Conlangs in Academia
So far as I know, there's no good scholars of conlanging in academia. I am a top scholar of conlanging and that's part of why I'm not in academia. There are actually many topics that are not at all marketable in academia and mostly not for the noble-sounding reasons you'd expect. I have a 5 year old facebook group, Conlangs and Linguistics, Constructed Languages, Invented Languages, which is one of the largest of its kind. Send him over to my group and I could help him begin research on the topic. You could also ask me here but I don't reply to non-facebook posts very consistently.
I really don't know of anyone else with a BA Linguistics or better that has specialized in conlanging and writes anything, anywhere, insightful about it. I have combed the academic literature over the years and it's abyssmal.
The conlangers I know, and I only joined this group a month or two ago, though I've been on other websites and facebook groups, are amateurs or linguists that just don't spend a lot of time studying conlanging. And or lack the anthropology to have a necessary big picture view of conlanging.
Linguistics in Academia
I got my BA Linguistics from Michigan State University in 2009. I was originally going to be a petroleum engineer but though I'd get the BA Linguistics and become a lawyer. But I didn't end up becoming a lawyer.
It's notable that, in general, linguistics is not a good degree to get. Instead, doctor, lawyer, engineer, business, these are the sort of things to invest money in. Unless you're rich or have some special reason for taking the plunge. I think you can become a speech pathologist with the degree but they really seem like braces sellers to me, people who sell people things they do not need. I've heard of some like PhD Linguistics people going to work for the government.
Me, I don't recommend a Masters or PhD for anyone except lifelong celibates. I specialize in the history of education and even think high school and bachelor degrees are wastes of time, more stuff people don't need but are tricked into buying because they live in the First World and we all have 75 year life expectancies.
Any university that has a full faculty for linguistics will suffice but each has its own specializations along with broader specializations of the university in question. I just went to one (of two) universities in my state that offered a BA Linguistics.
I have heard that if you want a good job out of it, it's Harvard or bust, so to speak. Especially if he wants to be a professor or somewhat successful academic of linguistics. I have also heard that going to Harvard is miserable. And by Harvard, I mean such top universities that have all the connections.
From what I read, and get a bunch of books, the thing is that academia is not a good job unless you're rich. The degrees take too long and then there's no jobs and they pay almost nothing at all. Most people are just forever adjuncts and they seem to be the lucky ones.
Linguistics is a huge, huge field and there's a million things to study in it, though some are more marketable and some are totally not marketable. Me, I'm the first person to do comparative studies, with a BA Linguistics or better, on about all 50 known logographic (hieroglyphic) writing systems. Which I could have made marketable but have decided against time and again over the years. I have made really amazing discoveries and nobody ever made a better decision. But I also am very rare to specialize in ancient languages - the sort of world travel and amazing wisdom and insight that I've gained from my studies, most linguists know nothing of. If anything, I've had more of an anthropologist experience. And there's a huge huge difference and divide between linguists and anthropologists. ( I like to call linguistics as "language science" but am unique in this. I think "language science" is more semantically transparent. )
Academia doesn't even appeal to most rich people. From what I've read and know of rich people, life isn't a game to them either.
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That said, I don't know much about ecology. I know there's something like environmental engineering that some people were doing back in college. Does ecologist mean you're an academic? I think it does.
It sounds very science. Now, there's science, social science, and the humanities for topics of academic persuit. Science gets all the money and the rest get nothing. Science also has a lot of possibilities outside of academia, the others do not.
Linguistics is very different from the other social sciences, some of which I consider hogwash. It's made a lot of progress in the last 200 years, but not as much as it could, but still is just not popular. Only like the richest university in any state has a linguistics faculty. The rest have single linguists. A linguistics faculty has someone doing phonology, morphology, syntax, like that. The major branches. It is also very weird and different from anything else. Linguistics students are really shocked by what they hear in class. It's not at all taught in high schools, probably not even the most expensive ones. Linguists probably have very frustrating lives because nobody has any idea what they do and would be outraged and in disbelief to hear about it. It's just so cutting edge that no one has any idea that sort of discoveries they've made.
Notes on This Reply
I read the original post and some of the other replies then ran out of time.