Old Comparative Job Rumors Feb 14>
posted by American and Comparative Jobs at 2/14/2008 09:04:00 AM
American and Comparative Jobs
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
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290 Comments:
I'm number one! I'm number one!
Just about time for our weekly update on UMass...
do they even have a short list?
They have a new ad
So does Hunter College (CUNY)
Rumor: Toronto, Cornell, and Princeton will all be looking for East Asia and/or China people in the fall...
Anyone know of Latin American jobs opening this fall?
I think Berkeley and Chicago will likely both be looking for L.A. people come fall.
By the way, we can also add Harvard, UNC, and likely UCLA to the list of schools searching for China next year.
Any word on UVA's second round CP interviews? It's been over a week since their deadline passed.
Yeah, and the wiki says Bowdoin's offer has been accepted...by whom?
Bates College will be hiring a tenure track Latin Americanist in the fall - deadline for applications for the one year visiting position is March 3.
Regarding Bates, is it a long-term (tenure-track) position, or a visiting position? That was unclear from the last comment.
The current Bates search is for a one year position for the academic year 08-09. A search for a tenure track Latin Americanist will begin in the fall.
These criticisms of Finifter's editorship are totally unjustified. She was very judicious in accepting referees' advice, publishing many rational-choice pieces that in no way reflected her professional preferences because the reviewers were favorable.
I don't think anyone here posted about the APSR. In fact, fewer and fewer comparativists read or cite it anyway. I think the previous post was probably meant for the American jobs section.
Back to rumors: where are Western Europe jobs likely to be found?
You are quite right. The statement about the APSR was posted here by mistake. But I have considerable confidence that with Ron Rogowski as the lead editor of the Review, it will regain whatever stature it has lost in the subfield. He is an outstanding scholar with remarkably sound judgment.
And if the APSR is no longer a good place to submit comparative manuscripts, what outlet is better?
Any sites where Canadian jobs are advertised (besides the infrequent postings on APSA)?
Isn't Anonymous rather busy?
Yep.
Stay on groovin' safari,
Tor
APSR is still certainly widely respected and cited in comparative, but a piece in World Politics, Comparative Politics, or in some parts of the subfield Comparative Political Studies or JOP would be nearly as widely (possibly even more widely) read, cited, and respected.
Back to Job Rumors!
Will Columbia look for a China person in the Fall? Have heard rumors both ways...
Rani Mullen, South Asia comparativist currently at William and Mary, is interviewing at American University.
Will Columbia look for a China person in the Fall? Have heard rumors both ways...
2/16/2008 7:37 PM
-----------------------------
Uh, dude. "China person" is not the preferred nomenclature.
Now, there is almost no new news, no new hires. Schools in California are canceling their searches. I wonder whether the current financial crisis hit the endowment funds badly.
After seeing the Latin America question, I thought I'd cross-post this IR job.
--
The Department of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges invites applications for a one-year sabbatical leave replacement position for the 2008-09 academic year, in the field of International Relations. Priority will be given to people who specialize in Latin America, Africa, or western Europe. Course load is 5 per year, with the candidate expected to teach the introduction to IR course, upper-level courses on IR theory and US Foreign Policy, as well as other courses reflecting the candidate’s specialization. We would be happy to have candidates who work in IPE, security and peace studies, international law, migration, gender, or global civil society. All theoretical approaches are welcome. Please send your letter of application, CV, writing sample, and other supporting material, and make arrangements for three reference letters to be sent, to Prof. David Ost; Dept. of Political Science, 4104 Scandling Center; Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Geneva, NY 14456. Deadline is February 29, 2008. Hobart and William Smith Colleges are committed to attracting and supporting a faculty of women and men of diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural background, and actively seek applications from under-represented groups. The Colleges do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, age, disability, veteran's status, or sexual orientation or any other protected status.
Did U Mass make calls last week?
Schools in California are canceling their searches
Which ones?
U.C. Berkeley (Political Science/ Global Metropolitan Studies) has made an offer to Alison Post (Harvard ABD)
I think 7:37 meant "China specialist".
But the question of whether and when Columbia will search to fill the slot left open after Bernstein's retirement remains unanswered. Does anyone know?
Any info on who got GWU'S offer for IPE-CP/Latin America?
The Mideast job at the Macmillan Center at Yale is apparently going to an anthropologist, not a political scientist.
Looks like the rumors here are moribund. Anyone know what ever became of the UVA and U Mass openings?
I would also like to know about GWU'S Latin America search.
What is going on at U of Miami? Any offers out?
What about Chicago? Any offers out? Or are they going senior now?
UM made offers to Campello (UCLA) and Zucco (UCLA, Princeton).
UVA is interviewing next week.
who is UVA interviewing?
I am happy to hear Zucco and Campello might solve the much dreaded two body problem and end up in the same place.
Have Zucco and Campello accepted Miami's offers?
Any news on UVA's re-dip?
On those schools looking for China/East Asia, how many will look junior? I would think many might have incentives to go senior instead...
Any information on which schools hired junior people who do China this year? The wiki seems rather incomplete.
Wow, once again Miami might end up with surprisingly strong junior faculty (Zuco and Capello).
Not a bad strategy for a dept trying to improve - to go after an academic couple.
For China, something to start with (in random, stream-of-consciousness order):
Junior:
Vala to Loyola Maryland
Wallace to OSU
Hsieh to Temple
Zheng to UConn (Stamford)
Weiss (to many offers from the top departments)
Senior:
Mertha to Cornell
Thornton to Oxford (is it a deal yet?)
There must be many other places such as UCSB, Oregon, Penn State, CUNY-Hunter, etc.
Where is Takeuchi (UCLA) headed to?
It'd also be interesting to see which places, from the many trying to hire in Middle East, actually hired someone.
10:15 AM
thanks George for the update, now if you can manage to hold on to anyone
Who is George?
UVA is bringing in one person.
What about Victor Shih? Surely he's looking to move?
No names?
Hunter might be looking for an India specialist.
Who is George?
George = GAG
Llewelyn Hughes (MIT) got the GW Asia job.
who are Zuco and Capello and what do they study? I haven't heard either name before even on the blog of the discipline is so sub-divided ...
zhu jiangnan, Shih's student, got a job at University of Nevada-Reno.
Mcelwain (stanford) to Michigan (Japan position), apparently.
They are both UCLA PhD's or ABD's doing Comparative. Correct spelling is Zucco and Campello, by the way.
Where is Takeuchi (UCLA) headed to?
I don't know. We liked his file, but in the end decided to bring in candidates with a different regional focus.
Is UC Irvine replacing Tony McGann? Is Comparative as a field relatively neglected there?
Too bad you didn't bring in Takeuchi. He is one of the really few next-generation China scholars in political science who does interesting formal work. Sounds like a good fit for Penn State, perhaps except that they are mostly looking for more established people.
Zucco had a number of interviews, including Cal Tech, few of which were reported on the blog.
My impression was that his file made him appear to be very technical, more of a methodologist and less substantive than our area studies people were looking for, thats why we didn't interview him.
Ironically, a friend in a department that did interview him said that he would be great for a substantive position, and that he was strong methodologically, but not quite as strong methodologically as the methods people he was competing against.
Where else did Zuco interview?
And where is Takeuchi going to?
I'm trying to compile a listing as comprehensive as possible for every CP opening.
UC Prof here.
The budget situation is still too uncertain for us to know what hiring prospects look like for next year....but we are expecting cuts.
I'm not aware of any searches being closed this year, but most of the searches I am aware of were early. Our department was done by 12/15, for instance.
Also, keep in mind that many of the upper tier UC's rely less on state funding than do the lower tier ones, who are more likely to feel the budgetary effects of the cutbacks.
Faculty at the lower tier UC's may be ripe for picking next year as the salary scale adjustment that is supposed to occur may not be funded (currently it really compresses advanced juniors and associates).
Faculty at those schools tend not to have the off scale money boosting salaries (to the same degree) like the top tier UC's do.
UC Irvine seems to focus upon Race and Politics. The rest of the fields over there are considerably weaker.
Does anyone know who PSU went after? Didn't they have multiple lines?
I heard PSU went after Eric Chang (MSU) and James Vreeland (heading now to Georgetown from Yale). But am not sure whether they hired others than the guy from ND.
Um, Chang and Vreeland are certainly more established than most ABDs, except perhaps Neil M. of Stanford who already published about 18 journal articles including in APSR.
I believe Takeuchi (UCLA) is heading to Southern Methodist, but I could be wrong.
"But am not sure whether they hired others than the guy from ND."
The guy of ND being?
Bumba Mukerjee (spelling?)
Wow, he had just moved to ND. Weird.
Wow! This week there has not been a single ad at e-jobs. I wonder what is the job prospect for next year.
so Miami is hiring two people but can't spell their names?
I am the one who got the spelling of their names wrong. And I have never had an affiliation with Miami.
So why are you doing their hiring? That place is stranger and stranger.
OK, I now have 6 schools in my list that have cancelled or suspended their searches. The financial meltdown obviously hit universities hard and the first thing to eliminate is the new faculty positions (not the enourmous salaries of the football coaches, of course!)I guess people who got jobs in fall are very lucky (save the possibility of reneging by the schools this time!)
are the alleged Miami hires in political science or in INS (though soon enough they'll be one dept)? INS is somewhat of a thriving dept and isn't just waiting to finish dying
Miami offers are in INS
If someone says that they have "closed the search," does that mean that they already have filled the position? Or, could it mean both ways?
Original post read: "Wow, once again Miami might end up with surprisingly strong junior faculty (Zuco and Capello).
Not a bad strategy for a dept trying to improve - to go after an academic couple."
So I don't think there's any weirdness here.
aha! INS is not the Miami dpt with all the psycho-drama -
Who interviewed/got an offer at UC Riverside?
Who interviewed/got an offer at UC Riverside?
I heard it was a mixture of junior and senior candidates. In one case, very senior. May take a while for the news to surface.
Miami INS department is quite good: it has published Latin American Politics and Society for many years, and that is a good journal. Campello and Zucco should fit well and strengthen the department.
Re: China scholar at Columbia post-Bernstein
Columbia hired Kay Shimuzu of Stanford (spelling?) last year. She must be holding a post-doc somewhere this year before starting her appoint this fall. She does both China and Japan.
for the China specialists, where did Yan (Harvard ABD) go? It looks like he was not on the market this year?
Umass made 6 calls, mostly or entirely in American/IR. They reportedly have made 3-4 hires, with 3-4 slots left open.
Who will be looking to hire for Middle East next year?
Somebody way back when had a comment about whether recognizing Vladimir Putin as Time's "Person of the Year" would have any counterpart in terms of increased interest in academia, including faculty hires. To that end, check out Mark Katz's editorial "Putin Saved My Career." http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2008/02/22/006.html Apparently it book-ends a 1991 editorial entitled "Gorbachev Ruined My Career." Thoughts?
(Add "tml" to the "h" at the end of the previous web address--3:39pm)
Were the U Mass decisions based on the lack of quality comparative candidates or the department's needs? For my ego's sake, let it be the latter.
Who got the offer from Bucknell to be McArthur Chair in East Asian studies?
Not sure. The interview is over? Who did they interview?
I think that is a very unfortunate name - McArthur Chair.
Anyone who studies either China or Japan would probably be a bit leery of being known forever more as a homonymn of the MacArthur (as in General Douglas) chair!
Good point, but there is also a funding place with that name.
Who will be looking to hire for Middle East next year?
===============
Nearly everyone will try, just like this year.
Mark Sawyer interviewing at OSU, according to REP blog.
What is the REP blog?
Did Chicago make any offers in Comparative?
Actually it is MacArthur Chair. Very interesting.
Where is Wenkai He (MIT PhD, Harvard Post-Doc) heading? He was interviewing at UVA and Oregon, among others. He seems to be doing some very interesting work.
Sounds like somebody got their rod and reel out.
Speaking of East Asia searches, where is David Dahua Yang (Pinceton ABD, Stanford pre/post-doc) heading? He was interviewing at UNC earlier. Just saw his piece in World Politics.
Who accepted the offer at American U.?
Who is UVA interviewing?
Can anyone confirm a suspicion that I've long held...that people with a connection to Princeton have an easier time publishing in WP?
Well, I am not sure. Many Princeton-related folks haven't published there; many other non-Princeton-related folks have. Unless you have a complete dataset of all submissions to WP, I don't know whether you could say anything more than a mere personally held suspicion. But I would say having a connection will not hurt.
WP (when it manages to publish) is the clubbiest of the "top" journals - no question about it
Truest clause ever:
"when it manages to publish"!
bizarre WP still is respected, if in fact it is...
I hope we don't degenerate into a discussion similar to the one on the American thread about AJPS and APSR. WP is still undoubtedly the most prestigious comparative journal.
When does the market in CP end? Can we still realistically get calls from departments around March/April?
Yes.
well that speaks about a pathology in the CP world that failing to publish the journal and being known as clubby doesn't cost the journal prestige - shameful really
"WP is still undoubtedly the most prestigious comparative journal."
Speak for yourself. I know many comparativists who disagree with that statement.
Indeed. The phrase "give me a break" comes to mind.
Why are you complaining about WP?
1. You haven't published there
2. So you do not have a good job
3. So you come here to complain
I have published in WP recently, and I think some people are basing their comments on old information or speculation. My review process was quite "normal". I got three standard reviews back within 4 months, there were editorial comments, I did an R&R, and it was accepted. Nothing different from any other journal. In fact managing editor Ilene Cohen was delightful to work with. I later came to find out who the reviewers were, and none of them were at Princeton or had Princeton affiliations. There may have been issues there years ago, but that seems to have passed.
I have had the same experience, and I have zero connection to Princeton or any Ivy League institution.
I also experienced a standard review process at WP, and have no affiliation with Princeton. My only complaint is that it still takes WP way to long to turn around manuscripts.
Just received a letter from U. of Kansas indicating they had closed their Middle East search, with intentions to try again next year.
Haha. Funny indeed, as way back I predicted such an outcome - with some people jumping on me claiming it'd be otherwise.
"When does the market in CP end? Can we still realistically get calls from departments around March/April?"
My department is hiring and will start making calls in March.
Has Trinity College made calls?
why do people defend poor management at WP?
They published there. end of list.
Is it comically poorly run? yes.
Is it riding on it's ancient reputation? yes.
have I cited anything from it from the last 10 years? no.
Anonymous said...
aha! INS is not the Miami dpt with all the psycho-drama -
2/22/2008 9:46 PM
Oh, yes it is!! I suffered there for many years. The psychos are all still there (but some have been promoted).
Is Toronto searching in the fall for a China specialist to replace Falkenheim? Or is this a new position?
My recent submission was rejected by WP, but indeed the review process is quite standard with 3 reviews in about 4 months. Ilene P. Cohen is one of the nicest managing editors to communicate with.
Every journal has issues and call could be called "clubby" under particular circumstances.
Let's get back to rumors. For those who want to keep debating the merits of WP, there is I think a journals thread. Take the whole insipid conversation over there please!
Actual job news:
Nuffield College intends to appoint, with effect from 1st September 2008, a Research Fellow in Experimental Social Science (RFESS).
Deadline April 4th.
Applications are invited from post-doctoral researchers of any country wishing to undertake research in any area of experimental social sciences. The main interests of the College are in Economics, Politics and Sociology, but these are broadly construed to include, for example, social science approaches to history, social and medical statistics, international relations, social psychology, public policy, and social policy. The College has recently begun an initiative in Experimental Social Science that includes a 20 station experimental lab that is dedicated to experimental research by scholars and students at Oxford University. It also includes a regular seminar on Experimental Social Science that highlights the research of leading experimental social scientists. The RFESS will be expected to play an active role in promoting the development of the Nuffield Centre for Experimental Social Science.
Details are available at:
http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/General/jobs/Research/Fellowship08/Index.aspx
Sorry. That part that's cut off after 'research' is
/Fellowship08/Index.aspx
INS at Miami is a bastion of sanity compared to political science - no doubt there are problems at both, but the political science department wins the hot-mess award (INS may be Lohan, but PS is Spears)
11:43 is completely right about Miami INS: whatever problems they have pale in comparison to the Political Science Department (which is in the B-School). And if INS gets Campello and Zucco they're off to the races.
Got an email that Vermont ended their search with no hire this year. Not sure if it was due to funds or lack of landing a candidate.
Campello declined an offer from UVM
Trinity College made an offer to Tony Messina at ND.
Is Messina likely to accept?
Is the UNT senior search a comparative or ir search?
Re: Messina, hard to say. It looks like he's still planning to be at ND next year.
Why is everyone thinking of (if not yet actually) leaving ND?
And for Trinity College, no less...a real mystery
Re: Toronto
If Toronto is searching to fill Falkenheim's slot, is Cornell looking to fill the new junior China position there had been some talk about a year or two back?
Why does Cornell need more than two people focusing on China? Another mystery.
There are a lot of Trinity Colleges, I take it Messina has an offer in Hartford? Dublin has not shortlisted yet as far as I know, the closing date was only last week.
Why does Cornell need more than two people focusing on China?
----
Why does my deparment have 12 people focusing on the United States?
Re Notre Dame 2/28/2008 7:26 PM: is there really an exodus from ND under way? Haven't heard anything about this. Details please if you have any, thanks.
Dublin beats South Bend by a mile...
Trinity College in Hartford made the offer to Messina.
As a veteran of Miami, the Lohan and Spears analogy is apt--though poli sci is no longer in the B school.
But to make clear the level of insanity at the place, both departments have fired faculty without cause in the last few years.
Campello (UCLA ABD) accepted a job at Princeton
Lohan and Spears ...funniest analogy of the poli sci blogs so far ...and if the even half the stories are true, best analogy too
Campello accepted Princeton? What is going on with Zucco then?
I'm not sure what's going on with Zucco but I bet what's not going on is a position at Miami ...
An exodus might be a little strong to describe the flux at Notre Dame. The people who have left are junior and moved onto better departments (e.g., Collins to Minnesota; Helmke to Rochester; Mosley to UNC). Having junior people hired away is a sign of quality.
Obviously, Messina is senior and might signal something different.
Re the ND "exodus;" Each of the 3 junior persons mentioned left several years ago, and each involved major "spousal aspects."
Speaking of spouses, Messina is married to Frances Hagopian, also ND faculty. So is Trinity a joint offer?
Update on UMASS? Have another round of calls gone out? And what offers were made and/or accepted?
So, when might Trinity College in Dublin make calls?
Umass is continuing interviews, all names that were raised early on (the search is so massive that some 20 people are being brought in). Those hired are Jesse Rhodes (UVA/American), Angelica Bernal (Yale/theory), and Fred Schaffer (Berkeley phd/comparative). Several additional comparativists have been interviewed and remain viable candidates, but the department has stronger needs in IR and American and is likely to hire in those areas.
I was telling a friend of mine how my Department could not fill job slots this academic year because of budget constraints – i.e., we could not invite enough candidates. He suggested what in a sense is a revolutionary and entirely workable idea. What he put forward was the notion of having candidates video record their presentations (which could be emailed), and a Department can follow up with telephone conversations – including Department-wide conference calls. It would be very efficient and save money, and allow Departments to “interview” a sufficient number of candidates at little expense. This process would only be marginally different than the interview process that Departments engage now, and it has definite advantages – i.e., faculty members can view the presentations at their discretion, as well as replay them. Once the Department renders a preference, they could invite the candidate of choice for an extended visit.
This could work to candidates’ advantage. Perhaps a candidate that would not get invited under normal circumstances (i.e., they are on the bubble), might under this regime be asked to submit their presentation. So whereas Departments now only see three interviewees, under this proposed reform Departments could see five, six, or maybe seven candidates – many of which they would not have seen under the old regime. Moreover, candidates would submit a “polished” presentation.
So candidates would be hired based on their video presence, charisma and film-making skills (along with their vita of course)?
Grad student speaking here.
From my perspective, video interviews seem like a terrible idea. I want the opportunity to answer questions, look people in the eye, and talk about my research. I also want to see what the department and its personalities are like and how well I might fit in. A conference call isn't going to help much there.
Maybe this is just grad student naivete, but it seems to me that hiring decisions are hugely important to any department and if you can't come up with the minimal scratch necessary for flyouts, maybe there is a deeper level of organizational disfunction at play in the budgeting process.
Many other disciplines - History, English, Economics - conduct preliminary screening interviews at their professional association annual meetings. They then tend to invite fewer candidates to campus - and with fewer huge surprise duds - than a lot of political science departments often do. For us to do this would likely require a mid-August deadline to submit CV and cover letter. Then committees would have to agree to go to APSA and spend most of their time there doing interviews. Then, they could invite 15-30 people to send in full applications within a few weeks after APSA and choose 2-3 among these to fly to campus. I think the level of organization required would probably sink it, but this would not be such a bad system...
History, economics, and english also exhibit more agreement as to what defines their disciplines both methodologically and topically.
It would be nice if the stigma about interviewing at APSA lessened. Kudos to Emory for being one of the few schools with resources who bothers to interview at APSA.
It isn't just about a "stigma", the real problem is getting SC members to show up and devote most of their conference time to interviewing candidates. If the conference interview became a formal screening stage in the process, the way it is in other disciplines, I think this might change. So long as anyone can sign up for an APSA interview and no one is given a jobtalk or refused one (except in the mot extreme of cases) on the basis of an APSA interview, it will be hard to get faculty to commit to taking them seriously.
To make it a real stage in the process, we'd have to narrow the pool down to 20-50 people based on CVs and cover letters (not a hugely difficult thing to do), interview those people at APSA, then invite full applications from some subset of them, based upon which 2 people or so could be invited to campus. This would mean more work for SC members, but it would also mean fewer complete disasters at the jobtalk which do not benefit anyone.
At the senior level I really don't care how the "job talk" goes. As long as the candidate teaches and publishes (as evidenced by the cv) all I want to know is if I can stand having dinner or a beer with the person. Am I the only one that thinks that job talks at the senior level is B.S.?
RE: 4:46 p.m.
Trust me, as a person who has attended more job talks (and participated in more job searches) than I care to acknowledge, if you are counting on “looking in someone’s eyes” to get you the position, I would not even bother to go to the interview.
4:46 p.m. -- The difficulty is that many/most Departments are limited to bringing in three candidates. If you cannot find your hire among these three, then you are out of luck for that year.
“So candidates would be hired based on their video presence, charisma and film-making skills (along with their vita of course)?”
Presence and charisma are always going to play a role. As for film-making skills, video recording technology is so ubiquitous that seemingly anyone can record and email a job talk presentation. Almost every cellular telephone has video and email capacity. Besides, we are in the age of global warming and oil dearth; as a way to maintain an appropriate carbon and energy budget, video conferencing and video presentations are things we all should be adroit in.
RE: Trust me, as a person who has attended more job talks (and participated in more job searches) than I care to acknowledge, if you are counting on “looking in someone’s eyes” to get you the position, I would not even bother to go to the interview.
3/02/2008 7:43 PM
If a face to face discussion of your research is not enough (what is the job talk for?) then what you suggest a candidate do to get the job.
"Trust me, as a person who has attended more job talks (and participated in more job searches) than I care to acknowledge, if you are counting on “looking in someone’s eyes” to get you the position, I would not even bother to go to the interview."
I can't tell whether you are misconstruing the intent of my statement or just being condescending.
I am not counting on any mystical powers conveyed by eye contact. My record is what it is, people will judge me on that, and I'm perfectly comfortable with that being the case. I'm just saying that I would appreciate the opportunity to actually talk about that record with people and communicate with them like a normal human being. That doesn't seem like too much to ask.
You guys are so much more entertaining than the IR website
Jobtalks for people more than a couple years out of grad school should not count too much - unless they are atrociously bad. Certainly, once you get to looking at even advanced assistant candidates, publication record ought to matter more than performance in an interview setting. That is even more true when looking at people 7-15 years out of school.
If a school cannot host 3 candidates due to budget constraints, what's good of that school?
David Rueda (Oxford) is giving a job talk at Chicago.
"If a school cannot host 3 candidates due to budget constraints"
No one has suggested that. The issue is that schools often cannot find their candidate of choice among those three invitees.
Think of a typical 90-minute job talk as having two parts: Part A (45 minutes) where the candidate presents, and Part B (another 45 minutes), where the candidate has to field questions and answer them on the spot. To me, Part B is always the most revealing. Part A is *relatively* easy, is almost entirely under the candidate's control, and gets better with practice. Part B depends on environmental factors such as the toughness of questioners, the emergence of completely new (sometimes off-the-wall) questions that the candidate hadn't encountered before, the cogency of specific answers, the candidate's ability to speak extemporaneously, and so on. It seems to me that submitting Part A as video and then holding Part B as a conference call would break down this dynamic, and would not be much different from holding the whole interview over the telephone. It would be like an actress holding a telephone news conference about her latest film, after the journalists have gotten the screener DVD in the mail. Not very interactive.
I would think that the questions put to the candidate would be more coherent, cogent and probative after faculty members had a day or two to cogitate on the candidate's presentation.
And if you think most faculty members would actually bother to view a video of the job presentation before asking questions, let alone "cogitate" on the presentation, you are either a grad student or have observed too few new hires. Faculty often don't have a problem asking questions even if they arrive halfway through the presentation.
Many faculty aren't actively engaged in the hiring process in their department (beyond making sure they can stand to have dinner with the person) or if they are engaged, it's because they have a favorite candidate and will use the q&a to pursue some goal related to getting that candidate hired.
You are generalizing from your experience, which is understandable, but, nonetheless, faulty reasoning. Moreover, I am more years beyond my Ph.D. than I care to acknowledge, and have been tenured for some time now.
In any event, over the years I have found my colleagues to be very engaged in the hiring process -- perhaps too much so. We often find ourselves intensely disagreeing over who to hire, and debating candidates' work and their presentations.
The main objection to the video idea is that it is so one-sided, favoring the department's interests over the applicant's. The candidate would have no chance to visit, talk to people, get vibes from the place, and decide if she/he would like to work there. Of course, beggars can't be choosers and some candidates would still be willing to go along with this kind of scheme, but it is a bad idea for this and other reasons mentioned above.
Congratulations to 3/02/2008 7:53 PM for bringing in a different angle: climate change. This idea of video interviews may be unappealing, but in the long run it will almost certainly be adopted -- not because of the kind of stuff people talk about on this blog, but because of the carbon footprint of nonessential air travel. The days of big conferences, or of flying in weekly invited speakers to your university, are probably numbered. Climate change would seem to militate against the idea of 6000 political scientists spending Labor Day weekend together, for example. How necessary is it? In 20 years people may wonder how such activities could have been justified in the past. I am not a green activist myself, but I see the debate evolving in this way, and I have already heard of departments that are trying to find ways to reduce nonessential travel for these very reasons.
Anyone else, apart from Rueda, interviewing at Chicago?
"Trust me, as a person who has attended more job talks (and participated in more job searches) than I care to acknowledge, if you are counting on “looking in someone’s eyes” to get you the position, I would not even bother to go to the interview."
Do not listen to this. DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS. In the vast majority of schools, including the very top ones, your personality and charm matter, and at the margins might make a difference. Never underestimate the importance of being smart, sharp and comfortable on your feet when challenged, AND not an asshole. Two of those things will never be communicated either over the phone or through a video.
Why do some people without outstanding CVs not get hired? This is why.
Many thanks to the person who posted the video interview idea for almost single-handedly resurrecting this thread. But I have seen junior people (well 2-year assistants)getting new jobs at higher-ranked places by merely sending their cvs.
Why do some people without outstanding CVs not get hired? This is why.
I mean, why do some people *with* outstanding CVs not get hired.
And the flipside: why do some people without good cvs get hired? This usually relates to pedigree and connections.
"The main objection to the video idea is that it is so one-sided, favoring the department's interests over the applicant's. The candidate would have no chance to visit, talk to people, get vibes from the place, and decide if she/he would like to work there. Of course, beggars can't be choosers and some candidates would still be willing to go along with this kind of scheme, but it is a bad idea for this and other reasons mentioned above."
The original suggestion noted that the candidate "chosen" by the Department would be brought in for an extended interview. Hence, this objection to this plan, as well as another similar objection posted later, are straw men.
And if the "extended interview" doesn't work out, just go back to the stack of videos! Maybe play them in slow motion the second time and try to figure out what you missed the first time.
Hence, this objection to this plan, as well as another similar objection posted later, are straw men.
Except for the idea that you save on gas. Unless departments watch videos and decide to interview only one candidate, something which isn't likely.
3/03/2008 12:54 PM
Because a strong candidate with a dynamite dissertation project who may not have published yet is far better than a candidate with a few mediocre publications. Quality matters, not quantity. When people figure that out they will end up at a better department.
You are generalizing from your experience, which is understandable, but, nonetheless, faulty reasoning. Moreover, I am more years beyond my Ph.D. than I care to acknowledge, and have been tenured for some time now.
In any event, over the years I have found my colleagues to be very engaged in the hiring process -- perhaps too much so. We often find ourselves intensely disagreeing over who to hire, and debating candidates' work and their presentations.
And yet you generalize yourself... Aren't we supposed to give input based on our own experiences, which by definition is a generalization?
I don't see how his/her reasoning was faulty. Maybe your experiences aren't the same as his/hers, but the reasoning isn't faulty.
"Unless departments watch videos and decide to interview only one candidate, something which isn't likely."
Departments have to settle on one candidate now. How does watching candidates through video change the internal Department dynamic? Ideally, it would improve this dynamic as Department faculty can more carefully cogitate candidate presentations.
"And yet you generalize yourself... Aren't we supposed to give input based on our own experiences, which by definition is a generalization?"
No! What you are putting forward is inductive reasoning -- namely, generalizing from the specific. This is patently misguided logic.
"if the 'extended interview' doesn't work out"
Departments can invite the second person on their list.
Departments have to settle on one candidate now.
Really? Departments only fly out one candidate per position? Which departments are these? In my podunk top 50 department, we fly out 3-4.
RE: 3/03/2008 12:54 PM
"Because a strong candidate with a dynamite dissertation project who may not have published yet is far better than a candidate with a few mediocre publications. Quality matters, not quantity. When people figure that out they will end up at a better department."
I wholeheartedly agree. Some candidates are so good they never have to publish.
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