What does it mean to be post-academic?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the term “post-academic” and what it means, so I’d like to unpack it a little bit here. And I’d love to know how my definitions fit with and don’t fit with yours.

It incorporates academia

No matter how far away we go from academia, those of us who were academically inclined enough to actually head to graduate school will always carry some version of academia with us.

Maybe it’s the theoretical constructs that reconfigured the world we thought we lived in. Maybe it’s habits of close reading. Maybe it’s a tendency to head to the library to answer our questions about the world. Maybe it’s the belief that individuals can create knowledge.

Maybe it’s an deeper understanding of both exploitative labor practices and ideology. Maybe it’s a cynicism about our own idealism.

Whatever it is, our experience in academia – both positive and negative – comes with us as we move away from the Ivory Tower. We don’t ever leave it truly behind, although you’d be surprised just how distant it can feel.

It’s about something else

Post-academics aren’t failed academics. We all walked away for our own reasons, reasons that both did and didn’t intersect with the structural problems inherent in higher ed. At some point, we chose something else.

I want to emphasize that, because so many of us have felt backed into a corner by the shitty job market and the shiny optimism of professors who haven’t been on the job market since Moses was a lad. It doesn’t always feel like we chose something else. But somehow, somewhen, we did, even if we can only articulate it as “I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

And that choice, while it’s going to be colored by our experiences and our skills, most of which were honed in academia, isn’t only “anything but academia.” There’s always an element of “this, not that.”

Ultimately, becoming post-academic is about choosing to orient yourself a different direction. As such it’s about recognizing academia as one space among others.

We find ourselves again

One of the most comment stories I hear from people coming out of academia is that, in their long years inside the Ivory Tower, they’ve lost something of themselves.

Maybe it’s a natural optimism that got laid down for a more-popular cynicism. Maybe it’s a love of “low” culture. Maybe it’s a work-life balance that allows for both meaningful work and a personal life that isn’t always rushed and shoved into corners.

When we change contexts, these parts of ourselves we’ve disavowed can come back. We can look on them with new eyes and notice the parts we want to invite back in.

It’s about strength

What I most notice as I’m working with post-academics is a kind of strength. In most of us there’s a sense of having lived through something challenging, maybe even life-changing. Even when we’re desperately sad, or scared that we have no other options, there’s an underlying strength in the ability to see what’s going on, to be considering another life.

I have to say, that’s one of my favorite parts.

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