Tag: getting hired

Are you getting enough presentations and papers published?

If not, this UPenn site may have what you need. It has regularly updated CFPs and essay solicitations.

Both of my essay proposals for publication which have been accepted came from there. I hope to also be writing an encyclopedia article, which was okayed but not formally accepted, from that list as well.

In addition, I found a national conference which I have good credentials and papers for which I had never heard of and I applied there.

Part of what makes an instructor marketable is the presenting and publishing. (If you aren’t sure of that, check out my response to an interview discussion. Or look at this conversation on publishing and job offers.)

Publishing

I have just had corroborated that I was not hired for a job because of my lack of recent work. I have been working on conference presentations and have gotten several of those papers accepted.

However, I have not done much on publications and that was the word my colleague used tonight.

I have been working on a paper for Reconstruction.

And I came home and began checking out other CFPs.

I have already written to the people from this general literature reference work, and I have sent it on to one of my bosses, since they are calling for a theme that she teaches regularly. I don’t know if she is interested in publishing, but it seemed to have her name on it to me. These essays are due January 1.

Ignatius Critical Editions have put out a call for more traditional literary criticism on various books, including Gulliver’s Travels. I have taught this book for seven or so years and have a lot of thoughts on it. The question is whether or not I could finish a 5000 word essay of sufficient interest (for the reader) and complexity by January 1, 2009. But it would be a really good idea. I have blogged earlier on ideas I wanted to deal with at length on GT.

Women’s Reproductive Lives . Deadline is April 30, 2009.

The Christian Parapsychologist, though I am not sure where I would go with this. Perhaps into The Clown of God story? This will be published in September. Proposals are due January 1 and the essay is due April 1. Essay length is 5,000-9,000 words.

American Writers, Twilight Years looks interesting. I was thinking maybe Charlotte Perkins Gilman. But they want a CV and if they’re going on this based on what has been written, they won’t accept me. However, their deadline for proposals is December 20 and June 15 is their end deadline. I can ask. The worst they can do is say “No, thank you.” Perhaps when I write them, I should give this blog’s email address. At least then they will know that I am able to write. (I do realize the type of writing is different.)

A call for a proposed anthology of women’s letters to their doctors. If you read my personal blog, which you don’t, you would know that I could probably create an entire anthology all by my lonesome on that topic. It might not ever happen, though, so I don’t know if I will submit. Submission deadline is February 15. It is certainly doable. And would be kind of interesting.
Update: I couldn’t sleep so I started working up this and the Ignatius paper proposal. Writing like this is how teachers keep from going stale, I would guess.

How do you know what you should focus on?

I’m going to say you should teach. That’s the most important thing. But what’s after that? What is most important (at a college) to get hired or get tenure? (Not relevant to community college teachers because… er, you’ll have to wait for my CCTE presentation–I hope.)

“The relative importance attributed to research, teaching, and service is reflected also in the ranking of activities within each of these categories of evaluation. For example, within the category of research, publishing is deemed a more noteworthy activity than presenting papers (akin to lecturing) or editing or reviewing for a journal (akin to grading). And within the category of publishing, publishing articles in scholarly journals (for other researchers) is considered more important than publishing textbooks (for students), and both of these activities carry far more weight than publishing essays in the popular media (for the general populace) – an activity typically deemed utterly insignificant for the purposes of tenure and promotion review. Finally, within the category of publishing scholarly works, publishing purely theoretical articles often ranks above publishing articles which “merely” apply theory to a problem and, typically, both of these rank above publishing educationally oriented articles” (48).

Shelley M. Park
The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Jan. – Feb., 1996), pp. 46-84