so, that would be "no", then.

[freckles_and_doubt]

As I pretty much expected, the Faculty finds itself unable to supply funding to renew my contract next year. The department, in the form of its very supportive HoD and admin assistant, are going to try and find funding within the department itself, but it'll almost certainly be less than my current miserable pittance. This is almost worse than if they'd simply told me to clear out my office, as I now have another week or so of suspense while they scrabble for cash, and the horrible dilemma as to whether it's worth eking out another year on a far from grown-up salary.

Clearly, it's poll time.

[Poll #849206]

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

*patpatpat* *further ineffectual consolatory gestures*

I vote for option 2. But then again I am suffering chronic homesickness and as such, find it hard to wholeheartedly recommend leaving the glorious mother city.

scroob

(UCT just won't be the same without you...)

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I thank you for your kind and consoling words, but in fact have to face the fact that my Cherished Institution will actually be absolutely the same without me. In terms of hard-working postgrad teachers, there's another batch along every year. Really, this is the source of my problems...

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, there may be teachers aplenty, but who's going to wave the flag for nonsense and vampires? Not The Same, I tell you.

Also PS: I do recommend freelance editing as a way of raising coin, especially if you can get forrun clients who pay in hard currency. Arbitrage, I tells ya. In fact I will have a word with a couple of mine.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I would be exceedingly grateful for any editing crumbs you can throw my way. Even if the Dept. manages to lay hands on untold millions, I still have a credit card debt to appease...

[(Anonymous)]

I feel you on the plastic pain. I really don't know what success I'll have in finding crumbs, but will try.

Who can I bite for you?

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

I voted for two, because they're not mututally exclusive. I think (I know!) you are a highly intelligent, fearsomely educated, well informed, dynamic, energetic, enthusiastic person who can do anything she wants to do. Your Department, or Faculty, or whatever, has belittled you, scorned you and crushed your spirit until you more than half believe they're right and you're worthless. You are one of the most admirable women I know. I know you love your job, I know you love academia, but they don't deserve you, and that's no platitude. You need to look yourself in the mirror, make some fierce decisions about what you want and how you're going to get it, and then make it happen.

But that's just my advice...

You can go back to that foetal position under the bed now.

[khoi-boi.livejournal.com]

Graeme seems to make some reasonable part-time scratch doing editing and such. So it might be a possibility. But by all means look for academic work overseas (and practice the pole-dancing!)

[khoi-boi.livejournal.com]

Oh, and before I forget - big hug.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Why, thank you. That helps.

I am somewhat interested to see the level of support for exotic dancing. Then again, I need the exercise.

[librsa]

If they really need you they will find the money. If they can't find the money it is their loss. Time to look abroad, to places you will be appreciated.

Is there a collective noun for fools?

[tsukikoneko.livejournal.com]

They are fools, those in the faculty who would even consider losing someone like you. They do not deserve you - I agree wholeheartedly with wolverine_nun
*HUG*

[herne-kzn.livejournal.com]

Supportive, but likely ineffectual, wibbles and hugs.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Supportive noises!

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

I'm disappointed that I can't vote for option 4 *and* the exotic dancer option.

But seriously, I don't think you're going to have any joy with UCT - they are, quite literally, wasting your time and talent. Ditch them! Find a fantastic new job elsewhere!

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Does England need English lecturers? I wouldn't at all be suprised, they import every other kind of qualified professional.

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

There are currently 25 positions for English lecturers advertised on http://www.jobs.ac.uk.

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

Correction - 25 positions that require English. :) Several are admin positions, and one is in Belgium.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Four of them are, in a not particularly strange coincidence, actually tabbed in my browser even as I read your comment.

All I need to do is to overcome the departmental-induced reaction of "I'll never be good enough for those!", and get with the applications.

[starmadeshadow.livejournal.com]

You are good enough. You are more than good enough. Fill. In. The. Applications. NOW. Beeee the application form....

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

It would be even nicer if they qualified as a key worker. Do they?

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

I don't know the ins and outs of the situation - I think a doctorate goes a long way towards the HSMP (Highly Skilled Migrant Program), which is key-workerish.

[origamitiger.livejournal.com]

He only wants to know about the key worker because he wants a cheap morgage.

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

The only way to get a cheap mortgage in the UK is to live in Wales :(

[ex-wytchfyn.livejournal.com]

Fucking bastards.

But at least the frustrating agony of not knowing has been to some extent replaced by the actionable agony of bad news? I agree with bumpycat - jobs.ac.uk is a fantastic resource, and often has jobs based all over the Commonwealth. But don't overlook the US and Canada as well - lots of universities here, and the Education Advising Officer at the Cape Town consular office owes me a favor if you need advice or access to data about which offer the kind of programs you're interested in.

Perhaps the best deal would be: take another year of reduced funding if you can get it, but rather than taking a second job, spend that time hitting every conference and colloquium you can. You need to get out on the scene if you're to accurately evaluate the options open to you. Working a part-time job in addition to the demands of academia, as you likely know better than I, is not the hottest of options. Inevitably one's writing and thinking suffer out of proportion to any gains of funds or career advancement in the peripheral job - if academia is what you love, you need to run at it full time. Lesley et al should have more than a few useful contacts to make this kind of search possible.

I wish you strength. But I'm sure your own reserves will prove ample :-)

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Still a bit limbo-like and frustrating, because I don't think I can make any final decisions until I know how much money they can find for me. The uncertainty continues. Bleah.

Good point on the time-eating aspect of part-time jobs, but it's also, alas, the case that conferences and colloquia in my fields of interest are extremely unlikely to pop up in SA, and I really can't afford to travel overseas (I'm not elegible for most of the funding as I'm neither a student nor a permanent staff member). I'm thinking more along the lines of writing, oh, say a paper a month for the next year :>.

and thanks for the vote of confidence in my strength. Doesn't feel like it from here, but I wouldn't dare disagree ;>.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Bleah again. Eligible. I'm an English professional. Really.

[(Anonymous)]

I vote for #2, where "overseas" equals "southern California" or at least "west coast USA." ;-)

Although I also want more information about the exotic dancer option. REtrain?!

Hugs and support from far off,
Dayle/Rhieinwen

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Thanks for moral support, appreciated! I am apparently devastated enough by all this to entirely forget how to construct a meaningful sentence. That should probably read "Retrain, as an exotic dancer." I have no Seekrit Past as an exotic dancer, alas, and would need considerably more than a refresher course. Not to mention a personality implant ;>.

Everymoment would agree with you on the "west coast USA" bit, but I'm quite keen to be in the UK, near my parents. Also, your current political climate gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies.

[(Anonymous)]

Hugs, moral support, and also what bumpy and w_n said. Especially the parts about the Dept that doesn't appreciate your worth, how talented, capable, energetic and experienced you are in your field, both general and specific. And that you could land a perfect job, you just have to at least apply.
Hang in there. I also recommend G&T's or even Mojito's, and some judicously applied chocolate.
everymoment.

Apply for jobs

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

Apply.
Apply, apply, apply.

Re: Apply for jobs

[(Anonymous)]

yes, what she said!

[egadfly.livejournal.com]

First, many big supportive hug!

Then, things:

1. Definitely: take whatever they'll give you, and use them, USE THEM!!, as a base from which to leap to better things (i.e. Option 2). Perhaps not intentionally, but in practice, They have been using you long enough.

2. I don't know anything about the academic job market in the US, but rumour has it that they pay their academics comparatively well.

3. I don't know much about the academic job market in the UK, but if you were in or around London, you would have Friends x several. London is dispersed enough that you could avoid any of us you wanted to avoid, while getting (im)moral support from the rest.

4. I don't know much about English academia in South Africa, but would assume that your areas of specialism are comparatively undervalued there. Frankly, by now you must be one of SA's foremost experts on fairy tale and other areas of speculative fiction. In the decadent first world, I suspect we care more about these things.

5. Ironically, if you spend some time with a Real Job in an overseas university, UCT is much more likely to give you a Real Job at some point in the future, if that's what you want long term.

6. I also voted for several options in the poll. Option 2 is clearly the sensible one, but it is not incompatible with laughing, crying, hiding under the bed, and training as an exotic dancer. Let me repeat that. You can do all this *and* become an accomplished exotic dancer. Think on this.

More of them hug.

Leaving

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

I suggest moving to the UK. And leaving me your Fysshe.