How to Avoid a PhD (Penalty for Hardworking Dummies): Wishing I Were an Autodidact

About the Book

This book is the result of decades-long academic research and 25 years of emergence in the myth of the American dream. In reality, a small minority of ultra-rich corporations have complete control over the government and mercilessly exploit the majority of Americans. The author debunks the illusion of meritocracy, heavily promoted by ubiquitous propaganda. Through the mainstream media, PR, and academia, the legend is sold to the American people and the world as an equal opportunity for all. Packaged in glamorous fabricated stories, the myth is glorified by Hollywood and legitimized by multiple mainstream news channels that are owned by five companies, which control the narrative. At the same time, higher education is designed to enslave graduates with enormous debts in order to keep them obedient. In the complete absence of adequate opposition, these institutions create and maintain a plutocracy while purporting to represent freedom and democracy.

About the Author

Tamara Ionkova Hammond holds a Ph.D. in World Languages and Cultures from the University of Utah. She taught Introduction to the Study of Literature and Culture, and Modern and Ancient World History. Hammond’s research is focused on the independent digital media in the context of class, race, gender, and ethnicity among other factors, with a particular interest in the growing censorship on the Internet evident in the purge of dissidents from the mainstream media. Hammond’s Master’s is in Russian translation from Columbia University, and her Bachelor’s is in history from Utah Valley University. Hammond contributed to the anthology Academic Purgatory: Voices of Contingent Faculty, University of Texas (2022) and co-authored a book, The Female Precariat Universitas Press, Montreal, Canada, (2019). Hammond has published in The Projector, a Journal of Film, Media, and Culture (2019), Columbia University’s Academic Commons, New York University’s Anamesa, and Utah Valley University’s Crescat Scientia.