Once again you’ve captured what I’m thinking. 🙂 I decided a while ago that I’m definitely not interested in tenure track – partly because the tenure process would take more time away from my family than I’m willing to give, and partly because I want to have the freedom to pursue the types of scholarship I’m interested in, and to do so in ways that I want to. And because many of those interests are around challenging traditional notions of academia (like tenure) it seems almost hypocritical to participate in them.
I think I’ve surprised people when I’ve told them I have no interest in tenure. I’ve also been told that it’s a bit of a shame, since without tenure what I have to say won’t be taken as seriously. And I think the question I’m playing with around all this is, if we want to change the system, do we necessarily need to do it from the inside (i.e. suck it up, get tenure, then ‘speak out’) or can those of us working ‘outside’ develop enough of a voice to be heard?