Pembroke College Cambridge

PhD to Professor: In Conversation with Ambrogio Camozzi Pistoja

Recently on the blog we’ve been talking to students and researchers to take a look at the world of academia. So far we've talked about PhDsResearch Fellowships, and graduate mental health. Today’s blog continues down the pathway of an academic career.

The conversation was recorded in August 2018 and edited for clarity.

Today’s blog is an interview with Dr Ambrogio Camozzi Pistoja. Ambrogio was the Keith Sykes Fellow in Italian Studies at Pembroke until last year. He studied at the universities of Milan and Paris, came to Pembroke as a postgraduate student and then as a research fellow, and has now moved to the US to take up a tenure track position at Harvard as Assistant Professor in Romance Languages and Literatures. His experiences, while largely positive, have also left him aware of the challenges for PhD candidates and postdocs, and the pressures on people seeking academic careers in the current higher education context. Successfully applying for a PhD position in a minor field such as Italian Studies is difficult enough, let alone the hard work that comes next.

“In 2010, I had just started my Masters in Cambridge – a very intense program, with two, three deadlines each week – when I suddenly found myself applying for a PhD, having to explain in my application - in my still faltering English – what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. That was a bit of a tricky time. But the support I received from my department was terrific; it went very well and I was selected for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world.”

Scholarships are important for PhD candidates, as funding is competitive and not always easy to secure. It only gets more difficult from there. Finding a postdoc position – thereby getting to the next stage of the academic career ladder – is now more than ever, highly competitive. There are too many excellent candidates for too few roles.

“My feeling is that we’ve never seen anything like the current bubble we're in. It is now normal to receive 200, 250 applications for one postdoc position. Why is that? Is that a good sign? I do not think so. I think it is the symptom of a structural flaw in higher education. Over the last 5, 10 years the academic world has been rethinking itself and, in particular, the role of liberal education and the humanities in general. And the result is that the postgraduates who were admitted some 5, 10 years ago entered a system which looked completely different from the one they face now, at the end of their training. Their expectations do not match what the system is now offering. Things have changed, rather dramatically. And there is a generation of PhDs and Postdocs that have been left holding the bag.”

And with so much competition even an exemplary candidate isn’t guaranteed a place.

“In order to get a postdoc in a so-called “minor field” what you need is an ambitious, well thought research project, fantastic references, and a flawless CV, especially looking at timing of completion of the PhD and publications. It is not uncommon to apply for a postdoc with a monograph on the way to being done, and at least one solid piece of research published. And when I say solid I mean something that is connected to the research project and really contributes to research in the field. Without those things, your chances are slim or none. And even with that it’s not certain that you can get funding. It’s really difficult. What committees are doing in response to the current bubble conditions is looking for reasons not to select people.”

And there might be reasons that have nothing to do with academic ability.

“I felt I was a strong candidate in a couple of interviews where I wasn’t offered the job. I loved the departments, the colleagues who took their time to read my research and teaching projects. They gave me great feedback, and we had good conversations during my campus visits. But the job was given to someone else. That someone else was probably a better fit for that environment, for that type of faculty, that type of office. There is a point where it’s not about academic or intellectual quality. That being equal, it’s about personality and character. So, with so many excellent candidates around, if you’re good, you have a chance to then be assessed in terms of how fitting you are. It’s important to have a chance and then hope the market is moving enough to give you more than just one chance. And unfortunately yes there are only very few spots.”

So with all these challenges before you even secure your first research fellowship, why bother? Ambrogio described two key moments that helped him through some undeniably hard times.

“The first was when I realised that an academic career, or more precisely studying, sharing my research and teaching, was something that would keep me interested and entertained and passionate for a long, long time. I understood at some point that that was my thing. I was good at it. And it was good for me. In a way that was stronger than many other interests that I had and possibilities that I had. Being so committed, it turned out to be something indispensable at least at the start, when you’re a PhD student, when you spend a lot of time alone with your books and thoughts, and you’re trying to get these things done and you’re seeing that the market is not good. You really need to be committed”.

“And then, later on, the second thing is feeling that you did everything you could to stay on track, that as much as possible you played a fair game with yourself, you did everything on time as much as humanly possible. There might be people who are better candidates than you are. And there is nothing you can do about that. But, at least, I wanted to feel that I did everything that I could do in order be taken into consideration. Feeling that you are doing everything that you can, makes you feel quite relaxed. And then, “man proposes; the gods dispose”. I thought, if the academic market is not going to provide me a chance I will not be upset, I did what I could, I tried my best. I’ll look for a different type of job, fine, but I tried my best. That helped me get through the other difficult bits.”

When a job opportunity does arise, it’s likely to be in another city, or even another country. Moving around for work can be difficult, but it can also be rewarding if it’s something the individual enjoys. Ambrogio decided from an early stage that he wanted to work internationally, and that English was the vehicle through which he wanted to work. And while he personally enjoys change, he stressed that it’s not always as much of a change as you might expect.

“There is one thing to consider, that moving within the academic world means you will find familiar landscapes and, sometimes, even familiar faces. It’s a similar type of environment wherever you go around the world. It’s international, it’s diverse, and it’s focused on discipline and intellectual excellence. You end up within an environment that is always recognisable and that makes things easier. And it’s good to change every now and then, no? Cambridge, as beautiful as it is, can also be sometimes a bit too small. So here I am, moving to the other Cambridge”

So what was Ambrogio’s advice for getting through that all-important PhD? He recommended being aware and, possibly, having direct experience of non-academic worlds; and a good supervisor. PhD work can be both isolating and mentally draining. A good, trustworthy supervisor can make all the difference, even for people who are passionate and committed to their work.

“Having a good supervisor in all this is crucial. You need a good supervisor who is good at reading and correcting what you’re doing, but also a supervisor that is realistic about what you can achieve and knowledgeable about what you have to achieve. My supervisor, Zyg Barański, was great for many reasons, including the fact that he really helped me to have a very clear idea of what the priorities were from the start. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. You really need to have someone who tells you when it’s time to stop doing something that you are doing and that it is not helping you, like spending an excessive amount of time on a chapter of the thesis. A PhD is great because it comes with freedom and you have to experience that freedom and make use of it, but there also comes a time when you have to wrap it up. And being able to do that, to finish this piece of writing called “PhD dissertation” is a thing that requires a lot of mental energy and lucidity. After three years of reading and writing and thinking your own thoughts, lucidity is rare goods! It is then that, again, you need someone else that you trust, that you feel likes the work you’re doing, who comes in the room and says ‘now it’s time to stop and wrap it up’. If you don’t trust the person it becomes much more difficult to get onto the next stage.”

“I went outside the academic world for around one year; it was after my BA, and I was working in communication for a financial institution. That meant that I had my time away from books. So when I went back into academia for my Masters and then PhD, I was really thirsty to go back. There are people who because they have never stopped, because they went straight from undergraduate into postgraduate studies, maybe without even a year abroad, soon after starting their PhD they start feeling like they need a pause, they need to do something different. So, another suggestion is this one: if you can, before committing yourself to postgraduate studies, take some time off academia. Cambridge and most academic institutions is a great place, flexible and open to the world out there. They won’t mind if you have tainted yourself with a healthy dose of realism”

It also helps, of course, to enjoy the work you do, to feel it has value, and to find a way of working that suits you. Next week’s blog will take a look at some of these things as we talk to a Professor of Human Geography and Pembroke Fellow, Mike Hulme.

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