Assistant Professor, Georgetown University
Meet Matthew Tinkcom
Korina Lopez
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, June 25, 2004;
Being a professor isn't about the money or the prestige. It's about gaining access to bright and hard working people.
A Day in the Life
On the days that I don't teach, I do administrative work. Faculty members do much of the administrative work that needs to get done in order for the school to function. On the days that I do teach, I reread materials, go over the syllabus, and meet with students seeking guidance on the materials. You always have to put on a show when you walk into that classroom. You must be full of energy and invite the students to share that enthusiasm with you or you will lose their interest. It's also important for a professor to conduct research and publish their works. That work is usually reserved for holidays and summer vacations.
Once Upon a Time...
I majored in English throughout my schooling. But I am a bit of an anomaly because I was always involved in something marginal to English such as visual culture, cinema, and non-canonical literature.
After I earned my bachelor's degree at the University of California at Berkeley, I worked for a couple of years and realized that I missed the conversations that I had while I was in school. Not everything that we talk about has to be related to family, work, and social life, and I found that these topics were central to conversing in the world in which I was working. That larger world of ideas was something that I craved. So I made a decision to get my master's and then pursue a Ph.D.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Pursuing a Ph.D. in the humanities is a significant commitment of one's life. Typically, it takes 10 years to earn one and then there's no guarantee that you'll find a job. If you do find a tenure-line position, your department reviews your work after six or seven years and then decides whether to grant you tenure. If not, then you must find a new position. I was willing to take these risks to pursue a career in academia.
The greatest challenges for me while I was establishing myself in this field were monetary ones. I had to reconcile myself to years of living in what we might call "genteel poverty" while other friends were becoming professionals with substantial salaries. But, with the support of a great life partner, I have a stable and hugely gratifying job. Those sacrifices were certainly worthwhile and I wouldn't trade it for any other profession.
...And He Lived Happily Ever After
I was quite fortunate to get a job here at Georgetown University. After I earned my Ph.D. I attended the Modern Language Association's annual conference, which is where universities interview applicants. Then I crossed my fingers until Georgetown invited me for a campus visit. The purpose for this invitation is to see the campus and interview with the faculty members. After that I crossed my fingers again until I got a job offer. Since then, I've worked hard teaching students, helping with administrative duties, and conducting my own research as an authority in my field. All those years of hard work have paid off; I was recently appointed tenure.
The Virtues of a Professor
You need patience to undertake this type of career because teaching people requires saying the same thing over and over again. That's not because people are stupid but we need to hear the same thing repeatedly in order to grasp it so that we can look at the concept from different angles. You also have to be patient enough to stand back and watch people make mistakes and to struggle. You need long-term vision for your students and your research. It takes us a lifetime to change and so whatever impact your teachings might have on a student, those results are very rarely seen in any kind of immediate sense. Things that may not have mattered to you in school may become central to your growth years later. You need to teach with a clear vision in mind of how it helps your students be in the world.
The same is true of research. Scholarly publishing takes a very long time and needs to endure so that someone can come back 15 years later and use it for their own research.
The Future of Academia
Acaademia has experienced great shifts in the last three decades, two of which I would like to address here.
First, academia has opened up to a great number of diverse faculty members. Thirty years ago, staffs were made up of primarily white men. But over time, the university has become a central place in American culture that reflects our growing need for diversity. And that's not for the sake of window dressing but in order to produce knowledge that matters we need many diverse talents. It's important to remember for people of color and women is that the university needs them more than ever.
Now here's the second shift. When I was in graduate school, there was talk of many retirements that would open up a lot of faculty positions. Instead, many universities took existing faculty positions and made them non-tenure. Financially, that made more sense for the university but intellectually it didn't because they need to commit to long-term faculty positions in order to foster the best work.
On the other hand, there are more people enrolled in American universities than ever before. Accordingly, the need for faculty is increasing. Whether these institutions will respond to this demand is anyone's guess.
Salary
Salaries vary from school to school but for most beginning professors, the salary would be from 40-50K. Then that increases as one gets promoted or gets tenure. A full professor will make from 90 to 120K. But remember that's after 20 or 30 years. There is comparatively less reward financially for going into academia than on the corporate side.
Editor's note: This article by Korina Lopez, was acquired by washingtonpost.com on April 30, 2003.
© 2004 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
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