiful good news. The tables indicate that in the 1990s medieval studies continued to draw students at a strong pace. If the average time to degree is six years, the numbers of new Ph.D.s in both fields suggest that new graduate enrollments in the two disciplines remained at least stable and possibly increased in the early and mid-1990s. Annual production of Ph.D.s varied in a healthy range of 62 to 76 in English and 53 to 65 in History, of whom significant numbers secured TT jobs. In English, women secured TT positions at a ratio of not quite 3:2 over men (55 or 56 F:39 M). In History the numbers were more nearly equal, with more men hired than women (27 or 28 F:31 M). The 1997 and 1998 cohorts secured considerably higher numbers of TT positions than those of other years.

Recognizing that Ph.D.s in medieval studies secure many jobs other than tenure-track positions, the CARA Executive Commmittee in October 2001 authorized a new employment listing separate from the Ph.D. Registry. The new list of full-time jobs—academic and non-academic—secured by those awarded Ph.D. degrees in 2001 and later will appear annually in Medieval Academy News. (See right column of this page.) The Ph.D. Registry will continue as it has in the past. Personal information submitted only to the Ph.D. Registry will be treated as confidential.

The continuing important question before us is how to foster the appeal of graduate medieval studies while making our students aware of the harsh realities of the academic marketplace.

 

Table 1: Medieval Ph.D.s in English in 1995--1998 and
Number of Males and Females in Tenure--Track Positions
	Ph.Ds	TT	%TT	FTT	MTT	UTT
1995	76	22	28.9	12	10	0
1996	62	16	25.8	9	7	0
1997	71	25 or 26	35.2 or 36.6	16 or 17	9	0
1998	73	31	42.5	18	13	0

 

Table 2: Medieval Ph.D.s in History in 1995--1998 and
Number of Males and Females in Tenure--Track Positions
	Ph.Ds	TT	%TT	FTT	MTT	UTT
1995	53	6	11.3	3	3	0
1996	54	9	16.7	4	5	0
1997	65	24	36.9	10	14	0
1998	63	19 or 20	30.2 or 31.7	10 or 11	9	0

 

 

Notes

1. The numbers of Ph.D.s awarded have been calculated from entries in Dissertation Abstracts International and corrected from information individuals have supplied on the Medieval Ph.D. Registry form. Although misclassification in and omission from DAI make omissions from the database inevitable, the number of omissions is probably small. The Registry relies for employment data chiefly on direct communications from Ph.D. recipients, dissertation advisers, and departments. At the CARA meeting at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona (October 1999), the CARA Executive Committee reaffirmed the principle that personal information in the Registry database will be treated as confidential. A more detailed account of the Registry Project, including a sampling of questions the database can help address, appears in “The Medieval Ph.D. Registry Project,” Medieval Academy News, Sept. 1999, 3–5. We gratefully acknowledge technical support from James O. Austin of the University of Arizona Faculty Center for Instructional Innovation.

2. In addition to the fields identified in the September 1999 report (preceding note), fields surveyed now include Ancient Language and Classical Literature. After 1999 the Registry will not survey Mass Communications, which in 1995–1999 yielded no medieval Ph.D.s.

3. Medieval Academy News, Nov. 2000, 4–5. TT figures do not distinguish those securing TT positions in their first year out from those who formerly held non‑TT positions and those who have held successive TT positions at different institutions.