There's an interesting New York Times column by David Brooks: Lonely Campus Voices. He discusses the difficulty of conservatives pursuing academic careers in the humanities or social sciences. There are a few conservatives there already, but it's really tough to become one.
I guess that I'm lucky I got my Ph.D. in the sciences. Even living in Ithaca is challenging enough. I tend to "fly below the radar" and let people assume that, of course, I'm a liberal just like them (which actually would mean I'd be illiberal, but that's a whole different story).