June 2009

I have an interview for a third full-time position for which I applied this year. It appears that the other two interviews, while revealing in many ways, did not result in my being hired by the schools in question. I am disappointed, of course, since I did want both of those positions.

This interview is for a position just announced two weeks ago. Did the school grow enough to need another full-time position? Did someone who accepted a job decide not to take it? Did a full-timer step down unexpectedly? I do not know.

I do know the campus is small but beautiful. In their February job ad they said they wanted people who were not “traditionally community college.” I am unsure what that means, but it was an interesting point. I also know that the school has about the same level of students as CC1. I also know that I interviewed with them last year and never made it to the second interview.

I am hoping that this year, I stand out as a wonderful addition to the faculty since I have great presentations (I do) and my publications are picking up (they are).

I hope that it is true that third time (or in this case third interview set) is the charm.

Online teaching wages are discussed at Teach Online.

I was surprised by some of the numbers mentioned.

Off-Track Profs: Nontenured Teachers in Higher Education is in the mail to me. A review of it is at Inside Higher Ed.

Leaders of those institutions are frequently unaware of the role played by adjuncts or how they have come to make up a larger share of the teaching force. The causes for this shift — while related to money — go far beyond the savings from hiring off the tenure track, and the blame may need to be shared by senior professors and graduate student unions. At the most celebrated institutions of higher education in the United States, the teaching quality of the adjuncts is many times better than that of those on the tenure tack.
…
While the book is consistent with many of the recent studies of adjuncts in documenting their growing use and many cases of abuse, the tone is notably different, as are some conclusions. While the book sees the treatment of adjuncts as a real issue both for the adjuncts and their institutions, it suggests that there is much blame to share — and that this situation did not arise from the actions of administrators looking to cut costs. And while much of the research about adjuncts has come from unions or groups sympathetic to unions, this book is decidedly not.

Write to the Top! How to Become a Prolific Academic by W. Brad Johnson and Carol A. Mullen looks interesting. I don’t know if I will order it or not. Has anyone else read it?

Paul Silvia, whose book How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing I read last week, said of Johnson and Mullen’s book:

Johnson and Mullen recommend making a writing schedule and protecting writing time dogmatically; Boice and I would agree. But they also recommend writing in unexpected free time; cancelling an appointment if you are writing “in the zone”; writing during evenings, weekends, and holidays; and even taking a “writing vacation,” which is a vacation of writing, not the more typical and desirable vacation from writing.

The whole review is interesting in itself. Silvia gives a bibliography of major books in the field.

Boice, R. (1990). Professors as writers: A self-help guide to productive writing. Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.
Kendall-Tackett, K. (2007). How to write for a general audience: A guide for academics who want to share their knowledge with the world and have fun doing it. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Kitchin, R., & Fuller, D. (2005). The academic’s guide to publishing. London: Sage.
Silvia, P. J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

I would add Germano’s book Getting It Published which I also read last week. It wasn’t terribly helpful for me, but I am not working on a book. It does have some interesting information though.

How to determine what the new hot topic will be in the culture:

[C]heck with hollywood. The hot thing in 2012 will be something they had a movie on in 2011. Suddenly, all the kids will want to study this, and government officials will want to fund research on it (we’ve seen it with dinosaurs, and with climate change)

I’d go for studying something that interests you, and just continue with it no matter what te [sic] market is. You’ll be very likely to be fashionable at least once in your career like that

So said DonStefano on a Chronicle forum.

Joanne Jacobs recommends Moe and Chubb’s Liberating Learning.

Happy Catholic recommends The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett. On the basis of the quote she took from the book, I bought it for my kindle while I was typing that reference. It is now ready for reading!

Right on the Left Coast recommends a mathematician’s books. There are several. From the preface of How the Other Half Thinks:

One of my purposes in writing this book is to give readers who haven’t had the opportunity to see and enjoy real mathematics the chance to appreciate the mathematical way of thinking. I want to reveal not only some of the fascinating discoveries, but, more important, the reasoning behind them…The thinking in each chapter uses at most only elementary arithmetic, and sometimes not even that. Thus all readers will have the chance to participate in a mathematical experience….

Historiann has a discussion about what is happening in academia with the economic crisis.

So does Notorious PhD.

Someone at one of my schools said, “The admin is using Ike (the hurricane that hit in September) and the economy as an excuse.” The school was already in bad shape. It didn’t get into bad shape because of those two things. But, in fact, those two things have made it worse. And because they can, the admin is slashing anyone who is viewed negatively. (Okay, that’s probably not accurate. I know it’s not accurate.)

They are trying to get rid of adjuncts. Because we’re so expensive? Dang. They pay $60K to the ft people. They pay $24 to me for the same work. Why would they want to get rid of people like me? But they do.

They fired 5 people in one department. Let four others go. (Two of those were for sexual misconduct. Good for them for firing their behinds!) Several staff have been let go. One of the three senior people in my dept has been laid off. This is after the dean and the assoc dean getting canned. There was another round of layoffs somewhere else.

The school is in the midst of a storm and the faculty are being thrown overboard to save the idea of the boat.

I’m pretty sure the boat has hit the rocks and is holed. If it doesn’t get to shore soon….

On the other hand, my CC isn’t having these issues. They replaced people who left. They haven’t cut services. I’ve heard nothing on cutting salaries. The CC in my system with which I interviewed said that he has plenty of money, even for travel.

So it does appear that part of the issue is how much you were spending that you really didn’t have to start with.

As you probably know I have gotten some flack about having diverse interests.

But overall the answer to a question on diversity in scholarship on the Chronicle forum was that some isn’t bad. Too much is, but not some.

One person gave good advice about tying everything together. We’ll see how I can manage that, but…

Humanista said:

I just wanted to agree with the advice that has been given here. The articles that I culled from my dissertation are published in solid, peer-reviewed journals, but by a long shot my most prominent publication so far is a forthcoming article in a prestigious journal that everyone in my field reads. The topic is completely unrelated to my supposed area of expertise. No qualms about listing that article on my CV! One of my grad school profs always talked about the need for “Beethoven in your briefcase,” by which he meant that it’s fine to publish about obscure topics, but one should have a secondary area (or two) of research in an area of general interest for virtually everyone in one’s field. It shows your intellectual breadth and willingness to engage in larger debates within your discipline.

Earlier posts on worries about too much diversity in research areas:

On Writing Book Reviews. Which I should have reread before I wrote today to CEA’s person about reviewing a book. It fits within my personal worldview and it seemed highly readable and on classroom experience, so I liked it. But I didn’t put my relevant expertise in there.

Going to the Conference

This would be something useful to have my students look at. It could go into the whole discussion of journal submission requirements.

Chronicle forum on the topic.

Cabells for education, business, and psychology.

Science journals rating from the European Science Foundation.

APA journals’ list.

Very useful idea.

Bibliotechula on Chronicle forum had this to say:

One thing you might want to do is contact editors before you even send your proposal and ask about their publishing plans and plans for their lists in the coming 1-2 years. That will give you an idea of who is acquiring and who isn’t, particularly in your area.

Send your whole ms to a few trusted colleagues and ask them to write blurbs for you. These are not full reviews, just brief, positive comments on what your book will add to the field. You’ll want to include these in your proposal packets when you send everything out again. You might also want to send your proposal packet to an advisor, mentor, or friend to give it a once-over. I’m not necessarily talking about typos, but fresh eyes might help you craft a better-selling proposal.

You may need to tweak your proposal to make the topic seem “hotter.” A little spin can at least help you get the sample chapters reviewed.

Be sure your proposal packet includes a market analysis and some kind of information about your target market. If an editor sees a potentially large target market, the more likely s/he will be to send the ms out for reviews or at least look at it more closely. Even UPs are driven by income, if not profit, and many now are for-profit. If there is an extra-academic market, like high school or a particular group of people, make sure to mention that.

It seemed to me to be sound advice and thoughtful. So I wanted to save it and put it somewhere it was easily accessible, for me, rather than on the 47th page of the fora lists.