I am currently teaching 10th grade English (first year woo!) in hopes of starting a Master’s program within the next year or two. Currently, what are the most promising areas of humanities for budding academics? I hope to teach at the university level eventually, but with the rise of AI and funding for universities getting slashed at every corner, I am nervous. Ideally, I want to pursue English Literature or Composition and Rhetoric. However, I’m considering leaning into something along the lines of technical writing for a higher salary. What’s it looking like out there?
Comments
None. There is no most promising area of the humanities. If you pursue a PhD, particularly in English, you will be competing in an already oversaturated market that will likely be even worse in 5-7 years.
Sadly, probably none. College enrollments have been dropping for a decade and are about to go off a cliff, a combination of demographic changes (fewer high school grads) and a cultural moment where fewer young me are going to college at all.
Colleges are going to be contracting and closing left and right in the next decades. Retiring faculty–if we get to retire!–will not be replaced. Others will be laid off as programs close. Those who keep a job will be looking at higher teaching loads, reduced support, and increasing service demands.
Sorry.
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/08/nx-s1-5246200/demographic-cliff-fewer-college-students-mean-fewer-graduates
It is good that you are asking questions about this possible career path. If instructors were completely honest with their students, the students would drop and the instructor would be out a job.
It seems like college writing is and will become more problematic with AI. Imagine spending so much time trying to improve student writing by editing AI-written work. But yes, humanities PhDs face a glutted market where supply of PhDs perennially exceeds demand.