Old Comparative Rumors
posted by American and Comparative Politics Job Blog at 5/01/2007 09:35:00 AM
American and Comparative Jobs
Hello bloggers! As requested, I have turned off comment moderation. But, if it becomes a personal free-for-all I will ask someone else to manage the blog because I do not have time to devote to continuously deleting comments.
391 Comments:
Any predictions as to how the market for Latin Americanists will be next year? Better? Worse? The same?
Definitely better, worse, or the same.
A piggy-back question--how, and to what degree, does the comparative/ regional politics job market respond to political developments in that region? If there are big political haps in Latin America, or former USSR, or SE Asia during the course of one year, does that translate into an increased demand for LA, FSU, or SE Asia scholars in the next hiring cycle? Two years down the road? Not at all?
Likely the same. Dearth of openings. If you can't seel yourself as a general comparativist who happens to work on Latin America, you will significantly reduce your chances of getting a tt job.
L.A. and Africa markets will stay about the same - this means, however, that relative lack of supply for Africa and over-supply for L.A. will make it much easier for Africanists to find employment. South Asia and Middle East will continue to pick up, espcially given relative lack of supply and sharply rising demand in both. East Asia (especially China) is overdue to pick up steam at the junior level, though not so much at senior level. Europe (both Eastern and Western) will continue to decline.
Naive(?) question: How can someone be listed, in the same CV, as being simultaneously Assistant Professor at School X and Associate Professor at School Y? And as being in residence at School Y but with an email address at School X?!
there are always more latin americanists than the job market demands. More kids want to spend there time traveling in latin america (and hence become LA PhDs) than want to take courses about latin america (hence the low demand compared to the supply). I think it's the opposite for public law.
5/01/2007 6:43 PM
For real world developments that are "big" enough, it DOES translate into more openings - not immediately so, but definitely 2-5 years afterwards.
Although in the end I did fine jobwise, I did wish, more than once, I was doing Africa or Middle East.
Poor CV editing.
Any word yet on CIDE's search?
I find it hilarious that there are those who are wistful about not specializing in Africa. When I entered graduate school (a few short years ago), becoming an Africanist was widely considered to be career suicide, and placing an Africa-focused book with a good university press remains a difficult, if by no means impossible, task.
I heard, second-hand, CIDE hired someone from Spain. Do note: this is second-hand, so could well not be accurate. In fact, who interviewed there?
Well, not every school that wanted to hire in comparative hired last year. Presumably at least some of those lines will be reauthorized.
To officially kick off the rumor mill for the 07-08 market, I speculate that UMass Amherst will advertise for at least one position that could go comparative!
UIUC advertised and interviewed this year: outcome?
RE: CIDE
Wasn't their deadline just two days ago?
Maybe. Given their recent hires I'd guess that as much as anything the next round will be a function of which fields draw the most interest from existing assistant and associate faculty looking for a move. In other words - who knows.
UIUC lacks leadership in comparative.
Funny, the comment RE: "When I entered graduate school (a few short years ago), becoming an Africanist was widely considered to be career suicide, and placing an Africa-focused book with a good university press remains a difficult, if by no means impossible, task."
It's been quite consistent that 1)if you are well trained, and 2) you do African politics, you will 3) do exceptionally well. Posner, Ferree, Humphreys, Weinstein, a bunch of Laitin students at Stanford, etc. All else equal, you'd be better off doing Africa than Latin America - that I have no doubt of.
Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Michigan, Oxford, Princeton, Washington, and Wisconsin are all rumored to have comparative/China jobs in the fall. Anyone able to confirm or deny any of these rumors?
Dear Colleague:
We would like to call your attention to a Short Course in interpretive methodologies and methods being offered at APSA this year.
Intended for both graduate students and faculty, Short Course #15, "Interpret This! A Conceptual and Practical Workshop in Interpretive Political Science," explores the place of interpretive research methods in political science.
The morning session provides an overview of the conceptual and philosophical groundings of interpretivism, locates interpretive approaches in the various subfields of political science, and provides an opportunity for participants to explore the place an interpretive approach might play in their own research.
With the help of The Second City Training Center in Chicago, the afternoon session explore the relationship between the skills and sensibilities developed in theatrical improvisation and the conduct of interpretive research in various arenas ranging from field research to interviewing to document analysis.
Full information is available at
https://www.apsanet.org/content_15038.cfm (for all Short Courses)
or, for Short Course 15, at
https://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/Short%20Course%2015.pdf
An optional part of the Short Course is a Second City (improv theater) show the night the course ends.
Tickets to the show -- Between Barack and a Hard Place -- are selling out fast, as it has garnered national attention and smashing reviews.
So, we are purchasing tickets this week!!! If you are interested, please register for the Short Course via APSA (see links above), contact Peri Schwartz-Shea (psshea@csbs.utah.edu) and let her know how many seats you'd like for the show, and put a check for both the course and the show in the mail to her ASAP.
Again, we appreciate your bringing this to the attention of others who might be interested. Space is limited to the first 25 people registering!
Dvora Yanow, for the organizing committee
I am out of town and have very little internet access. I am going to unmoderate the blog so can everyone avoid being offensive for the next few weeks! :)
Is Columbia likely to search in Comparative next year?
I heard that Landry has declined tamu's offer. Is it true?
Career Development Fellowship in Politics (3 yr position)
University of Oxford
http://jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/
RH518.html
Does Landry have any other offers? TAMU's offer was untenured I take?
Is Michael Tomz up for tenure at Stanford this year?
Pretty sure TAMU's offer was with tenure, but could be wrong.
Ballsy, as I doubt Landry has even epsilon Pr of getting tenure at Yale.
But maybe he figures he'll land a better tenured job than TAMU.
I really wish this comparative blog were as active as its american counterpart in taking advantage of the "unmoderated" weeks. Or, does it merely reflect the numerical strength of the people studying american politics?
Did Jana Kunicova, formerly at Caltech, leave the academia? Who would be behind her exit from Caltech?
Which departments are on the rise and fall in comparative? How about in terms of quantitative comparative?
For a start,
On the rise: Duke, Princeton, UIUC, UNC, UCLA, Chicago, Missouri, Northwestern, and ... (add your own).
Some of the choices in 3:43 seem odd. How about some explanations?
What departments have comparative groups that are hostile to quant/formal work?
Re: 3:47. Duke. Big time.
On the rise: UCSD.
UCSD should be always high on the list. Why the "rise"?
Any perspectives on submission experiences at SCID? Thanks for sharing.
How friendly/hostile in general is BJPS toward submissions based on non-US single countries?
2:55 PM: Who would be behind her exit from Caltech? -- Perhaps she failed to get promoted due to lack of publications? In fact, she published almost nothing for nearly four years…. Failed to publish her dissertation as a book? No independent work?
SCID is a good journal to deal with. Decent on timing of reviews, reasonable editorial policies, etc. Of course, this is based on experience before it moved to its current home at Brown, but all second-hand reports indicate that it has not significantly changed.
Northwestern on the rise in CP? Why? I find that puzzling, to say the least.
NWU in CP on the rise may be puzzling. But if people think Chicago in CP is on the rise, then what can I say?!?! This is just too funny!
I've heard that SCID's time to decision has gone down substantially since it's moved to Brown (Second-hand).
My experience with SCID straddled its move back in 2005, and despite that they were quick, solicited good, insightful and helpful (though very critical) reviews, and their editorial board appeared to have some good leeway to interpret the reviews as a whole.
Any information on Departments likely to grow/hire in the next 1-3 years?
UMASS-Amherst!
What is the latest date a move must be notified to one's employer if one is to move from one institution to another?
I once had a BJPS review begin with "first, the american spellings must be corrected" ..yeah..."corrected"
Re: 5/07/2007 6:53 AM
Did you correct them? Was it later accepted? Or, did the reviewer focus so much on your American spellings that she did not ever get to the substance of the article?
oh, the american spellings were just the beginning of the things the reviewer hated about the article. It was accepted at another journal a few months later.
Depending what happens with some of their current faculty, I suspect MIT will have comparative searches over the next couple of years.
What is the latest date a move must be notified to one's employer if one is to move from one institution to another?
*********************
I believe the AAUP suggests May 1. What exactly happens to you if you notify later than May 1 is unclear.
Do you think UMASS-Amherst will consider applicants with a quantitative oriented background? Seems like their faculty only appreciates qualitative work (case studies).
No
Do you think UMASS-Amherst will consider applicants with a quantitative oriented background? Seems like their faculty only appreciates qualitative work (case studies).
I know two people who did job talks there and got offers this past year, and both do quantitative work. So, yes.
Can we learn the names of the two candidates in question?
Can we learn the names of the two candidates in question?
They aren't up on the wiki (UMass says "multiple offers rejected"), so I figure they don't want to be public about it.
If you can get someone from UMass to update the blog, you'll probably figure it out from there.
Re: UMass,
Are you looking at the right section of the wiki? The CP section looks accurate. The hires were Jillian Schedler and Amel Ahmed. It's IR that shows offers declined.
I'm not inclined to divulge names of candidates. But, yes, several quant-oriented candidates in several subfields were flown in for job talks. Some did not impress. Others impressed so much that they ended up at top programs. That's a risk you run by interviewing so early in the process.
The department is going from 18-20 full time to ~30. There should be several more rounds. I wouldn't draw too many conclusions about future searches based on the one that just ended. These things are too idiosyncratic to generalize much from one year's evidence.
Their two hires:Jillian Schedler and Amel Ahmed do qualitative work. They are big on case studies. Check their CVs online.
Is this a asign that their department is afraid to quantify?
Re: Are you looking at the right section of the wiki?
I was under the impression that their search was global politics, and that they didn't fiddle with traditional subdisciplinary boundaries.
I can assure you, though, that two friends who do quantitative work (but also know other languages and travel) gave talks there and had offers. Maybe these are the ones that impressed so much that they ended up at top programs?
The department does lean heavily qual, of course. But reading too much into the department based on 1 or 2 specific hires ignores the fact that candidates have preferences, too. It shouldn't really be a surprise that some quant-oriented candidates, given the option, have chosen similarly oriented departments and/or more lucrative offers (think of which other departments are likely to be making offers in early October).
The original point (assuming this actually matters to anyone!) was simply that there should be a more reliable evidence of the direction of their hiring initiative after a couple more rounds. Those two hires may provide a signal, but it's a weak one at best, given the inherent complications & idiosyncracies of hiring - particularly when some shortlisted candidates are already employed.
Also note that the fact that the department hired 2 qual types does not mean it was biased against quant types. This is also consistent with quant types being more likely to pursue options at different universities.
To tease this apart empirically, you need data on the candidates who were offered positions but declined. There is no information about UMass on the wiki about these questions.
I can assure you, though, that two friends who do quantitative work (but also know other languages and travel) gave talks there and had offers. Maybe these are the ones that impressed so much that they ended up at top programs?
10:38 here one last time . . . I shouldn't get caught up in this any further because, although I keep in touch with folks, I haven't been in Amherst in years. I've read no files and I heard no talks. I just know (2nd & 3rd-hand) that the search focused on some top choices early on, including quants , and that many of those ended up elsewhere.
I'm sure your friends are top-notch. I have no inclination to argue otherwise.
Can we infer something from the fact that all their faculty members at UMASS do not do any type of quantitaive analysis (they do not publish in quantiative journals). Seems like they are all Perestroikans.
to 5/01/2007 12:45 AM you clearly do not know Tsebelis. Veto players is the most recent contribution, I doubt it will be his last.
Tsebelis also is a pioneer in empirical research on Bicameralism (together with Jeanette Money at UCSD)
UMass is indeed a very perestroikan place, so consider that carefully if it's important to you. Also consider that the state has traditionally treated the Amherst campus very poorly. The last decade has been a nightmare for what used to be a top state university. I was glad to see the post about rebuilding the dept and going up to 30 lines. Check on state support, salaries, and house prices in the Pioneer Valley.
Any senior moves still up in the air?
Anybody know where I can get that list of people that signed the Perestroika letter from a few years back?
did anything bad happen to the Umass poli sci prof who got busted in january for drugs and girlfriend or spousal abuse?
Yeah, speaking of MIT and to piggyback off 6:26's question about senior hires, what's the deal with Petersen/Rodden/Sambanis?
Did Petersen get a Chicago offer?
What are the norms regarding which affiliation to list when you submit articles for publication? Do you put the university or center where the majority of work was done, your position when you submit, or your position when it is expected to be published?
If a grad student has a job, should he or she list their new institution even if the article is sent off before starting the job? Do tenure committees consider publications per location, even if only on the margins?
How would we evaluate the MIT department, as a whole? It is Top 10 quality? Top 15?
MIT's a small department, so it can't stack up against the full-service ones. But it's good at IR/security (Posen, Van Evera), American behavior and Congress (Ansolabehere, Snyder, Stewart), civil and ethnic conflict (Petersen, Posen), and aspects of political economy (Berger, Piore, Rodden). Tsai is also good.
They're trying to grow their slots, but don't know if it will happen; they seem to consistently get raided by larger departments.
Does MIT have a Perestroika problem?
Who is the Chair at MIT these days? Still Stewart?
Haha, I don't think Jim Snyder and Rodden are Perestroikans. . . .
The American group (with Berinsky, Campbell, and Lenz too) looks very modern...
Tsebelis also is a pioneer in empirical research on Bicameralism (together with Jeanette Money at UCSD)
Umm, that would be *UCD*.
I can only speak to the civil war/IR security side of things, but MIT's grads in that area are quite well regarded - Valentino, Wilkinson, Daryl Press, Byman, Greenhill, Lindley, Kuperman, Varshney, I think Peter Liberman, Lischer, Ken Pollack (though if I were them I wouldn't necessarily highlight him).
They placed a civil war person at Georgetown and an ethnic politics person at UWashington this year, if the Wiki is to be believed. Petersen's part of the ethnic politics/civil conflict crew (Laitin, Kalyvas, Wood, etc). So, small program, but good for its size.
http://www.mail-archive.com/
sapac@www.residentlounge.com/
msg00137.html
Phew!
I'm happy I don't work on India!
What are the norms regarding which affiliation to list when you submit articles for publication? Do you put the university or center where the majority of work was done, your position when you submit, or your position when it is expected to be published?
If a grad student has a job, should he or she list their new institution even if the article is sent off before starting the job? Do tenure committees consider publications per location, even if only on the margins?
5/09/2007 9:28 AM
Some departments don't count, or underweight, publications that don't appear with their byline. So, if you plan to be there until you go up, it's worth asking around in your home department.
12:34, me too. Anyone else see the barely civil roundtable with the two of them at MPSA, at opposite ends of a long table with several larger folks between them? :)
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RE: 5/09/2007 11:35 AM and MIT hires.
The Georgetown person was indeed insurgency/civil war. The UWash hire was more post-Soviet/Central Asia than Identity Politics, though emphasizing "Ethnic Politics" in a research agenda rarely hurts.
There's was also a Yale placement for someone doing PE/Mexico, which is not too shabby.
MIT remains perpetually unstable...it has made good hires this decade, but it seems to lack the resources to keep them long term unless family/non-academic factors keep them in town.
I'd say MIT has done a very impressive job in Ame Pol during the last 10 yrs or so.
In Comp Pol they are not there yet, but they are getting there. Losing Chandra was a big blow, but on the other hand they still (?) have Rodden, Peterson, etc.
On the topic of civil conflict, it seems like some of the better departments in this subject area are not at the "major" schools. Yale has an all-star program, sure, but what about others in the top-ten? Lower-ranked schools?
Um, Stanford. But I am biased :)
Deborah Avant (GWU) is moving to UC Irvine.
11:28 - Harvard (Bates and Toft, sometimes Dominguez), Stanford (Fearon, Laitin, Weinstein), Columbia (Snyder, Humphreys, to some extent Fortna), Chicago (Wilkinson, Pape, to some extent Mearsheimer, Slater) and MIT (Posen, Petersen, to some extent Van Evera) are all fairly major departments with civil/ethnic conflict strength, along with Yale (Kalyvas, Wood, Sambanis).
For those interested, I heard that CIDE's Political Studies Department closed its search on April 30 and plans to interview in early June. They'll probably have another search in the Fall.
Re 5/9, 9:28 am. My advice: put your affiliation as the institution you will be at when the article lands in peoples' mailboxes (and thank whomever supported your research in the thanks line). The exception might be if you're on a postdoc, at which point you might put your affiliation as your tenure-track location, even if you're not yet there.
just got UIUC rejection letter. did they hire junior comparative? yes/no
Latin America: heard second-hand that Oxford may have one or two lines next year. Big retirements and turnovers there. They hired Powers from Florida 2 years ago and this year Foweraker from Essex. Anyone know who got the politics of development job there this year?
Shut down the blog. No point in having it this time of the year.
There is no longer mandatory retirement at age 65 in the UK, so don't count on any retirements.
Heard that UIUC didn't manage to hire in Comparative this year.
UIUC lacks leadership.
Lacks leadership? Meaning? Care to elaborate?
Seems like a department in an upward trajectory to me.
I agree. We'd all be better off with this blog gone ('til next job market season).
UIUC lack intellectual leadership. It's a department hiring people that they THINK the market considers "hot." No real plan there. A wannabe NYU type of place.
So far, it seems to be working quite well for them though. Sure, not NYU - but not too many places can become NYU.
UIUC gets my thumbs up.
Why is NYU hot? A diaspora of the Rochester dept.?
Don't like NYU? Fine.
Live and let live.
Just to be fair, the NYU dept. also houses part of the Chicago diaspora--Przeworski et al.
Any senior moves still up in the air? Or are we done for the year, even for senior moves?
Does anyone know what the pay would be at a place like Oxford or Essex for an assistant prof level? It can´t possibly be very good, and the cost of living in the UK is outrageously high.
Pay is very low, especially in real terms.
And if you think the US housing market is crazy... the British one is insane.
And then you have to deal with the backwardsness (and sexism) of British academia.
I am British (and female), and delighted that I decided to stayed in the US after my PhD.
For all the problems that academia in the U.S. may have, they all pale down next to what goes on in the UK. Sad but true.
Thanks for the input on UK salaries and working conditions. I am female and work at a Mexican Research Institute, so I know about sexism but here it is called "machismo."
What's the point of posting that this blog should be closed for the season--especially with 60 new posts in the last three days!? Obviously it is of use to someone, not just you. Better idea--stop checking the post for the season and leave the rest of us alone.
On the rumor front, I hear that UIUC hired at least one comparativist as a visiting prof, probably to try again next year.
A lot of the stories you hear about UK academia are way out of date. For example, Oxford has increased salaries for everyone by 13% in the last 3 years. Starting salaries at Oxford next year for the University Lecturer rank will be (in pounds) 39-52K. To convert to dollars, multiply by two.
I am 5/11/2007 12:02 PM
I don't think my views on the matter are outdated. I got my PhD in '98 (in the US), and got my BA (from Oxford) in '93. I have family & friends in the UK - and some of them are in academia.
Check the cost of living in Oxford (virtually as high as in London), especially real estate, and assess how far 35-39k pounds will travel. Trust me, not far. http://www.oxfordshirehomes.co.uk/
Plus, your salary as a Full Professor in the UK will reach a ceiling (max possible salary is only 50-55k pounds or so), after which there's virtually nothing you can do to get a raise (it's all about seniority, not merit).
As to sexism in Oxbridge, ask the few female faculty over there. It's rampant. (Marginally better in some non-Oxbridge places).
I took up a job in the UK (I am a US PhD). Salaries here seem high at first - unfortunately the previous poster is right that, in real terms, they are considerably lower than in the US given the outrageous cost of living here. And I say this as a Californian!
Typical starting salaries for a Lecturer (equivalent to, say, a 3rd year Assistant Professor) are anything from low 30s to low (rarely mid) 40s GBP. This might seem like a lot of money... unfortunately it isn't once you adjust for cost of living.
But if you are not having much luck in the US market (and, let's face it, most of us who venture here didn't have luck in top 25 US Departments), the UK market is not that bad - at least as a temporary solution.
Do you know of places that will very likely be searching in Comparative next year? Which ones? Thanks.
A lot of the stories you hear about UK academia are way out of date. For example, Oxford has increased salaries for everyone by 13% in the last 3 years. Starting salaries at Oxford next year for the University Lecturer rank will be (in pounds) 39-52K. To convert to dollars, multiply by two.
5/12/2007 12:09 AM
-----------------------------------
This is true, but if you're earning 50,000 GBP you're only going to get the benefit of that "multiply by two" when you travel back to the US. In terms of purchasing power, the dollar and pound are in fact almost equally valued within their respective economies. That is, a 10 dollar hamburger in the U.S. is a 10 pound hamburger in the U.K. (and it probably won't taste as good, but that's another issue).
Exactly. 50,000 GBP in the UK (at least in London/Oxford/Cambridge) is roughly similar to 50,000 USD in the US. Maybe a bit more, but not much.
My experience in Oxford is that junior people spend about 30% of their income on rent, compared to about 20% for most junior people I know in the States (higher on the two coasts, obviously).
UIUC and OSU will be looking in Comparative.
U of Washington will likely have a search.
U of Iowa likely to have a search.
Will Emory be hiring?
Will Iowa be gunning to hire another woman?
Not necessarily. But they won't have an interest in you.
Golly. Too bad. I would have loved to join a department that is continuing to sink like a stone in the rankings.
Then - why do you care?
I don't like quotas and discrimination -- especially when they're being used in a PC manner.
Oh please. What evidence do you have for that?
Which departments are rising in the rankings besides the ones that was listed earlier?
Better question -- which departments are likely to rise in the rankings in the near future? And why?
Virginia is getting better.
Virginia is getting better.
You are going to see the mother of all perestroika wars there when the more formal and quant types start getting tenure.
Indeed. It'll be interesting to see what happens at UVA in, say, 3-6 yrs.
Re: 8:30. Doubtful. UVA seems to be moving toward a balanced-type department, much like Penn is trying to do. And what Cornell should be doing.
I hope you're right. But somehow I doubt so.
Oh, Cornell, give me a break...
To prospective movers to the UK: Do bear in mind the seemingly obvious - wages only become meaningful in relation to prices.
Is Penn genuinely trying? I've heard otherwise.
There is some evidence that Penn is trying.
And they should be trying. They've been languishing as a 40th ranked dapartment for what seems like forever.
"To prospective movers to the UK: Do bear in mind the seemingly obvious - wages only become meaningful in relation to prices."
True, but not so relevant to a good number of the readers of this blog. For many of us, wages are meaningful in relation to no wages.
Anonymous said...
Is Penn genuinely trying? I've heard otherwise.
5/12/2007 10:20 AM
----------
What exactly have you heard?
U Penn is still very Perestroikan.
Well, it may be true that some of the PENN faculty are Perestroikan, and they haven't gone anywhere. But the real question is: are they hiring NEW people with those proclivities? I was under the impression that there was pressure from the Dean to hire people who are closer to the mainstream of the discipline.
Not to get too picky, but just what is the "mainstream of the discipline" anyway? Not to give a carte blanche endorsement to Perestroika and all those who subscribe to it, but the strength of a really good department (and a comparative group in particular) is in embracing many perspectives and schools of thought - from large-n quantitative, to game theory, to intensive qualitative fieldwork and case studies. A department that hires no one outside of, say, game theory, is just as bad as a department that only hires raving post-modern Perestroikans. They are both too narrow to be truly world-class - at least in my humble opinion.
Do I know what schools are searching in comparative in two months? Check it out! I'll check the jobs listing.
Man, but I can't wait until then. tell me now, please! Then I can trash some departments.
Please please pretty please!
Finish your dissertation first.
Not to disagree with what others are saying about the cost of living in the UK, but many of the Oxford jobs do have very generous housing arrangements. Either free college-owned houses or up to hundreds of thousands of pounds in mortgage help (co-ownership). This is how they're able to lure away some US-based academics, as well as hold on to good talent. Of course, this is very variable across jobs and colleges.
Sounds like there's a committed Oxford booster here. If he's who I think he is, and is so happy with the UK, why is he trying to move back to the US? ::Confused::
Depressed West coast ABD here, who wants to stay in the West coast:
Any CP openings in CA/OR/WA schools anticipated?
Thanks.
UW lost Wibbels, and there are always openings at one of the UC schools
Will UW be looking at the Assistant level?
I doubt they even know - it's too early. Big loss, by the way.
All but the top 5-6 places will experience losses like that. That's the fate of a department on the fringe of the Top 25: hire the right people, do all the right things, then watch some of your best people leave. It's like a small-market baseball team that has a great minor-league system, but can't keep the talent long term.
Lossing Wibbels could be "big" for UW, but realistically speaking, how could UW prevent it in face of an offer from Duke? Doubling his current salary? Making him an endowed full professor, a couple of years after his promotion to be a tenured associate? Appointing him to be a college dean?
Should be "Losing Wibbels could be ..." Sorry about the typo.
UW can't prevent it. It's rational for Wibbels to want to be at a higher-ranked dept. Smarter colleagues (no rap against UW), smarter grad students, better resources, and so on. UW will now go out and hire an ADB with Wibbels-like promise. That person will blossom or no. If the former, they'll lose him/her too. Such is the fate of a not-Top 10 dept.
Re: 9:03am
This sounds highly plausible, but it does not seem to explain why UW has also managed to retain some of the stellar figures of the discipline over the years who, I assume, have been targets of luring from some "top-ten" places. BTW, is Duke counted as one of the top-ten in comparative today?
At times some personal idiosyncracies help explain good but not top places keeping some "stars" (significant other, extended family, etc).
As to Duke, at least by some metrics it is a top CP place (student placement), by some it isn't (faculty size... but that is changing).
And losing people, odd as it may sound, is A GOOD THING. A good department (unless top 3) will lose people. UCSD has lost people (Laitin was once there). UCLA has lost people (Frieden/Wallerstein/etc once were there). Duke has lost people (Bates/Milner/Keohane once were there). And so on...
It's mediocre departments that don't lose people - because no one wants them. Or places who only hire people who are well past their prime.
No offense was meant towards UW when I said it was a big loss. In fact, it speaks well of them that Wibbels remained at UW for so long (I think he turned down an offer from UCSD's IR/PS school at some point).
Very true RE: losing people.
Yes, very true. You WANT your faculty to get outside offers from good places. Otherwise, you have a very weak faculty on your hands.
In fact, I'd say UCSD has been unusually good at retaining people (I didn't even know Laitin had been there).
On the other hand, some places have been unusually bad at losing people (think Chicago).
In lousy departments, people with mobility are often driven out by people without any mobility.
Witness Miami for an extreme case of that dynamic.
How do you all see broader demographic trends impacting the job market in the next 5-10 years? After all, the Baby Boomers are now in their 50s to mid-60s. Are we on the cusp of a major realignment in the field through "natural causes" (and an attendent increase in market volatility at the entry/ABD and Assistant/Associate levels), or is this just the wishful thinking of the Young Turks?
qucik note on Duke and the top 10. I hread that one of the reasons why the department was able to get 2 lines this year in CP was because their external review said that the CP group was too small and that a failure to deal with that would likely cost the Department its top 10 spot in the Rankings (and the political science Department is one of the few social science groups on that campus that ranks in the top 10 in their feild)
Just curious:
What could be the other nine of the top 10 departments in comparative according to Duke's external reviewers, assuming Duke were still in?
Well, they did quite well then - didn't they make three hires in CP this year?
My take (in no particular order) as to what the top 10 depts in CP are:
Harvard
UCSD
Yale
Stanford
Princeton
Michigan
Duke?
UCLA
Columbia?
Berkeley?
MIT?
I know, these are 12, but oh well. Question mark means I am not sure.
I counted 11 in there :)
I would take the ? off Berkeley, add it to Michigan and add NYU (? or no).
Yes, NYU has Przeworski and more recently someone from MIT, but as a whole, can it really measure up to "top 10"?
NYU is rising fast, but not yet top 10 in CP. It'll probably soon be though.
Agreed. UMich in CP surely deserves the ? mark.
The Departments that I think are unquestionably top ten in CP are:
Harvard
UCSD
Yale
Stanford
UCLA
Probaly top ten in CP are:
Duke
Princeton
Columbia
Berkeley
MIT
UCSD in the top 5 in CP? Why on earth? Seems unlikely... My guess is that this rating is a function of who uses this blog..
Yeah, it's a little nutty to think that UCSD outcompetes Berkeley or Princeton.
What I want to know is why anyone thinks this forum can actually say anything about which schools are in the top 10? It's better to check out ratings with actual criteria listed - placements, faculty, publications, than discuss it with a bunch of people who clearly have favorites and enemies they wish to slam.
Mmh, controversial calls, for sure. Still, not wholly unreasonable...
CP in Princeton was a DISASTER until recently - unless you think Bermeo, Suleiman, and company are great.
Berkeley is incredibly top heavy in CP. They do place their top students quite well though.
UCSD has the advantage of having their (quite good) Policy School next door. So I don't think it's outrageous to call them top 10. (I'd call Berkeley and Princeton top ten too, though I agree that Princeton was, for the longest of times, a mess in Comparative).
"Disaster" the strength of language on these blogs amazes me.
Come on, this is some drama on an otherwise dull afternoon. Don't take the word literally.
For what it is worth, and that might not be much...
In 2005 US News and World Report ranks Princeton #4 in Political Science overall. Berkely and UCSD are tied at #5 overall.
In Comparative Politics UCSD is ranked #2, above both Berkeley and Princeton.
More than other fields, Comparative likely varies a great deal across specialties. So, for Latin America, East Asia, formal institutions, and intersection of comparative/IR, UCSD is the best. But for other regions and theoretical approaches it is not.
Your argument has some validity, and I agree with it - but surely not because it comports with the US News & World Report, which is a terrible ranking.
Why is it terrible? Or MORE terrible than other rankings? While there may be some measurement error, in terms of true dept quality, it does probably do a good job of ranking general PERCEPTIONS. And, in the end, perceptions are much of what matters.
Oh boy.
For those who were wondering on the costs of housing in the UK (my family happens to be in the real estate business over there). This is what they sent:
Avg house prices in £ (few select locations):
Manchester: 161,901
York: 226,379
Edinburgh: 266,890
Cambridge: 311,534
Oxford: 340,902
London: 398,718
I don't understand why UCSD has the best coverage on east asia? Puzzling?
That's thanks to their IR/PS School.
http://irps.ucsd.edu/faculty/
faculty-directory/
In lousy departments, people with mobility are often driven out by people without any mobility.
5/13/2007 10:11 AM
Anonymous said...
Witness Miami for an extreme case of that dynamic.
*******************
excellent example, miami's spiral to become something much worse than mediocre was accelerated with their losses this year. As one of the people leaving told me at midwest, those who leave can, those who can't leave join the voting majority of psychos there
I don't like this discussion. This list should be shut down for the season.
Also, I am not planning on using I-95 this month, so they should shut down that thing as well. Chicago-O'Hare, too. Shut 'em down.
Re: 7:24 am
So, why are you here?
Mr Gorbachov: Tear down this wall, I mean, shut down this blog.
NRC rankings are in the works.
It'll be interesting what those ones look like.
idle question on nrc "rankings:" those i've seen from the past provide a set of criteria and the opportunity to weight them as desired. given that changing the weightings will affect the results, what does it mean to refer to them as "rankings?" is there somewhere a default weighting or canned list that gets produced from these data?
I was being sarcastical... and melodramaculous.
Trying to think of Princeton's Comparative placements in top 25 places over the past 8 years I couldn't really think of too many.
But maybe it's just I have bad information, bad memory, their job-seekers didn't apply to my department, etc.
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