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Unravelling the “Ponzi Scheme”? A Different Approach to Graduate Education in German Studies

Graduate Studies in German: A Terrible Idea? The rhetoric of crisis has been common currency in discussions on graduate studies in the humanities for as long as I can remember. And there is no question that, then and now, our graduate programs in German churn out far more PhDs than there are tenure-track or even limited-term positions at Canadian universities. Add to this picture the fierce competition for faculty positions from PhD holders from the United States and Germany, and it cannot surprise us that many commentators see graduate school in the humanities as a pyramid scheme perpetuated by faculty members and administrators alike, in the interest of keeping their own classes populated and retaining cheap labour for lowly undergraduate courses. Should we follow the example set by Thomas H. Benton (the pseudonym of William Pannapacker, himself a tenured associate professor) in advising prospective graduate students: “Just don’t go”? Is getting a PhD in German a “terrible idea because the full-time, tenure-track literature professorship is extinct,” as Rebecca Schuman writes in Slate magazine? Are we tenure-track or tenured professors abdicating our responsibilities as teachers? Are we indeed promoting “the self-interest of faculty members at the expense of students” as Mark Taylor would have it, if we don’t shut down our graduate programs or, at the very least, reduce enrolment to a trickle? Well, yes – and no.