The Ph.D. Now Comes With Food Stamps
9th May 2012
“I am not a welfare queen,” says Melissa Bruninga-Matteau.
Although the hyphenated last name does look like spoor of a would-be member of the Crust.
That’s how she feels compelled to start a conversation about how she, a white woman with a Ph.D. in medieval history and an adjunct professor, came to rely on food stamps and Medicaid. Ms. Bruninga-Matteau, a 43-year-old single mother who teaches two humanities courses at Yavapai College, in Prescott, Ariz., says the stereotype of the people receiving such aid does not reflect reality. Recipients include growing numbers of people like her, the highly educated, whose advanced degrees have not insulated them from financial hardship.
Uh, I think the prominent arm tattoos might have something to do with it…. As well as the fact that the typical business requirement for medieval-history PhDs (outside of academia) is, last time I looked, too small to measure. If her degree were in statistics, she’d be sitting pretty. ODF.
“I find it horrifying that someone who stands in front of college classes and teaches is on welfare,” she says.
I find it horrifying that so fine a fellow as myself has to work for a living at all, but that’s life for you. Markets work, even when they horrify you.
May 9th, 2012 at 15:22
While I am fascinated with medieval history, I am not under the impression that I can make a living with it. You don’t generally hear these stories about people with business degrees. Just sayin’ …