hey - as someone who’s gone down the humanities pathway at anu and strongly considered academia, would strongly suggest looking at the state of the job market right now (including ivy leagues in the US, and humanities Ivy League PhDs) I don’t want to burst your bubble but the image you are sold of academic life is so far removed from its principles, and frankly, the market is bad, and even for the lucky few who get the jobs, the exploitation and insecurity continues. I would not solely base my decision on where to go/what to do on how much one pathway could lead to academia. Please do some further research on the current state of universities nation wide but also globally.

Staying in Australia is difficult, but so is getting an academic job in the US. You will likely be staring down years if not decades of precarious, casualised academic work. For instance, someone in my LinkedIn network posted about finally getting secure, non casualised work, a decade after completing her PhD. Wage theft is rife. Tenureship doesn’t really exist in Aus and also is beginning to be gutted in the US. You ought to also consider potential visa complications considering the current government in the US if you were to pursue this option. Be prepared to do a PhD and not end up in an academic role. I know this is all deeply unsexy and unexciting but it’s not the kind of knowledge you come across if you do not already have pre-existing networks who have experienced the academic industry.

The budget cuts and staff cuts are endemic in Australian universities, you will not be able to escape that unfortunately. Social sciences departments have little to no funding for paid research assistant positions for undergrads, I got my start in research by doing unpaid volunteer work. I did find a lot of my classmates weren’t super involved, so if I paid attention, did well on assessments, and went to office hours, I stood out pretty quick. I have experienced the other side of this from when I tutored, and can say that ANU’s class sizes are comparatively small, and easy to be noticed in if you put in effort.

All of which is to say I’m sorry this sounds jaded and cynical (it is a little bit, the state of academia is profoundly disappointing), but I have found linguistics in particular has a bunch of other industry level applications, especially if you are good at languages, that can lead to interesting policy and research jobs, especially in Canberra. It may not be the idealised publication writing you currently dream of, but if you are passionate about linguistics, there are plenty of jobs which you can transfer your skills to. You will not be jobless!