last night they did a special on how the u.s. government lied and stole the entire southeast from the cherokee, creek, chicasaw, choctaw and seminole tribes. they especially focused on the cherokee, because of where we are. which was especially interesting since we have cherokee in the family.
we are off to family for the holidays.
working towards tenure with an almost two year old is quite hellish. doing this teaching an overload is even moreso.
there are somethings i’ve wanted to blog about, but it’s a matter of time.
however, sometime i will. i’d like to say over xmas break, but i’ll be going to the mla to give a paper and interview job-candidates for an open position here… which really sucks. not the interviewing, i’ve always wanted to be on the other side of this process. but because this past october we bought tickets for the family to go to philly. i’d give the paper, we’d take advantage of the day-care and then see the city… t and i together, in ways we haven’t been since e was born. after all, this january we celebrate 10 years of nuptial bliss. i did this knowing that i would not have to interview anyone because the deans had frozen all job searches… then at the beginning of november the new dean approved some last minute action plan hires… and now i get to spend what would’ve been a nice three days in philly couped up in a damn room.
i hate it! i hate this even more than the committee work i’m doing of reading and summarizing self-study reports.
That sucks.
So should I continue striving for an academic job or do something else?
by JH—Nov 22, 11:20 AM
With your degrees, can you do anything other than work in the academy?
by greg—Nov 22, 11:30 AM
I can always teach English to dirty foreigners.
by JH—Nov 22, 11:41 AM
the US takeover of the southeast in the late 1820s/early 1830s, which was a despicable crime.
so too is the dean’s reopening of the position to ruin your time in Philadelphia a despicable crime, though not so despicable as to be comparable to the trail of tears.
by greg—Nov 22, 01:16 PM
I’m sorry for everyone’s stress, lack of travel, and/or unwanted travel.
We were almost Pennsylvanians, so we feel this one especially deeply, J.
by kathy—Nov 22, 04:21 PM
I second K’s sympathies.
Even though you’ll be busy at MLA, be sure to head over to TJU to see a painting before it is spirited away.
by greg—Nov 22, 04:26 PM
Sorry to hear about the interview fouling up your MLA plans, HJ, but as someone who dreams of one day being on either side of the MLA interview (HG’s “masochism”), I’d love to hear about your view of it from both sides.
I had designs on attending MLA “just to get the feel” as some of my friends and adviser suggested, but my wife is expecting. So we’re taking the opportunity for one last vacation before said child arrives.
by shaun—Nov 27, 12:22 PM
We knew a lot of people who did a “trial run” at MLA. It always seemed an expensive practice to me, although I must admit that, with any kind of interview, the best way to get good at it is practice (I analyzed way too many job interviews post-rejection than I care to admit). The true masochists we know actually claimed to enjoy it all.
by greg—Nov 27, 12:33 PM
shaun
i will certainly get back to you… personally, i don’t you’ve missed much by not going
by Jeremy—Nov 27, 04:52 PM
sorry i was remiss to not wish the expectant couple much happiness.
by Jeremy—Nov 27, 07:25 PM
J, ever gracious. I second the well wishes.
by greg—Nov 27, 07:59 PM
Thanks for the well-wishes, HJ. It’s been such a crazy semester — I’m trying to write my dissertation and my wife is completing a Nurse Practitioner degree — that we haven’t had a lot of time to think about the whole baby thing. Though, I have a feeling that’s going to change soon.
I didn’t feel all that bad about skipping MLA. It was going to cost too much just to go and listen to papers. We thought about using it as a springboard to NYC for new years, but that wasn’t too cheap either.
Anyway, I think I’ll be on the market next year, and while I’ve participated in numerous job searches on the campus end, I don’t know much about what it’s like to sit in a cramped hotel room for an hour or less and try to convince a group of people with different definitions of good teaching and scholarship that I meet each of their specific definitions perfectly. So, I’ll look forward to hearing what your experiences have been like.
by shaun—Nov 27, 08:00 PM
Digging Mary out of comment retirement would also be good for adding depth to your question, Shaun. She sat on that side of the interview more often than GoldenBoy J. (No offense, of course, to J’s considerable talking skills.)
by greg—Nov 27, 08:12 PM
On second thought, why are you worried, Shaun? With a ratemyprofessor.com rating of “Kind of hard but what a hottie,” how could someone not hire you?
by greg—Nov 27, 09:17 PM
Unfortunately HG, I know who wrote that review, and let’s just say that it wasn’t the most genuine of reviews. But who cares as long as I get a chili pepper?
by shaun—Nov 28, 08:03 AM
Exactly. Intent is irrelevant—the pepper is all that counts. J’s got two peppers to his name, with the added approval, “very funny and really hot”—a fact of which we should all be jealous.
by greg—Nov 28, 08:50 AM