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Academic Job Placement in Post-Communist Studies: Politics and Meritocracy

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Abstract

This chapter analyses factors that determine the academic placement of PhD graduates of US, British, and Canadian universities from East Central Europe and post-Soviet countries with specialisation in post-communist studies. The analysis shows that merit-related factors, such as the number of published refereed articles, increase significantly the odds of placement in permanent faculty position in Western universities. However, male Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian doctoral graduates are significantly less likely than those from the other countries studied to secure such faculty positions in Western universities. The findings are strongly suggestive of discrimination against, and the deliberate exclusion of, male job candidates from these countries, which can be interpreted as part of the wider manufacture of consent in the Western countries supporting the proxy war in Ukraine. The strongest indicator of this is the extant lack of male Ukrainian political scientists in tenured positions in Western universities, that is, during the Russia-Ukraine war when detailed knowledge about Ukraine presumably is at a premium. Such discrimination is also inconsistent with declarations regarding the importance of 'Ukrainian voices' and the 'decolonization' of post-communist studies in the West. The study raises questions about bias and the politization of the study of East Central Europe and post-Soviet countries in Western academia.
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Academic Job Placement in Post-Communist Studies: Politics and
Meritocracy
1
Forthcoming in The Political Economy of Dissent: A Research Companion. Peter Blunt, Cecilia
Escobar, and Vlassis Missos (Eds.). Routledge: London
Ivan Katchanovski
2
School of Political Studies
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON, K2P 1J6, Canada
ikatchan@uottawa.ca
Abstract
This chapter analyses factors that determine the academic placement of PhD graduates of US,
British, and Canadian universities from East Central Europe and post-Soviet countries with
specialisation in post-communist studies. The analysis shows that merit-related factors, such as
the number of published refereed articles, increase significantly the odds of placement in
permanent faculty position in Western universities. However, male Belarusian, Russian, and
Ukrainian doctoral graduates are significantly less likely than those from the other countries
studied to secure such faculty positions in Western universities. The findings are strongly
suggestive of discrimination against, and the deliberate exclusion of, male job candidates from
these countries, which can be interpreted as part of the wider manufacture of consent in the
Western countries supporting the proxy war in Ukraine. The strongest indicator of this is the
extant lack of male Ukrainian political scientists in tenured positions in Western universities, that
is, during the Russia-Ukraine war when detailed knowledge about Ukraine presumably is at a
premium. Such discrimination is also inconsistent with declarations regarding the importance of
‘Ukrainian voices’ and the ‘decolonization’ of post-communist studies in the West. The study
raises questions about bias and the politization of the study of East Central Europe and post-
Soviet countries in Western academia.
[Keywords: consent; discrimination; academic job placement; PhD graduates; academia; US;
UK; Canada; Ukraine; Russia; Eastern Central Europe]
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Introduction
The collapse of communism in East Central Europe and the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s
and the beginning of the 1990s allowed many citizens of the countries that would emerge from
the dissolution of these blocs to study in Western universities. Before then, internal political
restrictions instituted by communist governments had severely restricted not only foreign
education but also international travel and migration. Following the collapse of the communist
blocs and the lifting of the ‘Iron Curtain’, these restrictions were removed and large numbers of
students from the constituent countries took the opportunity to seek education abroad, many of
them in Western university doctoral programmes.
A large proportion of those who graduated with Western doctorates specialised in the study of
their own countries or regions of origin. This, together with their tacit knowledge of their home
countries and their fluency in the vernaculars, put them in a position to make a significant
contribution to research and teaching, and to enhance diversity, in the field of post-communist
studies at Western universities. In these respects, they have a considerable advantage over most
of their Western colleagues. Such advantage would be more pronounced following the invasion
of Ukraine by Russia and the drawn-out proxy war that has ensued.
This chapter analyses academic placement of PhD graduates of US, British, and Canadian
universities who were born in countries of East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union,
who received their doctoral degrees in economics, education, political science, and sociology
from 1992 to 2008, and specialised in post-communist studies (henceforth, USBCgrads). The
(quantitative) analysis relies on primary empirical data drawn from the first large-scale study of
USBCgrads, which sought to establish what were the most statistically significant predictors of
their appointment to positions in post-communist studies at Western universities. The
independent variables included meritocracy factors such as academic publications and the quality
of the doctoral degree, ascriptive factors such as country of origin, and gender, discipline, and
the country of graduation.
The analysis of academic placements of USBCgrads is important also because initial placement
strongly affects research output, which is the main driver of academic promotion and reputation
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(Finkelstein, 1984). Moreover, tenure-track positions in the US and Canada and permanent
faculty positions in British and other Western universities, in contrast to other jobs, imply the
high likelihood of lifetime employment. Tenure provides professors with job security and some
opportunity for doing research that challenges government policies and narratives.
Previous Studies
There is a lack of studies which examine academic placements of doctoral recipients from post-
communist countries at Western universities. Previous studies have focused on the representation
of women and racial minorities in overall placement in faculty positions in the US, the UK, and
Canada. Since the year 2000, there is little evidence from these studies of discrimination against
PhD recipients from these groups in terms of their overall placement in academic positions and
in political science and sociology, in particular (Nerad, Rudd, Morrison, & Picciano, 2007;
Lopez, 2003; AUCC, 2007).
Admissions of women and racial and ethnic minorities to doctoral programs and their
appointments to faculty positions in the US, the UK, and Canada are backed by formal and
informal affirmative action policies in addition to legal prohibition of discrimination against
these groups. In recent decades, remedial policy for past discrimination has become policy for
diversity (Katchanovski et al., 2015; Katchanovski et al., 2011).
The literature establishes the importance of the quality of the PhD granting institution and the
reputation of the dissertation adviser in securing initial academic positions and in the quality of
the employer institution (Baldi, 1995; Hilmer & Hilmer, 2007). The number of pre-employment
first- or single-authored publications has a positive effect on the prestige of departments in which
recipients of US doctorates in sociology are initially placed (Baldi, 1995).
Previous studies demonstrate that post-Soviet states and adversaries and non-allies of the US
receive much more negative media coverage in the US than the countries of East Central Europe
and US allies (Katchanovski & Morely, 2012). A similar pattern is evident in representations of
these countries, and people from these countries, in Hollywood films (Katchanovski, 2007).
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Surveys conducted before the Russia-Ukraine war revealed negative attitudes towards these
countries and people from these countries, in particular men (Parrillo & Donoghue, 2005).
These findings are clearly inconsistent with the much-professed support for Ukraine and
Ukrainians during the Russia-Ukraine war in the West. However, they are entirely consistent
with the exploitation or use of Ukraine by the US and its allies in the proxy war to weaken
Russia. This implies that the US et al. regard Ukrainians as tools and demonstrates an unconcern
on the part of the US and its allies for the killing and wounding of several hundred thousand
(mainly male) Ukrainians and for the other devastating consequences for Ukraine of the
prolonged war. Even though Ukraine cannot win, the US and other Western governments have
shown no interest in finding a peaceful solution. On the contrary, they blocked a peace deal that
was close to being finalized in the spring of 2022 (Katchanovski, in press).
It therefore comes as no surprise that dissenting Ukrainian voices in the West during the
Russia-Ukraine war have been and continue to be suppressed (Ishchenko, 2022). Ukrainians,
who opposed both the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine and the proxy war in Ukraine, are
excluded or marginalised not only by government institutions and the mainstream media, but
also to significant extent by academia in the West. On the other hand, Ukrainian voices who
echo the West’s narrative are used to reinforce it. This includes NGOs, the media, and academics
from Ukraine who are dependent on grants from Western governments and foundations. Even
leading members of neo-Nazi-led Azov units are welcomed by the US Congress and by some top
Western universities, such as Stanford and Oxford, and glorified by the US and British media.
The above is a clear representation of the manufacture of consent in action (Herman &
Chomsky, 1988).
Data and Methodology
Major dissertation databases and lists of doctoral dissertations and Google searches of the World
Wide Web were used to gather names and academic placements of USBCgrads.
3
To reiterate,
fields of study were economics (including labour and industrial relations), education, political
science (including international relations, public policy, urban and regional policy, and public
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administration), and sociology. These disciplines were selected because they were likely to
contain large numbers of USBCgrads.
The selection of dissertations dealing with post-communist countries enabled the field of study to
be kept constant. The sciences, mathematics, engineering, and other similar disciplines in which
comparative or international study of other countries is not a separate field were excluded for this
reason. Graduates of doctoral programs in business, law, medicine, and communications were
not included in the sample because in these fields non-academic careers, which offer much better
compensation, are often preferable to academic careers.
As USBC universities are leading centres of post-communist studies, English is the main
language of instruction, and their academic job markets are open to foreigners, this chapter
focuses on PhD degrees awarded in these countries. To make the data more comparable, French-
language dissertations in Canada were excluded.
PhD graduates who were born in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia were selected because much greater numbers of
doctorate recipients from USBC universities are likely to come from these countries than from
other post-communist states due to the size of their populations and institutions of higher
education.
4
Recipients of USBC PhDs from countries of the former Yugoslavia were not
included because it was more difficult to identify specific countries of origin.
5
For the same
reason, the time frame of PhD recipients was limited to 1992-2008.
PhD dissertations, which were defended in the US, the UK, and Canada and which dealt with
post-communist countries, were identified through title, abstract, and keyword searches of the
following dissertation databases: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, WordCat Dissertations,
Theses Canada Portal, and the UK’s Index to Theses. Comprehensive lists of USBC doctoral
dissertations in post-communist studies, economics, and political science, and title and keyword
searches of the major library catalogues were used to identify PhD dissertations that were
missing from these electronic databases. Dissertations that examined international organizations
or a large number of countries were included if post-communist states represented a significant
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part of the analysis. PhD theses that referred to post-communist countries, but focused on other
regions, were excluded.
Dissertation authors with Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian,
Romanian, and Slovak sounding first and last names written in modern and non-Anglicised
transcription were selected, and their country of birth then determined by autobiographical
information that was provided in the CV and acknowledgment sections of their theses or was
publicly available on the Internet. Over 500 PhD recipients satisfied all of these criteria. Google
searches were used to identify by name PhD graduates who obtained permanent, that is, tenure-
track, tenured, or equivalent full-time faculty positions in the USBC and other institutions of
higher education in Western countries or English language schools in other countries that are
accredited by recognised Western accrediting agencies. Only permanent faculty jobs in the fields
of doctoral study or related social sciences disciplines and education at the assistant professor
level or equivalent ranks, such as lecturer in the UK, were considered. Information about faculty
in these types of jobs generally was found on departmental and faculty websites and university
catalogues of the employing higher education institutions or in the alumni/graduates’ sections of
websites of PhD programs.
Quality of hiring higher education institution was determined by national rankings of universities
divided into two tiers. For example, US universities and colleges were split into two tiers
according to the US News university ranking. The top tier combines national universities and
liberal arts colleges. The bottom tier includes masters universities, baccalaureate universities
and colleges, community colleges, and unranked schools. The Sunday Times University Guide
was used to split British universities into two tiers. All Canadian universities in the medical
doctoral category and top comprehensive universities according to the Macleans ranking were
defined as top tier schools. Lower-ranked universities in the comprehensive category, all
primarily undergraduate universities, and unranked schools were combined into the bottom tier.
Independent variables included the following ascriptive and meritocratic factors that can affect
the academic placement and quality of the hiring institution: country of origin, gender, country of
PhD, PhD discipline, tier of PhD granting institution, number of refereed articles published as of
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graduation year, the number of dissertation advisor citations as of the graduation year, type of
study, regional focus of dissertation, and the scope of the thesis. The PhD tier was derived from
the Academic Ranking of World Universities in the social sciences. This variable consists of the
following three tiers (that were reversed for purposes of regression analysis, making higher value
higher tier): unranked universities, universities ranked from 51 to 100, and the top 50 universities
in the world. Searches of major article databases in the social sciences produced data on the
number of published refereed articles. The number of citations of the dissertation advisor as of
graduation year of a PhD recipient was obtained from all cited references in the Social Sciences
Citation Index in ISI Web of Knowledge.
6
Regression analysis was used to examine the
correlations between the independent variables and the ‘placement’ dependent variable.
Profile of PhD Recipients
Russia was the country of origin of the biggest group (31%) of USBCgrads. Surprisingly, the
next two countries of origin were Bulgaria (16%) and Romania (14%) since they have much
smaller populations compared to Poland, which accounted for 13% of PhD graduates. Ukraine,
the second most populous post-communist state, trailed all of these countries with 9% of PhDs,
and was not far ahead of Hungary (7%). Lower rungs were occupied by the Czech Republic
(4%), Belarus (2%), and Slovakia (2%). Ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians from other
post-Soviet states, primarily Kazakhstan, accounted for 2% of the total number of USBCgrads.
The number of both female and male USBCgrads (154 and 128, respectively) from East Central
Europe were significantly higher than the number of their female and male counterparts from
post-Soviet states (109 and 108, respectively). The numbers of female graduates from East
Central Europe and post-Soviet countries rose, respectively, more than 2 and 2.5 times in 2002-
2008 compared with 1992-2001. The number of male PhDs from East Central European
countries also increased considerably (almost 1.5 times) during this time period. In contrast, the
number of male PhDs from the former Soviet Union remained about the same. Men from post-
Soviet states turned from being the leading group of doctorate recipients in 1992-2001 to being
the least numerous by a wide margin in 2002-2008 (see Table X.1).
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The majority of PhDs. in all four gender and country of origin groups (63-69%) were awarded by
US universities. Canadian universities, which granted between 5% and 7% of PhD degrees,
trailed behind not only the US, but also the UK (25-32%). Political science broadly defined was
the most popular field (42-48%), while education was the least popular in all four groups of PhD
recipients (3-12%). Economics was the second most popular field of study, but the proportion of
male PhDs from East Central Europe who graduated in this discipline (37%) was higher
compared to the three other groups (25-27%). Such a distribution of fields of study can explain
why men from East Central European countries performed somewhat better in terms of the
number of refereed articles and the number of their advisor citations, while differences among
men and women from post-Soviet states and women from East Central Europe were relatively
minor. The publication of articles and citations of articles, as compared to books, was more
important in economics than in other social sciences and education. Moreover, 52% of men from
East Central European countries, compared to 65% of women from this region, 62% of women
from post-Soviet states, and 61% of their male counterparts from the former Soviet Union, had
not published a single refereed article by the year of their graduation (see Table X.1).
East Central Europe
Post-Soviet
Female
Male
Female
Country of PhD
Canada
5
7
6
UK
32
27
29
US
63
66
64
Total (%)
100
100
100
Year of PhD
1992-2001
31
41
28
2002-2007
57
52
63
2008
12
8
9
Total (%)
100
100
100
Field of PhD
Economics
25
37
27
Education
11
3
12
Political science
48
45
42
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Sociology
16
15
19
Total (%)
100
100
100
Tier of PhD
Top
48
51
45
Middle
16
16
18
Bottom
36
33
37
Total (%)
100
100
100
Refereed articles
0
65
52
62
1
21
28
20
2 and more
14
20
17
Total (%)
100
100
100
Advisor citations
<100
43
33
40
100-1000
44
53
46
1,001-10,000
13
14
13
Total (%)
100
100
100
Region of study
East Central Europe
79
77
5
Post-Soviet
4
5
83
East Central Europe & Post-Soviet
16
17
13
Ex-Yugoslavia & international
organisations
2
1
0
Total (%)
100
100
100
Type of study
Single country
45
50
64
Comparative
55
50
36
Total (%)
100
100
100
Scope of study
Post-communist countries
63
57
68
Involving other regions
37
43
32
Total (%)
100
100
100
Number
154
128
109
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Table X.1. Characteristics of PhD recipients by region of origin and gender
The overwhelming majority of both male and female USBCgrads devoted their doctoral theses
either exclusively (77-83%) or partially (12-17%) to their native regions. With the exception of
female doctoral graduates from East Central Europe (45%), the majority of dissertations, ranging
from 50% for men from East Central European countries to 64% of women from post-Soviet
states, focused on a single country. The greatest proportion of dissertations, particularly written
by men and women from the post-Soviet countries (71% and 68%, respectively), dealt only with
the post-communist states and did not involve other regions (see Table X.1).
An estimate derived from searches of the ProQuest Dissertations database showed a very
different pattern of regional specialisation of doctoral dissertations in the US and Canada
compared to the regional specialisation found in this study. About three quarters of all English-
language PhD dissertations defended from 1992 to 2008 in economics, education, political
science, and sociology dealt with Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, while about a quarter dealt with
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. In comparison, 43% of all
dissertations by graduates in this study in the US and Canada focused on Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, 38% dealt with the post-Soviet states, and 17%
involved both of these regions. Only 1% of doctoral theses dealt with countries of the former
Yugoslavia and international organisations that included a significant number of post-communist
countries.
Academic Job Placement
The analysis shows that USBCgrads differ significantly in terms of their overall success in
finding permanent faculty positions in Western universities. Most USBCgrads found permanent
faculty positions in countries in which they received their doctoral degrees. In the overwhelming
majority of cases, PhDs from post-communist countries were employed by higher education
institutions in the US, followed by the UK and Canada.
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There are significant gender and country differences in placement rates among USBCgrads. 25%
of men from post-Soviet countries and almost half (45%) of women from these countries
obtained tenure-track and other permanent faculty positions in Western universities. In
comparison, academic placement rates of male graduates and female graduates from East Central
European countries are respectively 42% and 47% (see Table X.2).
East Central Europe
Post-Soviet countries
Number
Female (%)
Male (%)
Female (%)
Male (%)
All PhD recipients
47
42
45
25
546
By country of PhD
Canada
43
22
50
57
31
UK
36
33
26
7
165
US
53
48
54
28
350
By field of PhD
Economics
56
41
42
29
154
Education
32
80
36
10
48
Political science
49
45
44
24
250
Sociology
36
25
57
28
92
By tier of PhD
Top
44
48
50
21
258
Middle
52
46
43
9
93
Bottom
48
31
40
40
195
By refereed articles
0
43
34
35
21
337
1
53
45
52
26
124
2 and more
59
59
75
38
85
By advisor citations
<100
55
43
40
26
174
100-1,000
51
43
58
25
222
1,001-10,000
39
59
58
29
61
Type of study
Single country
40
34
40
23
293
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Cross-national
53
51
56
33
253
Scope of study
Post-communist countries
45
32
43
21
353
Includes the West and other
53
49
50
28
195
Region of study
East Central Europe
44
38
67
17
258
East Central Europe & Post-
Soviet countries
50
54
57
21
76
Post-Soviet countries
83
43
42
25
205
Table X.2. PhD recipients in permanent faculty positions in Western universities by region of
origin and gender
The same pattern is evident between countries. For example, 19% of men compared to 57% of
women from Ukraine, and 8% of men compared to 54% of women from Belarus and other ex-
USSR countries obtained permanent faculty positions in Western universities. The placement
rates for men and women from Russia were, respectively, 29% and 41%. In contrast to Russia,
Ukraine, and other post-Soviet countries, the gender differences among PhD graduates of
Bulgarian, Czech and Slovak, Hungarian, and Polish origin are nonsignificant or smaller, except
for Romanians (see Table X.3).
Bulgaria
Czech
Republic
&
Slovakia
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Russia
Ukraine
Belarus
& other
ex-
USSR
F
M
F
M
F
M
F
M
F
M
F
M
F
M
F
M
Permanent
faculty
47
42
27
35
50
47
30
41
62
45
41
29
57
19
54
8
Other
53
58
73
65
50
53
70
59
48
55
59
71
44
81
46
92
Total (%)
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Number
51
36
15
20
20
19
37
32
53
29
84
76
23
26
13
12
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Table X.3. PhD recipients in permanent faculty positions in Western universities by country of
origin and gender (F = female; M = male)
PhD graduates of US universities were more likely to get permanent faculty jobs in Western
universities than recipients of British doctorates. However, men from post-Soviet countries with
US degrees still had a much lower placement rate (28%) than their female counterparts (54%)
and men (48%) and women (53%) from East Central Europe (see Table X.2). British data show a
similar pattern. Only 7% of men from post-Soviet countries with British doctorates compared
to 26% of their female counterparts, 33% of men and 36% of women from East Central Europe
secured permanent faculty positions. Canada was the only country whose male PhDs from post-
Soviet states had a slightly higher placement rate (57%) compared to women from the former
Soviet Union (50%), and women and men from East Central Europe (43% and 22%,
respectively). However, the numbers of PhD recipients in each of the four categories in Canada
was very small.
The placement rate of male USBCgrads from post-Soviet states was much lower, compared to
three other groups, in broad fields of economics, education, and political science, and higher for
female recipients in the case of sociology. For instance, in political science it was about twice as
low (24%) compared to male graduates from East Central Europe (45%), female graduates from
the former Soviet Union (44%), and women from East Central Europe (49%) (see Table X.2).
In political science, 22% of male PhD recipients from Ukraine, compared to 62% of their female
counterparts, and 55% Romanian, 47% Polish, and 27% Russian men, obtained permanent
faculty positions. There were only two Ukrainian men, who were born in Ukraine, and who were
USBCgrads, among permanent faculty in Western universities. Two out of four of these male
Ukrainian professors no longer hold their tenure-track or tenured jobs. And only one of them
wrote a dissertation on Ukraine.
The Russia-Ukraine war, which was also a proxy war between Russia and the US-led West and
the biggest war since WWII, has not changed this striking pattern. Neither has talk about
Ukrainian voices and the decolonisation of post-communist studies in the West. It appears
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that, since 2009, no other male USBCgrads in political science, who wrote dissertations on
Ukraine, got tenure-track or other permanent jobs in Western universities. The lack of tenure
means less protection for Ukrainian academics to express views that are contrary to Western
narratives about the war, and less funding and resources to conduct research regarding the war
and other conflicts and political issues in Ukraine.
Post-Soviet country male graduates of the two top tiers of PhD programs were much less likely
to get permanent faculty positions than all other categories of graduates. The analysis by refereed
articles and advisor citations produced a similar pattern of under-placement for men from this
region. The same applied to differences by type, scope, and regional focus of dissertation (see
Table X.2).
Male PhD recipients from the post-Soviet countries were much less likely than their female
counterparts from the same region, and male and female counterparts from East Central Europe
to obtain their first permanent faculty jobs in top tier Western institutions of higher education.
Surprisingly, the Soviet-born male graduates of lowest ranked universities (40%) were much
more likely than their counterparts from top schools (21%) and middle-ranked universities (9%)
to get such jobs. Most men from Ukraine, Russia, and other post-Soviet countries who graduated
from USBC universities and secured permanent faculty positions in Western universities had
inferior jobs on other dimensions. They were either employed in universities located in areas that
are remote from major cities, in departments that differed from the fields of their doctoral study
and were less competitive, or in US colleges that had no tenure system.
Also, 38% of male graduates of PhD programs in economics, education, political science, and
sociology who came from post-Soviet countries, received their degrees from USBC universities,
specialised in post-communist countries, and published 2 or more articles in peer-reviewed
journals by the year of their graduation secured permanent faculty positions in Western
universities. This is compared to 75% of their female counterparts, and 59% of women and 59%
of men from East Central Europe. Similar disparities were observed in the categories of
publication record, adviser citations, and scope, region, and type of dissertations (see Table X.2).
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However, in general, the number of published articles, the number of adviser citations, and cross-
national dissertations (or those that included the West and other regions) were positively
associated with getting permanent faculty jobs in the West for all four categories of PhD
graduates (see Table X.2).
Multivariate Analysis of Odds of Faculty Job Placement
Logistic regression analysis allows us to determine the effects of a specific factor when all the
other factors are held constant on the academic placement of USBCgrads in Western
universities. US PhD, Economics, and Male from East Central Europe, Single-country
dissertation, and Dissertation on East Central Europe are omitted dummy variables, which are
used to determine the effects of the included dummy variables in the regression. The regression
analysis shows that men from the post-Soviet countries had three times lower odds of finding
permanent faculty positions in Western institutions of higher education compared to men from
East Central European countries when academic discipline, number of refereed articles, tier,
country of PhD, and advisor citations, are held constant. These differences are statistically
significant at the .01 level. The odds of placement for female doctoral graduates from both the
former Soviet Union and East Central Europe were not statistically different from their male
counterparts from East Central Europe (see Table X.4).
Odds ratio
Canada PhD
.833
UK PhD
.581*
Education
.567
Sociology
.768
Political science
.877
Male from post-Soviet countries
.333***
Female from East Central Europe
1.537
Female from post-Soviet countries
1.143
Comparative dissertation
1.573*
Dissertation on post-Soviet countries
1.497
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Dissertation on East Central Europe and post-Soviet countries
1.147
Dissertation related to Western countries
1.242
Refereed articles
1.196**
Tier of PhD program
.827
Advisor citations
1.000
Constant
.875
Nagelkerke R square
.124
N (number of observations)
457
*** Statistically significant at the .01 level.
** Statistically significant at the .05 level.
* Statistically significant at the .10 level.
Table X. 4. Determinants of odds of placement in permanent faculty positions in Western
universities, logistic regression
The number of published refereed articles is another statistically significant determinant of the
outcome of searches for permanent faculty jobs. An increase in one such publication by the
graduation year increased the placement odds 1.2 times. Similarly, compared to a single-country
dissertation, a comparative or cross-national dissertation boosted the odds of placement in
permanent faculty positions by about 1.6 times. These two factors are statistically significant at
.05 and .10 levels, respectively. All other factors, such as the tier of the PhD program,
dissertation advisor citations, and scope, and regional focus of dissertation, had no statistically
significant effect on placement prospects (see Table X.4).
Inclusion of an EU membership variable does not change the main results. Although citizenship
status was not included in the regression analysis because such data are not publicly available,
this variable cannot account for such a large gap in both the placement odds and the quality of
hiring university of men from the post-Soviet states in permanent faculty positions. As noted,
such status does not have large effect on placement of recipients of US PhDs in economics In
.addition, the citizenship factor cannot explain the fact that male doctoral recipients from the
post-Soviet countries were more likely to end up in lower quality institutions of higher
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education, since top tier research universities typically are much more inclined than teaching-
oriented lower quality schools to hire faculty who are non-citizens.
Conclusion
Comparative and multivariate statistical analysis shows that measures of individual academic
achievement, such as the number of published articles in refereed journals, increases
considerably the likelihood of USBCgrads securing permanent faculty positions in Western
universities. It also shows that male PhD graduates who came from the former Soviet Union
were significantly less likely to obtain permanent faculty positions compared to their female
counterparts from the post-Soviet states, as well as their male and female counterparts from
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
The findings suggest that there is discrimination against men from post-Soviet states in
employment in permanent faculty positions in the Western academy and top-tier Western
universities. Such discrimination is illegal. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the workings of the
manufacture of consent in Western ‘destination’ countries, this is the first published report on
such matters.
Deliberate exclusion and discrimination are the most plausible explanations for the pattern of
under-representation of male PhD graduates of US and British universities from the post-Soviet
states in permanent faculty positions and top tier Western institutions of higher education. The
absence of similarly significant under-placement of men from post-Soviet states with Canadian
PhDs can be explained by their very low number. In contrast to their male and female
counterparts from East Central Europe, all male recipients of Canadian PhDs from post-Soviet
countries ended up teaching in lower tier universities and/or universities that are located away
from major cities.
Self-selection is a less plausible explanation for the pattern of significant under-representation of
men from post-Soviet countries in PhD programs, permanent faculty placement, and positions at
top Western universities. The Google searches indicate that a very large proportion of the
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doctoral graduates in the social sciences and education who came from the former Soviet Union
and whose placement outcomes are examined in this study ended up either with non-permanent
research or teaching jobs in Western countries or in academic positions in post-Soviet states. It
would be irrational for Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian men who obtained their PhDs in the
US and the UK to prefer non-permanent academic jobs in the West or academic careers in their
native countries to permanent faculty positions in Western universities not least because the
latter generally offer better pay, prestige, and opportunities for professional advancement. It
would be similarly irrational for men from post-Soviet countries to prefer faculty jobs in lower
tier Western institutions of higher education, which are typically lower paying, and more
teaching intensive compared to upper-tier schools.
The low placement rate of male PhD recipients from post-Soviet countries in permanent faculty
jobs raises questions about potential biases and lack of diversity in post-communist studies after
the end of the Cold War. Unlike their counterparts from post-communist countries of East
Central Europe, a significant proportion of male PhD graduates of US and British universities
from the post-Soviet states has not been able to secure permanent positions in the Western
academy and contribute to research on their countries. Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukrainian
male political scientists had found it particularly difficult to obtain tenured and other permanent
faculty positions in Western universities. This proxy war between the West and Russia has not
changed this pattern despite the crucial importance of in-depth knowledge about this conflict,
and the claims made about supporting Ukraine and Ukrainians, Ukrainian voices, and the
decolonisation of post-communist studies in the West. These findings are consistent with the
manufacture of consent in the West.
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Nerad, M., Rudd, E., Morrison, E., & Picciano, J. (2007). Social Science PhDs-Five+ Years Out.
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1
An earlier version of this study received favorable reviews from peer-reviewers but was not published by two
leading journals in post-communist studies.
2
Ivan Katchanovski teaches at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa in Canada. He was
Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, Visiting Assistant
Professor at the Department of Politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the
Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and Kluge Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Kluge Center at
the Library of Congress. He received his Ph.D. from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason
University. His academic publications include 5 books, 2 forthcoming books, 21 articles in peer-reviewed journals,
and 13 book chapters.
3
Recipients of Ed.D.s, D.P.A.s and other similar degrees are excluded because these degrees are more applied
compared to PhDs.
4
Ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians from other post-Soviet countries are included in the analysis. Their
number is small, and it does not affect the main results of the analysis.
5
PhD recipients of Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Romanian, Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian
ancestry who were born in the West are excluded because they are all likely to be citizens of Western countries.
Jewish and German graduates are excluded from the analysis for similar reasons.
6
Names of dissertation advisors are not publicly available in all cases.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
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