interviews and schools

so i haven't had much time to think about devolution. this week has been rather hectic as the department puts us through an mla bootcamp.

monday 1st part: what is the interview?
process, tactics, expectations
monday 2nd part: dissertation spiel and unrelentless trashing of it

tuesday 1st part: pedagogy
tuesday 2nd part: dissertation spiel and unrelentless trashing of it

wednesday 1st part: advanced course syllabi proposals and unrelentless trashing of them
wednesday 2nd part: dissertation spiel and unrelentless trashing of it

thursday: a 30 minute mock interview with four faculty...i have that at 2 pm today

i realize i can't complain because few places do this. what it is meant to do is help us articulate our dissertation project, make us think about all the teaching we've done and how to discuss this without offending, intimidating (because we come from a very wealthy school with a lot of resourcesthanks to coke's colonization of poor, 3rd world countries...or should i say theft of their water?) and also how not to make too many blunders. however, this had made this week a rather hellish week.

to top it all off, tomorrow i have my first interview...GA state has asked me to visit them in person before the mla.

i wish to mb the best of luck!!!!! also, if someone should read this before the call...maybe she might want to think (and i am most certain she has) why she would use those books on the long. and, one of the things that we've been told is to not burden people with too many lists. throw a few books out there and hint or state that there are a few more that you have thought of and let them ask what they are. i realize that this is an interview virgin speaking to one who has already been de-flowered. take it as a what it is, a best wish on your next 2 interviews.

posted by Jeremy at 10:31 AM

devolution

reading through greg and Jeremy's conversation in the comments re: Jeremy's most recent post, i can relate to each of that dynamic duo, in that i have less and less motivation toward teaching and research, respectively.

with respect to teaching, i feel like i have done a good job in the courses i've taught, but i also feel like for me to be happy with my teaching, it has to be so all-consuming that it eats up all of my time. it requires hours upon hours. i am terrified that, if i get a 4/4 or 3/3 teaching job, i will be a crappy husband and father...and maybe even a crappy teacher. teaching is also very ego-involving for me: "good" class meetings result in very positive emotions, but "bad" class meetings can be emotionally devastating, especially when i consider the hours of prep time that i have put into even the bad class meetings.

research, on the other hand, has always been a motivational challenge for me. i am impressed by good researchers in my field, and i am envious of people who find research intrinsically motivating. for me, this is not the case at all. i have done (and continue to do) solid research and gotten good publications, but i am only sporadically interested in my own work. i enjoy the little clerical tasks involved in running studies, i enjoy seeing the first participant complete my study, i enjoy working with my undergraduate assistants, and i enjoy helping undergrad thesis students and grad student colleagues with their projects. however, independent projects leave me cold. in short, i like the collaborative aspects of research, but if all i really like is collaboration, i don't need to be a researcher to work with other people. garbage men, fire fighters, and lawyers, among others, collaborate. at any rate, my attention span is too small to maintain interest in my own worki like to always be learning something new, and research in psychology has very little to do with learning anything new.

in the end, i respect other people's research and have no problem teaching it, but i am never going to be a great researcher. several of my assistants and students have gone on to grad schoolmaybe they will be great researchers, and i will contribute to my field through them? however, if my research doesn't interest me and if it is not making a contribution to my field in itself, should i continue to do it? probably not. there are already too many journal articles that no one needs to read.

so, if i don't care about my research, this leaves me with the 4/4 and 3/3 teaching jobs that seem, as i described above, so all consuming. what is my solution to all this? right now, i'm continuing to apply to tenure-track academic jobs. i am putting a lot of energy into my applications, and there is a decent chance i'll actually get one of these jobs, but i'm hopeful it doesn't come to that.

posted by Chris at 4:29 AM

Where is here?

Here: the office at 1.58 AM on Saturday morning to ponder the essay "Everything you ever needed to know about how not to teach a literature class." (Can you believe I did all the research this semester!)

To be at the office at 2.02 AM on Saturday morning to grade essays is to be here well past the time when I told kl I'd be home. But she told me she was going to bed at midnight, so I am pushing my deadline back partly because I've been screwing around up here Googling college friends. (Hint: Scroll to "D."

I thought to do the googling because I heard today from someone of hermit chris's past, too, and new contact with old friends makes memories rise like the dead at Rapture. From the words of Ms. A. Hs,

Last January I applied to Peabody College at Vanderbilt and got accepted in March. I am working on my masters in curriculum and instruction and trying to figure out how to make the public education system and the world a better place for all of the children. I haven't come up with a lot of solutions yet.

[Mr. A.] so graciously moved here for me, but wasn't happy at his job in Jackson, so he did get a new job out of the deal. He is working at THomas MIller and Partners. They do a lot of medical architecture and he hopefully will be working on the federal courthouse that will be built downtown in the next few years. HE is very excited about that.

She asks, chris, whether you and mb have a physical address in Belgium, and at the same time wonders if perhaps you didn't move to Belgium at all but instead only moved there virtually and are instead locked in a Topeka garage writing "This American Life" essays about long jumpers. (Which of course means something completely different if you're British.)

Speaking of This American Life, before I came back to the office tonight, I watched "Animal Cops" on Animal Planet. This episode they were following people from the Michigan Humane Society in Detroit. One of the calls they got was to a cat house. In a cat house lives a "cat collector," one of those unfortunate people who hoards cats like paperclips. This collector's neighbors had called the MHS complaining of the smell. He had hoarded cats for years; in fact, when the lead investigator peeked in the back door, all he could see were cats eyeing back at him. And no wonder: after the MHS obtained permission to remove them, they spent 16 hours gathering up 247 cats from the walls of the basement to the drawers in the kitchen. Cats covered the house like paint on the walls. All were feral and sick. It was a pitiful sight.

posted by Greg at 2:57 AM

where've you been? right here

so we pretty much know where hermit chris and hermit mb have been. bundled up with their hermit of joy

are they in this tent?


who knows?

and are hermit greg and s.o. K busy getting out the vote?

i've been trying to write my dissertation and not writing much at all. in the job search arena.

i sent 27 letters out. 29 schools got letters of recommendation, but i was just too tired and fed up with the process to get the last two letters out.

wes craven's alma mater responded and requested that i:
(1) sign a 12 point statement of faith
(2) promise to use my "christian liberty" when deciding what sort of entertainment i would engage in
(3) get a letter from my current pastor to prove that i have been a regular church attender...in other words, that i am not so low a job-whore that i would start going to church in order to get a job with them
(4) submit an additional c.v. that touts my christian service
(5) submit an additional essay that examines how my pedagogy is informed by my christianity
(6) a 12 minute tape of me speaking spanish "extemporaneously" and reading some recent article in spanish

so far, i've been so lucky as to get 9 interviews. (my mom informs me that i am blessed...tho, she says it in the tone of voice of those who are frequent users of "have a blessed day") 3 of these schools have MA programs, the rest are small liberal arts colleges.

one of my profs, with whom i don't really have much to do with, took pity on me because there were no places with phids that have called me for an interview. though, i don't know that i want that. at the moment, i honestly don't know what i want. of course, my professors, though my advisor is rather laid back about it, don't like the small liberal arts route.

it's still early...i will let all ya'll know if i get more interviews...it is quite possible that i could hear from schools all the way up to the 26th of december.

since i'm getting it all out this one time

does rudolf have better moves than the hippo?

posted by Jeremy at 11:34 PM

found near cabbage growing facility...

posted by Chris at 4:44 AM