Saturday, November 12, 2005
Very Scary
Tonight I did not get prematurely booted off the internet. So I had some time to peruse the blogosphere. I looked at a large number of academic blogs to see what was happening in various US universities. I felt like I was reading accounts from China's Cultural Revolution. Even more scary was reading the blogs of many US academics. I had not previously realized that Madame Mao and the Gang of Four were sane moderates by the standards of the US professoriat. Fortunately, I do not think any of the radical feminists, deconstructionists, diversity advocates and other ideologues I read are based anywhere I have an application pending. But, since many of them do not reveal their work place it is hard to know. Returning from a conference in the UK, a country where for instance American style radical feminism does not exist, makes the shock even greater. It seems that all the nutters that would be confined to Speakers Corner in London have tenure at state universities in the US.
No, I can assure you that I was not referring to you. I am not sure why you would think so. I was referring to tenured professors whose blogs I happened across last night. I have had you on my blogroll for a while. I haven't seen anything by you that I would catagorize as extreme. At anyrate I can assure you the above post is not aimed at anybody on my blogroll, anybody who has commented on this blog or any blog I have commented on.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen any positions for University of Michigan this year or last. The big powerhouse in the US regarding Central Asia is University of Wisconsin. I did apply to a position there last year.
I have written about this before, but I have some serious handicaps in the job market. First, I have no teaching experience what so ever, not even a TAship. This pretty much bars me from most positions. Second, I have a British Ph.D. I am not sure why this is considered a negative, but it is. Third, I have alot more publications than most people on the search committees. This shouldn't be a negative, but it is. Finally, my research interests, political views and being a white male don't help me. I am not a typical job applicant and I have not well with typical search committees.
It was 75% "prole" at Georgetown, which was frightening considering how many of the professors there work(ed) at the White House.
ReplyDeleteOtto, what does SOAS stand for? I'm not familiar with many overseas universities.
TPB from Those Dark Trees
SOAS stands for the School of Oriental and African Studies. It is part of the University of London system.
ReplyDelete