Temporal Dynamics of Faculty Hiring in Mathematics

Abstract

University faculty hiring networks are known to be hierarchical, and to exacerbate various types of inequity. Still, a detailed, historical understanding of hiring dynamics lacks in many academic fields. We focus on the field of mathematics, analyzing over 120,000 records from 150 institutions over seven decades to elucidate the temporal dynamics of faculty hiring at the individual and departmental levels. We demonstrate that the disparity between the number of mathematics Ph.D.s awarded and the number of faculty positions filled has grown over time. Even institutions with the best records of faculty placement have experienced a temporal decline in the probability of their graduates obtaining a faculty position. By quantifying the mathematical prestige of each department with a network statistic, authority centrality, we find a power law relation between the prestige of one’s Ph.D. institution and the probability of obtaining a faculty position. Moreover, both time and female gender are associated with a decreased probability of obtaining a faculty position. On the departmental level, there is a group of 14 elite departments that dominate the authority centrality of the entire network consistently between 1950 and 2019. Strikingly, one department within this elite group increases its centrality scores consistently at the expense of others, which hints at the possibility for a department to improve its prestige. Our results highlight the challenges of transitioning from Ph.D. holder to faculty member in mathematics, and we hope our analysis will support efforts to understand and improve faculty hiring in mathematics.