UCLA has promising job market for LGBT scholars

By Kevin Lee
Daily Bruin Contributor

Despite a report that said the job market for Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender scholars is not promising, some say those
with a doctorate are faring well in finding tenure-track teaching
positions at UCLA.

The American Historical Association released a study in May
titled “Committee on Lesbian and Gay History Survey on LGBTQ
History Careers,” which concluded that LGBT scholars ““
mostly those with a doctorate in history ““ do not have a high
success rate in finding tenure-track positions, despite rising
popularity in LGBT college courses across the U.S.

But the status of LGBT studies at UCLA does not reflect the
report.

“UCLA is a great place for students and professors
involved in LGBT studies,” said James Schultz, director of
the LGBT program at UCLA. “The number of distinguished
faculty is growing.”

UCLA only offers an undergraduate minor in LGBT studies. Those
pursuing a doctorate relating to LGBT studies come from different
departments, including history, film, women’s studies and the
health sciences. According to Schultz, UCLA has very few history
students concentrating in LGBT studies.

The report by the AHA surveyed 44 students with a doctorate in
LGBT studies from 29 universities within the U.S. and Canada, among
them UCLA. About half of the respondents found tenure-track or
equivalent positions, and of those, more than half received their
positions outside the U.S.

On the whole, Schultz said he does not see the LGBT tenure-track
job market as being very different from other subjects.

“Job prospects for any tenure-track positions are dreadful
to start with,” Schultz said. “But from my own
experience, LGBT studies positions are not any more difficult to
get than other departments.”

Marc Stein, author of the report, conducted the study because of
the difficulty he faced in finding a tenure-track position.

“As I was searching, I made a promise to myself that once
I did land a tenure-track job, I would do a study on job success
rate trends for LGBT scholars,” said Stein, a professor at
York University in Canada.

One reason Stein gives for the low rate of LGBT tenure-track
positions is that many academic history departments think of LGBT
studies as too narrow a subject.

“Many history review boards think that LGBT scholars have
too concentrated a field and do not have a broad enough knowledge
about history in general,” he said.

But Stein says LGBT scholars have a comprehensive knowledge of
history, because one cannot study an LGBT population without also
delving into aspects of the city that are not LGBT-related.

William Keylor, director of the history department at Boston
University, said that history departments sometimes don’t
have a need for professors specializing in a particular subject. He
noted that the report showed LGBT doctorates now receive
tenure-track jobs 15 times more often than they did in the
1980s.

“It all depends on how the university is organized,”
Keylor said.

Schultz said it is unreasonable to consider any one doctoral
field of study as being too concentrated.

“Most Ph.D. dissertations are extremely specific and
obscure,” Schultz said. “Calling any one dissertation
too narrow would be absurd.”