eek

[pylduck]

From a job application announcement:

Successful applicants will teach the equivalent of seven courses a year (21 hours), provide service to the college and department, profess commitment to teaching a culturally diverse student population in an urban environment, and have a personal program of research and publication.

They're totally kidding, right? SEVEN courses a year PLUS research and publication?

Comments

"personal program"

[pylduck.livejournal.com]

Looking at the announcement again after reading your comment has made the phrase "personal program" jump out. Sounds unlikely they're really going to provide much research support... Like "personal initiative" or something....

Re: "personal program"

[(Anonymous)]

Could be, though my guess is that they just wrote the ad on short notice.

Honestly. Having been on these hiring committees, a lot of stupid language that "feels" like boilerplate to the person writing it but comes off very differently to the audience receiving it gets put into such ads, especially when the person responsible for writing the ad has been "off the market" for a while and has no idea what a job-market in which your advisor simply calls up friends at other schools to "see what you've got available" is like.

I wouldn't read too much into the language. If you find yourself actually interested in the job despite the ad, go to the part of that college's website designed for the faculty and see if there's anything that shows what kinds of research support are available, especially if they're contractually mandated (as is the case with a lot of unionized schools, which this presumably would be, given your description of it as what sounds like a CUNY branch). Of course, you can also see if the English department faculty have CVs listed on the department's website and look what kinds of work the junior faculty have been doing. If there are a lot of assistant profs who haven't published shit but have gone to a lot of conferences, then you're looking at a pretty light definition of "personal research program" (i.e., a conference a year and whatever articles you can squeeze out during summer breaks, and boy, we'd love a book if you could see your way clear to writing it, but it's not absolutely necessary...)⁄

Re: "personal program"

[ivan-durak.livejournal.com]

Could be, though my guess is that they just wrote the ad on short notice.

Honestly. Having been on these hiring committees, a lot of stupid language that "feels" like boilerplate to the person writing it but comes off very differently to the audience rec eiving it gets put into such ads, especially when the person responsible for writing the ad has been "off the market" for a while and has no idea what a job-market in which your advisor simply calls up friends at other schools to "see what you've got avai lable" is like.

I wouldn't read too much into the language. If you find yourself actually interested in the job despite the ad, go to the part of that college's website designed for the faculty and see if there's anything that shows what kinds of resear ch support are available, especially if they're contractually mandated (as is the case with a lot of unionized schools, which this presumably would be, given your description of it as what sounds like a CUNY branch). Of course, you can also see if the Eng lish department faculty have CVs listed on the department's website and look what kinds of work the junior faculty have been doing. If there are a lot of assistant profs who haven't published shit but have gone to a lot of conferences, then you're looking at a pretty light definition of "personal research program" (i.e., a conference a year and whatever articles you can squeeze out during summer breaks, and boy, we'd love a book if you could see your way clear to writing it, but it's not absolutely necess ary...)⁄

Re: "personal program"

[ivan-durak.livejournal.com]

Sorry 'bout the double post. I forgot to log in and I'd never take anonymus advice about the job market myself. ;-)†

Re: "personal program"

[icecrmassasin.livejournal.com]

i can tell you from working as an adjunct and being friends with profs...there is no research support in CUNY...just office that help "manage" your grant money while they take 30%.

also very little departmental money for conference travel