News from the Trenches

For this brief report on what graduate students in Spanish need to know, and why, I conducted an unscientific survey of advanced PhD students at the University of Kansas and the University of California-Los Angeles, and recently minted Spanish PhDs in their first years of tenure-track positions. I wanted to find out what young teacher/scholars learned that was useful or wish they had learned while in graduate school. The graduate students were from a variety of specializations within Hispanism, and the tenure-track assistant professors from-different types of institutions, including small private colleges, non-Research I state universities, private non-humanities oriented research universities, and Research I universities. There was some overlap between the wish lists of advanced graduate students and those already in full-time positions; in addition, statements from young professionals at different kinds of institutions coincided on a number of points, especially the importance of a broad education, good teaching, and time management.

Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the advanced graduate students, now working on their dissertations and looking toward going on the job market in the next year or two, directed their responses toward practical matters, such as institutional workings, funding, and successful job marketeering. They especially focused on access to information. They want to know how departments and institutions function, since much graduate student knowledge of department and university administrative structures, policies, and procedures remains fragmentary and secondhand. Where real information is lacking, rumor, guesswork, and myth fill the gap. Graduate students would also appreciate greater information on funding opportunities for their research and how to make contact with scholars in their fields with whom they can exchange ideas on their projects and who can help them as they advance in their studies and begin their careers beyond graduate school. They expressed a need for more information on how to get their work published and how to select publication venues. Assistant professors already in their first jobs seconded these comments, and noted that there was not enough emphasis on secondary sources and journals in graduate school. Advanced graduate students wish they had been advised to take seminars, for which they would have been required to write potentially publishable papers, with an eye to building a reputation in a particular field.

Respondents from small private liberal arts colleges and from non-research oriented state universities agree that the broadest possible education is essential. Several young professors indicated that in retrospect they were glad to have suffered through a long, comprehensive MA reading list and a rigorous MA exam. They also appreciated being well prepared in all literary genres of their major fields and across time periods in their geographical area of specialization. Given that liberal arts colleges and non-research oriented state schools often have small Spanish faculties, professors teach a wide range of courses on both Spain and Latin America, no matter what their graduate specialization might have been. The people teaching in small programs emphasized the need to offer a range of exciting courses and noted that it was advantageous to be able to teach interdisciplinary courses with a women's studies, film, comparative literature, or race theory component. Thus, Spanish graduate students might be encouraged to venture beyond the confines of their home departments to take courses in other fields. MLA roundtable panelists believe that broad knowledge and interests facilitate communication between professors in different Hispanic fields and between Spanish professors and those in other disciplines, all of which contributes to collegiality and mutual understanding.

Good teaching seems to be a nearly universal requirement for all types of institutions. One beginning assistant professor was grateful for a teaching practicum in graduate school in which he co-taught an upper division course with a professor. MLA panelists and audience participants affirmed that such training should be universal; some PhD programs have already incorporated teaching practicums into the curriculum, although it can mean an overload for both the graduate students and professors involved. Colleges and other non-PhD granting institutions within driving distance of graduate universities might offer mutually beneficial teaching internships to advanced graduate students. PhD students who completed BAs at...