music history musicology ethnomusicology
[[music_history_musicology_ethnomusicology]] last edit on
Feb 28, 2012
10:52 PM
by Anonymous
Academic Careers
finding, applying, and interviewing for jobs in higher educationMUSIC HISTORY/MUSICOLOGY/ETHNOMUSICOLOGY (2010-11)
[note: 2009-2010 page remains available/active. See archive links below]
(Schools listed once, in alphabetical order - Application due date in parentheses)
Current Wiki Time: Thu May 17 05:24:48 CEST 2012
Last Page Update: 2012-02-28 22:52:27.0
Please add new links there
1. Please keep the schools alphabetized for ease of use.
2. Please delete a school from the old category when you move it to a new one.
3. Please retain spacing and formatting where possible; the "preview" option helps here.
4. Unless you feel like it will give away your identity, please add dates to your posting to make it easier to find updates.
Q: Time to start a new page for the 2011-2012 search? Any thoughts on remaining at wikihost or moving with the rest of the humanities to Academic Jobs wiki?
A1: Time indeed, and I'm in favor of moving to other wiki provider. I think we could all use a fresh start...
Q (again): I've got us started over at Academic Jobs wiki: http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Musicology/Ethnomusicology,_2011-12 . I think we can figure out formatting as we go along (it's a little different than this page). Might I suggest a few things (which can of course be debated)?
1) Let's do a general, alphabetical list of all the jobs, with updates under each posting. [This is the standard format for other job wikis.] Let's ditch the "announced jobs," "jobs at the interview stage," etc.
2) Let's keep musicology/ethnomusicology together. We debated it last year, and most people seemed in favor of keeping all the academic music jobs together.
3) I've added a "General Discussion" heading under the current job postings. Let's keep all of the (expected and interesting) hubbub below that line, and keep all of the job updates with the specific job postings.
A: Could we recap the advantages of the new place? Is it just a better provider or are there advantages to the new format, etc? I am in favour, in theory!
R: wikia is a more stable and reliable provider. wikihost crashes regularly.
R2: I also like the edit function at wikia, which allows you to edit one part of the wiki at a time. My guess is this will prevent big editing mistakes, in which the entire wiki is affected by a single change. Also, I think it's good for musicology/ethnomusicology to be close to the other humanities, even in a virtual space.
R3: I agree with all of the above, but I also really miss the cleaner appearance of wikihost. I find it much easier to scan through quickly, and making edits was a lot less cumbersome. Also all the advertising on wikia (especially the stuff that changes every few seconds) is really distracting and hard on the eyes.
Schools with known acceptances (doctorate-granting institution in CAPS):
American University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Shalini Ayyagari (UC BERKELEY, 2009)
Babson College: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Sandra Graham (NYU, 2001)
Beloit College: Postdoctoral Fellow, Ethnomusicology (two year) - Denise Gill-Gürtan (UC SANTA BARBARA, ABD)
Boston University: Assistant Professor in Ethnomusicology - Marie Abe (UC BERKELEY, 2010)
Boston University: Assistant Professor in Historical Musicology - Patrick Wood Uribe (PRINCETON, 2011)
Bowling Green State University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Katherine Meizel (UC SANTA BARBARA, 2007)
Brandon University, MB, Canada: Assistant Professor, Musicology, discipline open - Colette Simonot (MCGILL, 2011)
Brown University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Joshua Tucker (MICHIGAN, 2005)
Cal State Northridge: Assistant Professor, Musicology- Alexandra Monchick (HARVARD 2010/UMASS Lowell)
Cardiff University: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Studies - Keith Chapin (STANFORD, 2002?)
Cardiff University: Lecturer in Ethnomusicology - Amanda Villepastour (SOAS, 2006)
Carleton College: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Andrew Flory (UNC CHAPEL HILL, 2006/Shenandoah)
Chinese University of Hong Kong: Assistant Professor (Historical Musicology) - Joseph E. Jones (ILLINOIS, 2009)
Cleveland State University, Visiting Assistant Professor, Musicology - Michael Baumgartner (SALZBURG, 2005/U of British Columbia)
Colby College: 1-year Faculty Fellow, Musicology pre-1750 w/early music ensemble directing — Ryan Dohoney (COLUMBIA, 2009)
College of the Holy Cross: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Daniel DiCenso (CAMBRIDGE, ABD)\
Columbia University: Assistant Professor of Music Theory - Benjamin Steege (HARVARD/STONY BROOK)
Columbia University: Assistant Professor of Music with a Specialization in African-American Music - Kevin Fellezs (UC SANTA CRUZ, 2004)
Columbia University: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Musicology (two-year) - Davide Ceriani (HARVARD, 2011)
Cornell University: Asst/Assoc Professor, Musicology - Benjamin Piekut (COLUMBIA, 2008/SOUTHAMPTON)
Dalhousie University: Visiting Lecturer/Assistant Professor, Musicology (50%) - Kelsey Cowger (UCLA, ABD/U of RICHMOND)
Eastman School of Music/U of Rochester: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Jennifer Kyker (UPENN, ABD)
Fordham University: Assistant Professor, Musicology (Renaissance or Early Baroque) - Eric Bianchi (YALE, 2011)
Franklin & Marshall College: Assistant Professor of Music - Karen Leistra-Jones (YALE, 2011)
Georgia Gwinnett College: Assistant Professor of Music - Cathy Kilroe-Smith (GEORGIA, 2011)
Harvard University: College Fellow, Musicology (Renaissance through 18th-c) - Evan MacCarthy (HARVARD, 2010)
Indiana State University: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Terry Dean (GEORGIA, 2009)
Indiana University Post-Doctoral Resident Scholar - Timothy Freeze (MICHIGAN, 2010)
Indiana University, Visiting Assistant Professor, Musicology - Alison Altstatt (U OREGON, 2011)
Ithaca College: Assistant Professor, Music History - Sara Heimbecker (U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2011)
Kalamazoo College: Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, Ethnomusicology - Yona Stamatis (MICHIGAN, 2011)
Kent State University: Assistant Professor (non-tenure track), Ethnomusicology/Music Appreciation - Eve McPherson (UC SANTA BARBARA, 2009)
King's College, University of London: Postdoctoral Fellow, Ethnomusicology (three-year) - Jim Sykes (CHICAGO, 2011)
Luther College: Mellon Postdoc in Ethnomusicology (two-year) - Michael O'Brien (UT-AUSTIN, 2010)
Marlboro College: Tenure-track, Various Specialties - Matan Rubinstein (UW-MADISON, 2009/UW Whitewater)
McGill University: Dean, Schulich School of Music - Sean Ferguson (MCGILL, 2000)
Memorial University, Newfoundland:VAP, Ethnomusicology and/or Popular Music Studies - Chris Tonelli (UC San Diego 2011)
Middlebury College: 3-year VAP, Ethnomusicology - Damascus Kafumbe (FLORIDA STATE, ABD)
Nebraska Wesleyan University: Assistant Professor, Musicology/Ethnomusicology - John D. Spilker (FLORIDA STATE, 2010)
New College of Florida: Visiting Assistant Professor, Musicology/Ethnomusicology - Kariann Goldschmitt (UCLA, 2009/Colby College)
Oberlin College Conservatory (one-semester) - Paul Schick (YALE, 1997)
Ouachita Baptist University: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Jir Shin Boey (INDIANA, 2010)
Pennsylvania State-Erie: one-year, renewable, music history / basic music theory - Hilary Baker (UPENN, 2010)
Princeton University: Assistant Professor, Musicology (open) - Anna Zayaruznaya (HARVARD 2010/NYU)
Saint Anselm College: Assistant Professor, Musicology – Sean Parr (COLUMBIA, 2009)
Saint Michael's College: Assistant Professor, Musicology - William Lee Ellis (U MEMPHIS, 2010)
Santa Clara University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Christina Zanfagna (UCLA, 2010)
Sheffield University: Lecturer, Musicology - Dominic McHugh (KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON, 2009)
Shenandoah Conservatory: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Laurie McManus (UNC CHAPEL HILL, 2011) (Q/A below)
Southern Methodist University: Assistant Professor, Musicology/Ethnomusicology - Peter Kupfer (UCHICAGO, 2010)
Syracuse University, Assistant Professor of Musicology (in Dept. of African-American Studies) - Paul Steinbeck (COLUMBIA?/UChicago)
Texas Christian University: Assistant Professor, Music History/Musicology - William Gibbons (UNC CHAPEL HILL, 2010)
University College Cork: Professor of Music - Jonathan Stock (QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, BELFAST)
University of Arkansas: 3-year renewable, Music Appreciation - Matthew Mihalka (MINNESOTA, ABD)
University of Birmingham, UK: Chair in Musicology - Andrew Kirkman (KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON/Rutgers)
University of California, Berkeley: ACLS New Faculty Fellow, Visiting Asst. Prof. (two-year) - J. Griffith Rollefson (UW-MADISON, 2009/Chapman U)
University of California, Berkeley: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities (two-year postdoc) - Deirdre Loughridge (UPENN, 2011)
University of California, Berkeley: UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow (two-year) - Jessica Bissett Perea (UCLA, 2011)
University of Cambridge, UK: University Lectureship in Music (2-year post) - David Trippett (HARVARD, 2009/Cambridge)
University of Cambridge, UK: Mellon Postdoc in Popular Music and Culture - Monique Ingalls (UPENN, 2008)
University of Chicago: Assistant Professor, Music History - Seth Brodsky (EASTMAN, 2007/Yale)
University of Chicago: Society of Fellows (four-year) - Michael Gallope (NYU, 2011)
University of Delaware: Assistant Prof, Music History (post-1600) - Maria Purciello (PRINCETON, 2005/West Chester U)
University of Hawaii at Manoa: Assistant Professor, Asian Studies (Performing Arts) - Anna Stirr (COLUMBIA, 2009)
University of the Incarnate Word: Assistant Professor, Music History - Kevin Salfen (UNT, 2005/SMU)
University of Iowa: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Nathan Platte (MICHIGAN, 2010)
University of Iowa: Lecturer in Ethnomusicology/Musicology - Trevor S. Harvey (FLORIDA STATE, 2009)
University of Kansas: Assistant Professor, Musicology, Classical/Romantic - Alicia Levin (UNC CHAPEL HILL, 2009)
University of North Carolina at Asheville: Tenure-track Jazz & Popular Music Studies - William Bares (HARVARD, 2009)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Tenure-track Musicianship/Aural skills - Lee Weisert (Northwestern University, DMA 2010)
University of Otago: Lecturer (tenure-track), Musicology - Andrew Deruchie (MCGILL, 2009/U of Ottawa)
University of Otago: Lecturer (tenure-track), Pacific Music - Jennifer Cattermole (MACQUARIE U, AUSTRALIA)
University of Pennsylvania: Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow (two-year), Music - Amy Cimini (NYU, ABD)
University of Pittsburgh: Ethnomusicologist specializing in African Music (junior or senior) - Gavin Steingo (UPENN, 2010/COLUMBIA POSTDOC)
University of Rochester: Assistant Professor, Musicology/Music History - Corbett Bazler (COLUMBIA, 2010)
University of San Diego: Chair, Music - David Harnish (UCLA, 1991/BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY)University of Richmond, Assistant Professor, Musicology - Jessie Fillerup (U OF KANSAS, 2009/U of Mary Washington)
University of Southern California: Provost's Postdoctoral Scholar in the Humanities (Musicology) (two year)- Tracy McMullen (UC SAN DIEGO, 2007)
University of Texas at Austin: Lecturer (one-year), Ethnomusicology (Latin America) - Darien Lamen (UPENN, ABD)
University of York (UK): Lecturer, Musicology - Áine Sheil(KING's COLLEGE, LONDON, 2004)
Utah Valley University: Lecturer, Musicology (one-year) - Ross Hagen (CU-BOULDER, 2010)
Wayne State University: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Joshua Duchan (MICHIGAN, 2007)
Yale University: ACLS New Faculty Fellow, Postdoctoral fellow (two-year) - Emily Green (CORNELL, 2009)
Number of Jobs: So approximately 75 positions filled on this list. Does that make 2010-11 a good year, a bad year, an average year, a less than average year, a more than average year?
Schools with rumored acceptances/offers (name unknown):
Carroll University (1 December, 2010): Assistant Professor in Music (theory, ethno, performance) (rejection email)
Skidmore College (March 11): Visiting Assistant Professor, Music History or Theory (via rejection email 4/18)
University of Alberta: Director of Folkways Alive! With tenure at associate or full, renewable term position. (http://www.iaspm.net/?p=200)
University of California, Los Angeles: Lecturer or Visiting Assistant Prof., Musicology (via rejection email 6/6)
University of Kentucky: Lecturer in World Music Performance (2 year, possibly renewable non-tenure-track)
University of Pittsburgh: Senior Musicologist ??Someone must know who got this position (by now 3/17)??
University of Texas, Brownsville: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology
University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh: Assistant Professor, Music History (snail mail 5/2)
Whitman College: Assistant Professor, Music history and "any instrument other than violin" (rejection email 5/27)
Williams College (25 April 2011): Visiting Professor (Fall 2011 only), Ethnomusicology with focus on African music
Schools that have requested campus visits:
University of Cape Town, South African College of Music: Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer/Lecturer, Musicology
University of Edinburgh (27 May 2011): Teaching Fellow in Music
University of Lethbridge: Three-year, Music History - Phone 4/15
University of Missouri (18 January 2011): Assistant or Associate Professor, Musicology or Ethnomusicology, research and teaching interests in Black Studies (MVL)]]
Victoria University of Wellington/New Zealand School of Music : Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Musicology (eighteenth century and/or theoretical and analytical approaches to musicology)
Schools that are conducting phone and/or video interviews:
Mahidol University in Thailand: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Email request (video interview): 2/9 (x2)
Montclair State University: Three adjunct positions - Email request (video interview) - 4/8
University of Auckland: Lecturer in Ethnomusicology - Shortlist established; video interviews in place of campus visit - 1/11
University of Notre Dame: World Music and World Christianity (rank open) - 2/14
Washington University: Musicology, advertised as year-long sabbatical replacement, morphed into one-semester adjunct - 5/18
Schools that have requested more materials:
University of Notre Dame: World Music and World Christianity - 2/8
Schools requesting conference interviews:
Schools that have sent out rejection letters and/or established a shortlist:
College of Mount Saint Vincent, 5/16
Announced jobs with no further information on their status:
Cal State San Marcos(no deadline listed): "Pianist/Theorist/Ethnomusicologist" (CHE)
According to the Theory/Comp Wiki Carroll is conducting phone interviews.
Claflin University (1 July 2011): Asst Prof/TT, Musicology/Ethnomusicology (CHE)
Delaware State University (Open until filled): Chair Music department
Goldsmiths, University of London (30 March 011): Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Music
Mahidol University in Thailand (1 December 2010): Historical Musicology (MVL)
Saarland University: Research Fellowship in Musicology, 16th-century music, proficiency in Spanish and/or Italian required
Simpson College (1 December 2010): Assistant Professor with a bunch of other stuff...
Texas A&M University (9 May 2011): Assistant Lecturer, ethnomusicology or musicology (2 openings);
University of California, Los Angeles (1 March 2011): Tenured, Mickey Katz endowed chair in Jewish music, "composition, performance, ethnomusicology, musicology, or other scholarly disciplines" (MVL) http://bit.ly/e5w0NO
University of Liverpool (26 May 2011): Lecturer in Music
University of Sheffield (26 January 2011): Chair / Senior Lecturer in Music Performance
University of Texas, Arlington (announced 18 April 2011): 1-year VAP in String Bass/Music History.
University of Western Australia (26 May 2011): Assistant Professor / Associate Professor in Early Music http://www.seek.com.au/Job/assistant-professor-associate-professor/in/perth-cbd-inner-western-suburbs/19818254 (application deadline 1 July 2011)
University of York (3 February 2011): Lecturer in Music (musicologist, performer or composer)
Canceled and failed searches:
East Carolina University: Asst/Assoc Prof, Musicology post-1750, secondary American music or vocal lit. - Email from chair confirms search canceled (state budget/funding cuts) (3/22)
Indiana University: Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology (4/28) - snail mail letter received on 5/13 saying that they did not make a permanent hire and would continue the search next year
Kennesaw State University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Letter stating that the search was canceled due to funding (2/5)
University of Michigan-Dearborn (MVL) - Email from chair confirmed search canceled (11/11)
York University: Assistant Professor, Music of the Americas ("including expertise in plucked strings") - Email states no finalist was offered the position (7/8)
Deadline Calendar (in chronological order; YYYY.MM.DD)
2010.09.20 Utah Valley University
2010.09.22 American University
2010.10.01 Babson College
2010.10.01 Brown University
2010.10.01 Oberlin College Consv.
2010.10.03 University of Auckland
2010.10.12 Harvard University
2010.10.15 Cardiff University x 2
2010.10.15 College of the Holy Cross
2010.10.15 Fordham University
2010.10.18 Eastman School of Music
2010.10.20 Luther College
2010.10.20 Montclair State University
2010.10.28 University of Chicago
2010.11.01 Franklin & Marshall College
2010.11.01 University of Delaware
2010.11.01 University of Otago
2010.11.05 Marlboro College
2010.11.10 Penn State Erie
2010.11.15 Indiana University
2010.11.15 Kennesaw State University
2010.11.15 University of Richmond
2010.11.15 Southern Methodist University
2010.11.15 Santa Clara University
2010.11.19 University of Kansas
2010.11.22 University of Pittsburgh (senior musicologist)
2010.11.22 University of Pittsburgh (ethnomusicologist)
2010.12.01 Carleton College
2010.12.01 Carroll University
2010.12.01 Mahidol University in Thailand x 2
2010.12.01 Syracuse University
2010.12.01 University of Notre Dame
2010.12.01 University of Rochester
2010.12.01 York University
2010.12.06 Ithaca College
2010.12.10 University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh
2010.12.15 Middlebury College
2010.12.15 Boston University (historical)
2010.12.15 Boston University (ethno)
2010.12.15 University of Iowa (tenure-track musicology)
2010.12.16 Kent State
2010.12.17 Cornell University
2010.12.31 Beloit College (ethno)
2010.12.31 Chinese University of Hong Kong (Chinese music)
2010.12.31 Chinese University of Hong Kong (Historical musicology)
2011.01.03 Texas Christian University
2011.01.03 University of Iowa (lecturer, ethno/history)
2011.01.07 Wayne State University
2011.01.15 Indiana State University
2011.01.15 University of Texas, Brownsville
2011.01.18 University of Missouri
2011.02.01 University of Hawai'i at Mânoa (Continuous)
2011.02.01 University of San Diego
2011.02.11 University of Birmingham (UK)
2011.02.15 Memorial University of Newfoundland
2011.02.15 Nebraska Wesleyan University
2011.02.15 Cal State Northridge
2011.02.28 University of Lethbridge
2011.03.01 University of Otago
2011.03.09 Montclair State University
2011.03.10 Whitman College
2011.03.11 Skidmore College
2011.03.14 University of Cambridge
2011.03.23 UT Austin
2011.03.30 Goldsmiths, University of London
2011.04.08 University College Cork
2011.04.10 University of Arkansas
2011.04.18 University of Kentucky
2011.04.25 Williams College
????.??.?? Saarland University
????.??.?? Georgia Gwinnett College (rolling deadline)
End of Search Year: (maybe it's time for another count?)
I was on the market this year and secured a TT job: 4
I was on the market this year and have a full-time position next year (VAP, etc.): 2
I was on the market this year and have a part-time adjunct position next year: 3
I was on the market this year and have a TA or fellowship next year: 5
I was on the market this year and don't know what I'm planning to do for employment next year: 4
I will be on the market again next year: 7
I didn't secure a TT job, and will not return to the market next year: 1
I didn't secure a TT job, and have not decided whether I will return to the market next year: 1
Discussion of Specific Schools
ACLS New Faculty Fellowships
Q: Was anyone in musicology offered this fellowship this year?
A1: I'm an ethnomusicologist, and I got a rejection email yesterday (1/14/2011) (x2). They'll post the recipients on their website eventually.
A2: Yes. (x2. I wonder how many of us there are in ethno/historical musicology out of the whole bunch.)
A3: Congratulations, A2! (x3)
A4: There is a separate wiki.
A5: List of ACLS New Faculty Fellows now posted at http://www.acls.org/research/nff.aspx?id=5556 Five awardees in ethno/musicology.
AMS 50 Dissertation Fellowships
Q1: Has anyone heard anything? The initial e-mail confirmation said that decisions would come out around the end of March.
A1: Winners have been notified. (4/7)
Q2: Were winners notified on 4/7 or in mid-March, as in past years? Have any alternates been notified? Or are alternates only notified as each winner goes honorary?
A2: Looking on last year's wiki, it seems that there was a notification of award received in the end of March and then rejection e-mails received on 4/20.
A3: Seems winners only heard on 4/7. Have any alternates been notified since then?
Q3: 4/7 was just yesterday. Do they usually notify the winners and alternates at the same time?
A4: Received notification of award 4/6.
Q4: Have the winners been announced yet? (4/23)
A5: Winners will be announced in the AMS newsletter (August). Same for Howard Mayer Brown award.
Q5: Has anyone received a rejection e-mail yet? It's great to find all of this information from the wiki, but if all of the awards have been given out, a curt rejection e-mail would be nice.
Boston University (Historical Musicology)
Q: What other materials did they request?
A: Two articles or book chapters.
Brown
I thought Brown's rejection letter was the best (and most accurate, probably) I've ever gotten: "Your application did not meet our specific needs at this time." (2/5)
A1: That's pretty standard language. I once got a reject (another school) that said "none of your qualifications meets our needs at this time."
Cal State Northridge
Q1: I read in the news that the California Governor-elect is proposing to cut even more from the UC and Cal State systems. This combined with the statement in the job ad about it being contingent on the budget makes me wonder if this job search will proceed. Does anyone from California know anything about this?
Q2: What materials do they want? Cover Letter? CV? Letters? Teaching Video? American Idol Audition Tape?
A1: I just got off the phone with the Admin. Coordinator at CSUN. They want a CV, cover letter, list of references, and 3 letters of recommendation mailed directly to the department. They do not require an online application.
A2: Regardless of what someone said on the phone, their job listing (HigherEd, linked above) specifically mentions a transcript.
Q: Has anyone heard *anything* more from these schools that are long past their campus visits?
Q2: Does anyone know if ALL of the jobs in the California State system have been cut? I notice that none (with the exception of some postdocs which come from private funding agencies) have advanced beyond the campus interview stage. I was shortlisted at two, and have heard nothing so far. Could this be related to the 500 million dollar state budget cut?
Q3: I have been shortlisted as well at CSUN and haven't heard anything lately.
A: California probably is waiting for the May budget revise, which is due sometime next week.
A2: Also short-listed at CSUN. Have heard nothing either, nor have I been reimbursed. I heard through the grapevine a couple of weeks ago that the job has been canceled.
Cardiff University
Q1: What are you all doing about signing the application. Must a signature be scanned or can I just email the darn thing without one?
A1: If they accept e-mailed letters, I write at the bottom "submitted electronically on DATE" or something to that effect.
A2: Do you have online banking? I cut and pasted a signature from a check scanned by the bank and it worked great.
Carleton College
Q1: Has anyone heard anything positive from Carleton? I see that some people have received rejection emails already. I haven't heard anything positive or negative yet, but I'm wondering if I should just be waiting for the other shoe to drop.
A1: I've yet to hear from Carleton either positively or negatively. (1/6) x5
A2: I was informed during an SEM interview that the SC would not be seriously reviewing applications until February and not to expect to hear back until mid-semester. I was surprised to see that they sent out rejections already.
A3: I was equally surprised that the last round of rejection emails came out the same day as phone calls to finalists. As painful as it was to get that email, it was much better than getting the news from the wiki. Thanks for being on top of it, Carleton!
Q2: So there have been TWO rounds of rejection emails? Could someone confirm this for my paranoid mind? I received neither rejection email, but I also did not receive a phone call today. Anyone else in this situation (1/18).
A4: Yes, I've not heard either way either (1/18). Did you do a conference interview? (I did)
Q2 again: Yep, I did a conference interview too. Maybe we're the backup pool or something. (Or maybe that's my own wishful thinking.)
Q1 again: I also did a conference interview, and I have yet to receive either a phone call or an email rejection. (1/19 afternoon)
A5: I got an email rejection from them THREE WEEKS after seeing on the wiki that they had sent out rejections. I don't know what any of it means, but I would really like to...Why such a staggered notification process?
A6: It doesn't seen that odd to me. Let's say they made a first round of cuts to come up with a long list, then culled that to a long short list of finalists (thus the two rounds of rejection emails). They invited their top picks for campus visits, and the rest are alternates in case none of their finalists work out. I actually think the staggered rejections are a sign that they were dedicated to keeping applicants informed of their status. Better that than being in the dark until the bitter end, I think. (x2)
Colby College
Q1: Has anyone heard form Colby? It's been two months since the deadline.
A1: I got a receipt of materials, but that was toward the beginning of January.
A2: I've heard that they are currently interviewing candidates.
College of the Holy Cross
Q: Has anyone heard from Holy Cross about AMS interviews?
A1: Just got an e-mail from them requesting one, though I have no idea what that actually means (e.g. am I now "short-listed"?).
A2: I think it means they liked your undergraduate transcripts.
A3: Why would they bother emailing the eve of the conference when people are in transit and away from email?
A4: I think the "short list" usually refers to the group invited for campus visits (this is the "long list"). I got the email too, but nothing afterward. Did anyone else hear anything more?
A5: Despite the 24-hour advance notice, did anyone actually have an interview with Holy Cross at AMS?
A1 (again): I'm wondering the same things as A4 and A5. I got the e-mail on 11/3, and replied to it the next day, but never heard anything more. As it turns out I wasn't able to be at the conference, but the e-mail did offer the possibility of a phone conversation the following week - which has now come and gone. Needless to say, I'm more than a little concerned. Can anyone clarify the situation? I sure hope this doesn't mean I've lost my chance....
A6: Long-list interviews did take place at the AMS meeting.
A7: I had an interview at AMS and was told I was on the "tentative long short list." They're still accepting applications through Dec. 15 to be on track with other hiring at the College, so I don't think anyone's chance has come and gone, especially if you received an e-mail.
Q2: For those of you who got requests for more materials, what were they seeking? And did you also have AMS interviews?
A1 yet again, responding to A7, and piggybacking on Q2: Well, my chance did come and go, because they never got back to me about an interview, and I was not among those to whom they sent a request for more materials. Did anyone else have this experience?
A7 again: I received a request for more materials following my AMS interview. They asked for two writing samples, as well as syllabi and teaching materials for two classes.
Q2 again: Thanks, A7!
A8: It's been about a month now - has anyone heard any news?
College of Mount St. Vincent
Has anyone heard anything about this?
Columbia University
Q1: The given Columbia University link doesn't work at the moment. Is the job advertised elsewhere?
A1: Yes, the correct link is now given above (as of 10/13/10), along with a second posting for 2 Mellon postdocs. I apologize for posting a garbled link initially for an hour or so. Reposted now with both listings having the correct link. If the link does not work for you, please email departmentbusiness@gmail.com. (A. Fox, Chair, Music, Columbia U)
Q2: any updates? shortlist finalized by this time last year (1/26).
East Carolina
Q: Has anyone heard anything regarding anything??
A: No, and in fact I emailed the chair to ask about the search timeline and got an email bounceback. Bad sign!
Eastman School of Music
Q1: The announcement circulated by e-mail lists gave Oct 18 as the deadline, while the one posted on their website said Oct 4. I just checked with E. Koskoff and she confirmed that it's Oct 18.
Q2: I just re-read last year's discussion of Eastman's teaching video requirement, and I wholeheartedly agree with whoever said it was a mickey-mouse requirement. Applying for jobs is an onerous-enough process already. The teaching video is a pointless requirement that will not really help the committee evaluate the applicants in any meaningful way, and will require hours more of unpaid work from the beleaguered job-seekers. Eastman should decide on their short list based on phone interviews, as is customary, call in their three people, and make the decision based on the campus visits. In conclusion, this is not a seat on the President's Cabinet, but a $60,000 a year job in Rochester, New York. The insanity must end.
Q4: [Reply to Q3 in U. Rochester] Odd, I was contacted last week and asked to send a teaching video by November 8th. I did not receive the email mentioned by Q3. Anyone else in this situation?
Q6: On 10/26 Eastman contacted all applications to state what they would request later for additional materials - has an actual request for these materials gone out yet?
A: Interviews happened before break; don't know why no one posted here
Fordham University
Q1: Why hasn't this been posted anywhere else? Can someone confirm this search is for real?
A1: It was posted on the CMS MVL and the AMS Announce list.
C: Subsequent email circulated to faculty advisors indicates that medievalists are also welcome to apply: "Please note that qualified medievalists will have opportunities to teach in the Medieval Studies graduate program." (MVL)
Q2: Anyone received any updates on this since AMS?
A2: They are conducting Skype interviews for candidates who weren't at AMS.
Harvard College Fellows
Q1: Did anyone ever get a request for more materials, etc. from Harvard? I may have missed some movement on the wiki, but it appeared to me that they went from 'No Information' to hiring one of their own pretty much overnight.
Indiana University
Q: I saw this job advertised on the AMS list, but it is not on their human resources page? Has the search been canceled?
A1: I received a snail mail acknowledgment from the executive associate dean along with an AA/EEO form after submitting my materials online. No reason to believe it has been canceled. http://music.indiana.edu/faculty/positions.shtml
Q: Hmm. I applied well in advance of the deadline, but (unlike A1) still haven't received any acknowledgment. Anyone else in a similar situation? (x3)
A2: I also received a snail mail acknowledgment from the executive associate dean along with an AA/EEO form.
A3: I only just received mine today (11/23), even though I applied pretty far in advance.
Indiana University Post-Doctoral Resident Scholar
Q: Has there been any indication of the timeline for this search?
Indiana State University
Q: Does anyone have any information on the status of this search?
A: They seem to be in the review process now. I received a friendly email today asking for a transcript that I had somehow failed to upload (oops). (1/25)
A2: Don't feel bad, A1; the ad didn't request a transcript and the online system had several duplicate spaces. In a word, confusing. To answer the original question, 10 days out from the deadline seems a little early for any significant movement, but one can always hope it goes quickly.
A3: I also received an email asking for a transcript, and yes, as A2 notes, the online application was confusing. (1/25)
A4: The online application was confusing, but I submitted my transcript when I saw the space to upload one to the electronic application. (1/25)
Q2: Does anyone know what the nature of the need for the search is? Is the person currently in the position leaving? (1/25)
A5: I suspect that the current person is leaving or that there is a tenure-track search.
Ithaca College
Q: The Ithaca College search says, "only original letters or copies of letters held on file at the career planning office of an accredited academic institution are acceptable." Does Interfolio dossier service qualify as acceptable?
A: When I sign on to Interfolio, it comes up as XYZ University Career Services, powered by Interfolio. I would hope that counts. I'm just wondering what they're trying to head off. Fake recommendation letters? Isn't musicology a small enough field that such things could be confirmed?
A2: Just got off the phone from someone in HR at Ithaca, and she confirmed that Interfolio should be fine, as long as the letters were coming directly from Interfolio to their institution.
Q2: Anybody heard anything from Ithaca?
A2: They have now established a long list. (1/21)
R: Quite bizarre to see this re-posted on HigherEdJobs today (2/21) with the notation, "Applications no longer being accepted for this job."
Kennesaw University
Q1: Has anyone heard anything about this job since the deadline - even an acknowledgment, or word that they contacted one of your references?
A1: I've heard nothing.
A2: I called on December 6 to confirm receipt of materials. They could only confirm that a file was created for my application with no details about its completeness.
A3: Snail mail acknowledgment of materials received (12/11)
A4: Two months past the deadline, and not a peep on the wiki. Is is possible the search has been cancelled?
Kent State
[not really a] Q: Good heavens, 40K a year to teach a 5/5 course load? I know someone will take this job given how terrible the market is, but this really does seem like a new low.
A1: Actually, the University of New Hampshire posted a job last year that was 5/5 and they were offering 28K for ABD candidates and 32K for Ph.D. 40K seems almost reasonable after that!
A2: Wow! that's either 3200 or 4000 per course! I am making that as an adjunct! blech.
A3: blech x2. I made more than twice the former figure as an adjunct. That's just ridiculous.
Luther College
Q: Can anyone confirm that interviews for this postdoc actually took place at SEM? I consulted with several other applicants who were asked to submit teaching evaluations. But we heard nothing back from the search committee. Did interviews actually take place?
A: Yes, I know several people who had SEM interviews for this position.
Marlboro College
Q: I cannot find this job posting anywhere! Help?
A: Here is the link.
Princeton University
Q: Where is this advertised?
A: Higher Ed. Jobs
Q: I submitted my app. online and sent my references to the department, as requested. The online app. still says it is incomplete (lacking references), although the references should have gotten there weeks ago. Anyone have this same problem?
A: I'd suggest calling or emailing the department - not the search chair, but the contact person given on the app.
A2: the same thing happened to me. My school's letter service says all 3 letters were mailed weeks ago but Princeton didn't get them. The other schools I had letters sent to did get them. So troubling!
A3: I just checked mine and the website says they've been received. Maybe the mode of delivery makes a difference? I went w/ Interfolio, snail mail, sent out on 10/26. Definitely call. Princeton's HR office is helpful - I called before submitting my application.
Q: How was it communicated that letters were to be sent directly to the department? I saw no such indication in the posting and had referees upload directly to the site. I hope that was ok!
Saint Anselm
Q: Has anyone heard of any recent developments with this search?
A: On-campus interviews took place this week.
Q2: Campus interviews were 7-8 weeks ago (as of 4/5). Does anyone know what's happening with this search?
Santa Clara University
Q: Last week this was listed in "Schools that have requested campus visits" and now it's been moved back to telephone interviews. Why?
Shenandoah Conservatory
Q: I thought there were two job openings at Shenandoah; is it now just one?
A: The original ad mentioned "budgetary approval" for the second position. But I think they plan to run another search in the upcoming academic year.
Simpson College
Q: Can anybody provide a URL on the Assistant Professorship in a bunch of stuff?
A: http://www.simpson.edu/hr/jobs/asstprofmusic.html
C: It certainly looks like the music history component is lowest in priority, after opera conductor, accompanist, piano instructor, and vocal coach.
Southern Methodist University
Q: SMU's confirmation of receipt of application said they were hoping to do interviews in late November or early December. Has anyone heard of any developments with this search?
Q2: (1/18) Has anyone called to ask about the status of this search?
A2: This department has a certain "reputation" of late (I'll leave it at that) and I'm not surprised no one has heard anything. To be fair, SMU is not the only program with a November deadline that has not progressed their search.
A3: I have no idea what SMU's "certain reputation" is, but I just emailed the chair to check on the search process and got back a quick and cordial email saying that they'd been stymied by weather delays but would be shortlisting quite soon.
A4: I also have no idea what the reputation is, because it certainly wasn't borne out in the conversation I had about this position with someone from SMU at the AMS.
A5: It has been a full month since they "hoped to have a short list soon." No one has heard from them more recently?
Texas Christian
Q: Anyone else not receive confirmation of materials? (1/24)
A1: I did, snailmail 1/13
University of Alberta
Q: Are they accepting applications via email? I can't tell based on the call.
UCLA, Lecturer/VAP
Q: Are there any clues about the timeline for this search? The start date would seem to indicate an ASAP search, yet it has been out for a few weeks w/ no motion on here.
University of Birmingham
C1: The outcome of the Birmingham search was listed as "University of Birmingham, UK: Chair in Musicology - Andrew and Mrs. Kirkman." I changed the listing to remove "and Mrs." which seems utterly inappropriate. The "Schools with Acceptances" list should include specific information (i.e. people's names). The use of "Mrs." here is vague and most likely sexist. If someone wants to complain about spousal hires, especially when making a patronizing allusion to a woman being the second hire, then do it elsewhere than on our acceptances list. And please become educated on the fuller context that as led to such institutional developments. (http://www.stanford.edu/group/gender/ResearchPrograms/DualCareer/DualCareerFinal.pdf)
University of Chicago
Q: Regarding their request for additional material: has anyone gotten a request for materials after 11/16? Just wondering whether that was it, or whether the requests might be coming in phases. I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering: they probably got well over 100 applicants.
University of Delaware
Q: They just advertised for musicology (I forget where). Haven't they had a number of openings in musicology the past five years or so? What's the story?
A1: Nothing untoward. The last national search was three years ago. The person hired subsequently accepted an unbeatable offer at a major research university.
Other searches have been for temporary and part-time positions to handle this and the overloads of a growing department.
Q: Any news on the progress of this search since Dec.? (1/30)
A2: Some referees have been e-mailed. (1/31)
A3: Snail mail rejection letter indicating campus interviews in progress received 3/5/11.
University of Hawai'i at Mânoa
NB: Posted to the SEM members' area job board with this note: "position for a researcher/instructor in Asian performing arts with Ph.D. in hand; ethnomusicologists are encouraged to apply." (SEM, http://www.pers.hawaii.edu/wuh/srchresults.aspx?si=572388)
Q: Has anyone heard anything? (3/6)
University of Iowa
Q: What's up with the Lecturer position? Am I to automatically assume it's not TT just because it's not called a professorship?
A1: Yes. Contract will most likely be for one year.
University of Kansas
Q: For those of us who are considering applying to U. of Kansas (where the job description reads "Scholarly productivity in Classic or Romantic required, with expertise in music of the United States preferred") are we interpreting that to mean that they'd prefer an Americanist who has published on Classic/Romantic topics, a scholar of 18th/19th c. American music, or an 18th/19th century scholar with experience in other American topics? It's such an oddly-phrased description!
A: It seems to me that they are searching for a C/R scholar. If that scholar has some background in American music, all the better. If they wanted an Americanist, they wouldn't have used "required" and "preferred" in the way that they did.
Q2: Anyone hear anything more from Kansas yet? Even when I updated my file with them (earlier in the search), there was no reply, actually. (1/21)
A2: I spoke with a member of the search committee at AMS and was told they were unlikely to narrow the list before February.
University of Notre Dame
Q: Anyone know what's happened with this search? Has a list been announced? Anyone contacted?
A: Further materials have been requested (2/8).
Q: And as noted above, phone and/or video interviews have happened. Has anyone heard about a shortlist?
Q: Have Campus interviews taken place yet? [x2 wondering, and are there more of us wondering?]
A: I heard campus visits have happened (late March)/are happening. Competition result expected mid-May.
A: Apparently last campus interview will be mid-May.
University of Otago
Q: May I ask when the offer was made, and if acceptance is anticipated?
Q: Isn't this an odd state of affairs given that the application deadline isn't until March?
A: There are two Otago jobs this season. I imagine this one refers to the earlier of the two (deadline was in November).
Q: That makes more sense!
Q: The status of this job was recently updated, giving the name, institutional info, etc. of a person who had apparently accepted. This information, however, was soon deleted. To whoever made this change (or somebody else in the know): why?
C: For whatever it might be worth, I know with certainty that a candidate has accepted the position. I've twice edited the top of the page to reflect this, but each time somebody has very quickly undone the change. Who knows why.
C2: I wouldn't want someone else posting my name, for what it's worth.
University of Pittsburgh
Q1: Any guesses on the bizarre turn of events? 2008: 2 Asst. Prof jobs pre-1800 cancelled for financial reasons, nothing in 2009 and now a Senior Musicologist before 1850. Anyone know anything?
C1: This doesn't strike me as bizarre at all. It might simply be that the department feels the need for another senior faculty member and that's the best allocation of resources. For example, if a senior faculty member were planning to retire of has had to reduce his/her teaching load due to other professional or personal commitments, this makes perfect sense.
Q2: Has anyone heard of any developments with their searches? The deadlines passed over a month ago.
University of Rochester
Split (at long last) from the Eastman discussion. Nothing has been deleted.
Q3: Yes, I just got the funniest, most non-committal little e-mail from them: "We anticipate contacting a group of candidates in mid-December with a request for additional material. It is very likely that we will request a teaching video (30 minutes to an hour) at that time" (emphasis mine). No idea whether this went to everyone who applied, or just to those most likely to be contacted. But you're right, Q2, it's definitely a pretty silly requirement - especially when they're eventually going to see their finalists teach IN PERSON.
Q3: [Reply to Q4 in Eastman] Oh, you know what, I think I may accidentally have mixed up Eastman and U of Rochester. I see there's an Ethno position at Eastman listed above, and a Musicology one at U of Rochester - the e-mail had to do with the latter. Mea culpa. Sorry about that.
Q5: Can anyone confirm that they "anticipate" a shortlist in mid-December? I've received no indications from them as to a timetable for this search.
A: Rochester sent me the same email that Q3 mentions (an "account verification" email). Although perhaps at this point, we should split this discussion into Eastman and Rochester to avoid any more confusion.
University of San Diego
NB: The ad is for a "tenured professor of music and department chair" with administrative and leadership experience, so they are almost certainly looking for a senior person.
A letter sent in early March told applicants states that the school would provide more information on April 5. As of April 9 none of the promised information has been sent, at least to this candidate. I wonder if something's amiss with this one.
A: Post has been filled (see above)
University of Sheffield
Q1 x2: Any news on this? Interviews were supposed to be 23 February for the musicology post.
A: Post has been filled (see above)
Utah Valley University
Q1: Anyone know when this job would start? Next spring? Next fall? Sooner?
Q2: The job title implies that this position is non-tenure track. Can anyone confirm this? (9/10)
A1: The Dean confirmed this is a 1-year position. The description on their own website is clear, but the announcement circulated by e-mail was not.
C: Textbook inside job: an unusually quick deadline following the announcement, and then the hire was made within a week. Surely no interviews took place here.
C2: Spousal hire, in fact. The candidate had already been adjuncting at the University.
Q1(again): Yeah. It is really strange to advertise a one-year in the fall, which is why I was confused about when the job would actually start. Oh well. I'm glad to know that UVU is doing their best to support their adjuncts and lecturers. That's a commendable thing.
C3: While this search was surely handled legally, the fact that it was so obviously a sham given the timeline and lack of interviews is insulting to those who spent considerable time and effort making application. I'm not even on the market, just a casual observer, and I was disgusted by how this affair appears.
C4: Comes with the territory - they certainly have the right to hire who they want and even decide before they see other applications, especially in the case of a spousal hire. They announce the job because they have to, but set a short deadline to prevent too many fruitless applications (and possibly to tip off those who know the signs that it will be an internal hire). When applying for a junior faculty position, you have to assume you're not going to get an interview from most of them (unless you're that superstar that the rest of us hate...) - there's just too much competition.
Wayne State University
Q: Any idea what kind of materials they're looking for? Cover letter and CV, obviously, but do they want the recommendation letters now or just the names of references?
A1: Just a cover letter, CV and list of 5 references. One of the postings I saw underlined, for emphasis, a sentence stating that other materials shouldn't be submitted at this time.
Q2: It's been over a month since more materials were requested. Has anyone heard anything about the status of this search?
A2: I was one of those five who sent additional materials. I have not heard anything as yet. (3/14)
A3: I have received rejection notices from them by snail-mail a few days ago and by e-mail today (3/16).
A4?: I was one of the candidates from whom WSU requested extra materials specific to that position. Received generic email rejection sans salutation or signature. Nice! (x2)
Whitman College
Q: This job ad made me laugh all morning. It reads like the opposite of York's "plucked" strings request. I guess they must have more than enough violins on faculty. (x2)
A: I can just picture the faculty getting together to write the ad: "For the love of GOD, no more violins!!!"
York University
Q: I'm wondering how others are approaching the bizarrely specific requirement for plucked string expertise. If the job seems like a good fit otherwise, is it worth applying?
A1: Good question. Six-week summer intensive in frailing banjo?
A2: It could also be an inside hire. i.e., they want to hire one of their postdocs or grad students, but they have to announce the position publicly for the hire to be "legal," so they specify an impossibly unique combination of skills. Same goes if they want to hire someone who is not Canadian.
A3: Or they could just want someone who can run a specific type of ensemble.
A4: Not a bizarre request at all if you consider the vast repertoire of music from the Americas that feature plucked-string instruments (from the banjo and guitar to the cavaquinho and vihuela).
A5: Is it common to request have such a specific instrument requirement? I've seen lots of jobs that advertise specific ensembles, but why in the world would it matter if you played fiddle or plucked strings or strummed your guitar?
A6: Very bizarre. Have you ever heard of a struck or blown specialist in music?
A7: As someone said at SEM, Harpsichordists of the world, Apply!
Q: Does an innovative application of radion modulation technique on a drumheller harp with Centressar strings qualify for this position? Or is it restricted to the (now conventional) study of Xantha performance practice?
A8: Regarding the harpsichord comment - my sense is that they're looking for someone w/a more direct relationship to the strings.
A2: @A8, I'm guessing that A7's comment was satire. (Although I'd love to see a harpsichordist try for it.)
Q3: I heard a rumor that references were contacted a few weeks ago. Does anyone know if this is true?
A1: Yes. References were asked to submit letters last week.
Wiki Counter(Check all that apply)
I am a musicologist: 34
I am an ethnomusicologist: 15
I am a little of both: 18
I am currently in a TT position: 3
I am currently in a VAP/Lecturer position: 22
I am a recent PhD and on the market: 22
I am a no-longer-so-recent PhD and on the market: 5
I am ABD and on the market: 20
I am ABD and no longer on the market:
I am not on the market but am an interested observer: 8
I am a member of a search committee: 2
I have a doctorate, publications, and several years of teaching experience but still cannot make my way out of adjunct purgatory: 3
I have a doctorate, publications, and several years of teaching experience but am unemployed: 1
My tenure-track position was cut: 1
Wiki Counter, Pt. II
(including postdoc apps)
I have submitted zero applications this academic year:
I have submitted 1-2 applications this academic year: 5
I have submitted 3-5 applications this academic year: 5
I have submitted 6-8 applications this academic year: 1
I have submitted 9-11 applications this academic year: 6
I have submitted 12-14 applications this academic year: 5
I have submitted 15-19 applications this academic year: 4
I have submitted 20-29 applications this academic year: 11
I have submitted 30+ applications this academic year: 2
General discussion
New Wiki Year?
I don't understand how this works, but it seems that the only changes on the wiki lately are a back and forth about a certain spousal hire and a few lingering announcements. Indiana U has announced a tenure-track job, officially kicking off a new job search season. So... can we move on? Anyone?
Older Candidates
Q1: I couldn't help but notice that the hires for most full-time positions range from ABD to a graduation date of 2009. It makes me wonder if those of us who had for various reasons taken adjunct and VAP positions might be relegated to doing so for the remainder of our careers? In my case, I have publications, service at the national level, and years of teaching experience. I've often made it to the telephone interview stage, and have had a number of campus interviews afterwards, but always seem to come in second. Perhaps institutions feel that hiring someone in the mid-forties is somehow undesirable?
R1: I have noticed this as well and would love to hear from someone who has recently served on a hiring committee, not only about "older candidates," but about those who earned their degrees 3 or 4 years ago as opposed to within the past couple of years. I am a fairly young candidate (early 30s), but completed my degree a few years ago, have held a number of visiting positions since graduate school, and have a growing list of publications, but am finding it much more difficult to obtain interviews than I did when ABD or just finished. As I prepare to head back on the market next year, I cannot help but wonder whether those just finishing or recently finished are given particular preference, or whether it is simply the case that those most recently finished happen to be this year's strongest candidates in other respects.
R2: I'm ABD, solid but not spectacular credentials, and I ended up with next to no interest in my applications. As for other ABD's in my program, it was either almost nothing or multiple interviews/awesome offers. From my perspective, those who fared best this cycle had a degree in hand for a year or two. I see a lot of 2009 and 2010 on the list, and I know a lot of 2009/10 folks with a lot of interest/offers. Having a finished dissertation helped, although some ABD's played their cards well. Still, I know a lot of very talented, very personable, multiple award winning people who are unemployed or underemployed. (Actually - - if you put them together, they'd make a pretty enviable music department...) Which is a long way of saying that I have absolutely no idea what separated the multiple interview candidates from the waiting for Godot candidates. Except for the obvious superstars, it doesn't seem to hinge on age, experience, publications, awards, etc.
R3: How would you define "obvious superstars"? I think this is a concept that should be dispelled entirely, as it rarely has anything to do with actual professional accomplishment and only serves to reinforce the notion that there are "in" institutions and "out" institutions. No one can waltz in and take any job he or she pleases. Last year's market is all the evidence we need.
R2 again: Regarding "obvious superstars," I wasn't thinking strictly in terms of "in" institutions and "out" institutions. It seems that there are a very small number of people who could, in fact, waltz in and take any job. They're the people who do everything right: dissertation topic, committee, networking, well timed and placed publications, internal awards, national awards, name recognition, etc., etc., etc. It has something to do with institution and adviser, to be sure, but more to do with pursuing the kind of research questions that most musicologists find fascinating and coming up with interesting things to say. Problematic though it may be, musicology has a superstar culture. It has for some time.
R4: All effort aside, there is indisputably a large element of luck in all of this. If there were a formula or some quantatative way of scoring each of us, then, as in golf, there would be a cut line, and you would/could know whether you're in or out. Ultimately things are decided by the unique situation of every college or university. It is often difficult to know what schools are looking for when they advertise jobs, so many of the decisions we all make...dissertation topic, even what graduate school to attend...must be done blindly years before we actually look for a job. I'm not sure I know what a superstar is in musicology, but often the most distinguished candidates have resume features that emerge long before the job-hunt years....undergrad awards of real distinction, Mellon and Fulbright scholarships, etc., every prize imaginable...so adding one more thing to one's resume doesn't serve to tip things one way or the other. Yet, distinguished candidates languish every year, and any of us could indeed have some lucky qualification or fluke experience that garners attention. This is why advising undergrads not to do humanities grad school is so difficult...no way of knowing whether that young student might be the one who catches the golden ring. Best if one can develop several acceptable life scenarios and go whichever way opportunities emerge...but easier said than done...and apart from university teaching, the Ph.D. is mostly a liability.
R3: It is a mistake to equate "superstardom" within the relatively small field of musicology with marketability in the relatively large field of music studies. When superstar status lands you a job, it is only at an institution that cares about such thing, and those are few and far between.
R5: My experience suggests that younger, newly minted PhDs appeal to search members as obviously cheaper, more tractable candidates. This was even metioned to me once as part of an on-campus interview. Not sure that having years of a proven teaching record matters as much as we'd all like to think, even at supposed "teaching" schools.
cover letters
Q: If a job posting says applicants should send a CV and list of recommenders to such-and-such address, and that's ALL it says, is it okay to also send a cover letter? I know we shouldn't send stuff they don't ask for, as a general rule, but it feels weird to send just a CV and a list of names, with no introductory letter...is it assumed that you always include a letter? I'm second- and triple-guessing myself, here.
A1: I would go ahead and send the cover letter, since it's standard practice and wouldn't add too much material to the package.
Adjuncting
So, if many of us are going to end up adjuncting this coming year, I was wondering what strategies people have used to find adjunct work? There are some obvious ones (ie, networking among people you know, at local conferences, etc), but what about sending an unsolicited CV to local institutions? In my experience, departments often find adjuncts through word-of-mouth referrals rather than official job postings, and I thought it would be interesting to gather some collective wisdom about the adjunct search. What has worked for you?
R1: Here’s what worked for me: I knew I was moving to a largish city. I had an opportunity to meet someone on a faculty in that city when they visited my campus, hit it off with them, arranged to have coffee when I moved, gave them my resume, told them they could contact my advisor, told my advisor they might be contacted, and waited. It worked, it’s a sample size of one, but these things are possible. It seems lots of departments find themselves in need of instructors on very short notice and will call someone who can do the job with a resume on file.
R2: I moved to a city and needed adjuncting while I was finishing writing a few years ago. I composed a short and general here's-my-teaching-experience kind of letter and sent it with a list of references and CV to 5-10 schools in the area, and someone contacted me. Obviously, networking in person would be the best, but, short of that, cold letters can work, too. Be sure your CV is oriented towards teaching and reflects the broadest possible range of courses and topics that you have experience with and might be interested in. Good luck!
NEH 2011 Summer Stipends
(My apologies; but the Social Sciences/Humanities wiki didn't seem to have 2011 information..)
Has anyone heard anything yet concerning this year's awards? The notification deadline was supposedly the end of March.
R1. Don't know about the stipends, but the NEH summer seminar for Rome promised notification on April 1, I was rejected politely by 10am!
OP: Thanks; I managed to hear back that they "have not made a final determination and do not know when they will do so," or something to that effect.
R2: I saw somewhere (Chronicle?) that the director was waiting for the 2011 budget to be resolved before releasing awards information.
R3: They notified me (by email) that I was successful on 5 April.
AMS 2011 San Francisco
Just curious whether anyone has heard back yet regarding paper/abstract submissions. I have not been able to find a firm "you should hear back by" date from AMS this year.
A: It says April 15 right on the AMS San Francisco website: http://www.ams-net.org/sanfrancisco/
A2: FWIW: my paper was accepted for Indianapolis last year and I received an email to that effect from the chair around April 1.
A3: The committee meets next weekend (beginning of April). April 15 really is the date by which you will hear something.
Thanks everyone! Sorry A, I was just looking on the CFP page.
A4: Since I'm sure I'm not the only one checking my email every five minutes, the AMS website says we'll hear "about April 15," not necessarily by or on it (damn it!).
A5. Just heard (yes!) at 2:15 EST that my paper was accepted. 4/15
Q: Can anybody with knowledge of how the AMS program committee explain why "additional notifications" will come out on Monday the 18th?
A: So far, everyone I know who received notice on the 15th was accepted. Don't know if that means anything regarding what will be sent on the 18th. 4/15 6:17 PM EDT
Q: It doesn't make too much sense to me that they notify people who are accepted on the 15th and rejected on the 18th. Why not just notify everyone on the same day?
This sure feels like the grad school application process again! Others have received positive responses, fairly certain that means a "no thanks" is heading your way...just a wonderful feeling...
A6: I assume there is a practical reason for not rejecting right away. If someone has been accepted, but already knows that s/he can't make the conference, they may have a "waitlist" to ensure that the program is full. Makes sense?
A7: No, that does not make sense. That would presume that everyone who received an acceptance on 4/15 was asked to accept or not by 4/18, and that is not the case (I've seen two acceptances). Also, the committee sends out all acceptances/rejections at the same time (although this year making it obvious that not all notifications were issued on the same day this year). It is not like applying to college and waiting for space to clear out.
A8: It would have been better just to say that notifications were going out in "mid-April" rather than give a date and then another date.
A9: There have been lots of acceptances already, so I'm also assuming that not having heard so far means a "no." I really wish they'd do it all at once.
Q3: Did anyone hear from AMS today (Mon, April 18)? It's about 9pm, and I still haven't received any sort of notification. (x3 [@ 10:30 p.m.])
A9 (again): Nope, I didn't hear anything one way or the other on the 18th. Still waiting.
A10: So, according to the AMS website, apparently all but 15 out of the 196 presenters have confirmed. If some of those 15 decline to present, there might be a small round of acceptances on Thursday. So it seems we were all waiting for the inevitable rejection letter which will probably come sometime today. I do have to give the program committee credit for transparency.
A11: Rejection, c. 12:30EST on 4/21. (x2)
AMS 2011 Meeting Labor Dispute
Q2: Is anyone else feeling conflicted about crossing the hotel boycott to present?
This is not immediately related to the job search, but it concerns all of us affiliated in any way with AMS. Since we can all relate to the financial and emotional distress of tenuous employment conditions, please read and consider signing the following petition.
So the response of President Robertson (letter 3/21) is that the AMS is contrained by rigid budgeting, and with blinders firmly in place, the mission of the Society to "advance research" continues undeterred.
Darn that high price of integrity! I guess we were naive to expect anything different...
What bothers me about the reasoning is that it hides behind the mission of the society. OK, I get that cancelling the ontract has a significant financial penalty, and that the nature of the job action isn't entirely clear since it's not an official strike (which would make the society's position easy since insurance would absorb the penalty). But equating the penalty price with the budget for fellowships (including AMS 50) and subventions makes it appear an either/or choice....so class implications in our work or their work...or perhaps even more stark in the oppositional value of graduate student work and hotel workers' work. So let's see. By the time everyone attending pays hotel charges and registration fees, eats at hotel restaurants, etc. the economic impact of this meeting must be about $2M ($2,000,000). So is a penalty of $130,000 (or $170,000) really that large? And even if the penalty cannot be negotiated down, might not another hotel without labor problems offer a discount for the windfall business? But my point isn't to argue the logistics of the issue. My point is the use of the Society's scholarly mission as an excuse not to speak or act on behalf of the powerless is concerning, especially considering how powerless many or most of us reading this wiki feel.
Here's a fun idea-why don't we stage a coup d'etat? The current topic on the AMS-list has mentioned the fact that very little is known about the candidates for office, very few people actually vote, and very few people want to serve. What if we organized and got an 'independent scholar' elected? (I bet there are more unemployed folks here than voting members of the AMS. I wonder if affiliation is a requirement of service...would they be so bold? To quote the most recent post "the society ought to aspire to represent all members, students and those without academic affiliation." How quaint, let's hold them at their word!!!
Interest expressed in your applications
Q1: I'm curious about how many people have had "bites" on their applications this year. Is it a small(ish) number of people who have received interest from multiple schools? (Have searches been interested in the same candidates?) Or have many candidates been getting hits, suggesting that searches have been contacting a broader segment of the pool? I know no one knows the answer to this, but I thought we might be able to get a sense here on the wiki. My stats: Female, PhD 2010, no publications, currently doing a 2-year position: several hits last year, but none this year of the 30 or so applications I've sent out.
Q2: This is interesting! might we add gender to the list?
Q3: Could we also add (sub)discipline (including the same candidate getting bites for both musicology and ethno jobs)?
Comment: The revelations below make me feel far less inadequate as I look at unemployment next year. We all keep some pretty amazing company.
C2: The comment above really strikes at the heart of the issue. Simply put, there is no silver bullet. Research topic, teaching experience, degree-in-hand, prestigious awards, conference papers, publications: internal politics can trump all of these things. There is always someone with a better CV who didn't get your job; but that's not really what hiring is about, is it? The stats below are interesting, but they don't really shed light on much Truth, if you will.
C3 (also Q1 poster): Yes, I'm not sure these stats reveal any Truth, or even get at my original question(s). But I too have felt better after seeing that there are so many of us in the same position. For me, it also brings home the fact that while we are certainly competitive with each other on the job market, we are ultimately colleagues who are facing the same crappy circumstances. So hang in there everyone and know that it's not you - it's the market.
C2 again: Awesome post, C3. I have become closer with my PhD cohort over the past couple of years, when we could have been splintered by the competition. It's tough out there, but we are better colleagues when we can celebrate the successes of others, especially our friends.
C4 It's so hard for search committees to parse so many, dare I say similar, high quality applications, especially if the search committee includes all or mostly performance faculty. I've observed that awards and grants...Mellon, Fulbright, maybe AMS 50...distinguish an application. Also work experience between college and grad school might give the candidate some distinctive, not-run-of-the-mill qualifications, and also suggests maturity and experience holding a job.
C5: I agree with C4, although perhaps we should also factor in the degree-granting institution? Or does that play no role in it?
C6: It's really neat reading these, since they very revealing of just how much of a game of chance this whole job application thing is. My advisor tells me over and over again that publishing the best thing I can do to help my chances on the job market - yet I see people below with few or no publications that have gotten several bites, and people with several publications (including ABDs) who have not even gotten one bite. Makes me wonder: are certain research topics/areas more likely to get bites these days than others? To what extent do search committees have topical preferences not specified in the job posting itself?
Q4: I asked this question below but since I didn't get a response, I figured that I would also ask it here. How important is presenting a paper at AMS to one's CV? The broader question is whether or not the prestige of the conference presentations and publications makes that much of a difference.
A1: Male. Last year = degree but no publications, no hits. This year publications and degree, still no hits. I stopped counting my apps.
A2: Female. Last year = degree, publication accepted but not yet published: 2 campus interviews. This year, 1 more publication accepted and another submitted: multiple bites but no campus interviews. I stopped counting my apps after 25.
A3: Female. ABD (filing in April), publication accepted but not yet published at the time of my apps (published now). I got two bites but no interviews. Think I applied to like 14 jobs.
A4: Male. PhD (2010, musicology), no peer-review publication, first year on market: 13 applications, 4 bites, 1 interview, 1 offer.
A5: Female. PhD (2010), 2 peer-review publications, first year on market: not sure how many apps, 4 bites, 1 interview as of now
A6: Male. PhD (2009), one peer review publication, 2nd year on the market: 9 bites leading to 3 campus interviews, 1 offer
A7: Female. PhD (2010, hybrid ethno/musico), 2 small publications this school year, second year on market (doing a 1-year gig this year). This year: many apps, no bites yet.
A8 (hope this is not redundant): Female. PhD (2010), 1 peer-review pub., 3rd yr. on market (doing postdoc). This yr: 11 or so apps, 2 bites, 1 interview.
A9: Male. PhD (2009), one peer review article, one book contract, 2nd year on market: ca. 20 apps, 3 phone interviews, no campus visits
A10: Male. PhD (2010, ethno/area studies), one postdoc, two peer review, two chapters, one book contract, adjuncting, 2nd year on market: 25 apps, no bites. Changing my name to "Yale"
A11: Female. PhD (2009, ethno/pop music), 2-year VAP, one chapter, no peer review, 3rd year on the market. 1 more materials, 2 phone interviews, no campus visits.
A12: Female, PhD (2009, musicology). Third time on the market (though my outside committee member insists the first time didn't count). One peer-reviewed publication that I just got page proofs for, another in a conference proceedings volume that's taking its dear, dear time. Last year I had one phone interview and one, maybe two requests for more materials; this year zilch. Both this year and last I sent in on the order of 15-20 applications.
A13: Male. PhD (2008, musicology). One monograph in publication, 2 peer-reviewed articles out (3rd about to be accepted), 1 book chapter, 1 conference proceedings, currently a part time research fellow. One bite in the past (fellowship), nothing else.
A14: Male. PhD (2010, musicology). Two peer-reviewed articles forthcoming. Currently in a 1-yr. full-time VAP. Second year on the market; I sent 33 applications this year. I got nibbles from 8 places: 5 phone interviews and 3 requests for more information; of those 8 nibbles, I recieved two campus visits and one job offer.
A15: Male, PhD (2011, musicology). One peer-reviewed article under review. Currently unemployed. 1 conference interview, 1 video interview, 1 bite on a post-doc.
A16: Female, PhD (2010, musicology). One peer-reviewed article in press. Adjunct. Have sent c. 30 apps/year for past 3 yrs, have yet to receive a bite/request for more materials.
Application Numbers
Dear Search Committee Members, could you please provide a rough estimate of the number of applications that you are receiving/ have received for each position?
A1: We received ~130 applications for a TT search in ethnomusicology.
A3: (Word of mouth from committee member), ca. 200, musicology TT, specialty open
A4: 142 applicants for TT musicology
A5: These numbers are very helpful, but you can bet they include some WTF Candidates. A little levity at the height of the notification season.
A6: Some food for thought from a recent TT search pool: applicants were 29% ABD, 50% PhD 2007-2010, 21% PhD 2006 or earlier. (Also, about 10% of the total pool already had TT jobs.) As others have noted, a postdoc/adjunct career stage is becoming more and more common, and may last a long time.
A&: One of the UK top music departments just filled a general opening in musicology for a lecturer and they received 300 applications.
R to A&: You might have thought with that many applications that they would be hired someone more experienced. Curious...
A* SO curious! It's almost as if people had important qualities beyond what you can dig up about them on the web. Weird.
R to A*: But no publications? Bizarre.
R2: Why bizarre? Attaching value to publishing during graduate school is not necessarily universal.
A7: University of Richmond's rejection letter mentioned 170 applicants. Does anybody know how many total job-seekers there are in any given hiring season?
C to A7: I can't answer that question. But the person hired for the Richmond job had only been appointed to Mary Washington last year or the year before. Congrats to the candidate on landing two TT jobs in two years, but statistically doesn't that mean there are even fewer permanent jobs than it appears??
A8: Probably not. There are always a few TT candidates on the market looking to trade up, and the positions they vacate typically become TT openings the following year.
Conference informal interviews
Q. What does an "informal interview" at a conference entail?
A1: Not sure. But I've heard the AMS conference venue has a hot tub.
A2: No such thing as an "informal interview", IMHO. If it's going to make the difference between making the next cut or not, you should prepare as if it were a formal interview.
A3: Focus on the things that are harder to convey through a letter/c.v. Faculty like to hire someone they can get along with, for example.
Q.: For those of you visiting here who are on search committees (we know you are here!) Do an applicant's materials have to be submitted on the expensive 100% cotton resume paper or is this just a waste of money? Saving money on this paper would go a long way towards keeping up with the rent...
A1: Save your money. Everything gets copied for the members of the committee.
Q1: How are we defining "recent" Ph.D.?
A1: I'd suggest 3 years- mid tenure review if you're (super) lucky or long enough to have your sea legs.
C: Just added a "Deadline Calendar" section to help keep track of which submission deadlines are coming up (and to help prioritize when things come to a head in the fall). What do y'all think?
A1: Great idea!
Thoughts on the new rankings*
Q. Thoughts on this? I don't know how many of us will be qualified to go through the statistics, but you can get something of an idea from the web site.
R1. I got a good chuckle that it is a musicology degree that is apparently the longest median to completion.
Society for American Music Conference
Q. Does anyone know when decisions are going to be sent out for the Cincinnati conference or if they have been sent out already?
A1. Last year acceptances were sent out on 31 July.
Q2. Has anyone out there received a decision one way or the other? Since it's a joint meeting with IASPM, I'm wondering if the decisions are going to be sent later than last year's.
A2. I haven't received anything as of August 9. I don't think it's likely that SAM being a joint meeting will effect its notification date, though. The IASPM deadline isn't until October 1, and it would be crazy of SAM to wait that long (or until IASPM had reviewed its submissions) to send out notifications.
A3. Acceptance received today (8/9) (x3, for seminar paper)
A4. Rejection received 8/11. What's the etiquette for submitting the same abstract to the IASPM portion of this conference? :)
A5. I think Ms Mentor would say "Tacky"
A6 I can't see why it's an issue at all; submit away.
A7. I've read at both conferences. Not only do I think it's not "tacky," I think it's quite foolish not to submit to IASPM if your paper fits the conference themes. They may be meeting together, but SAM and IASPM are two very different societies with different interests, leadership, program committees. Have a look at a couple of SAM programs. I've seen as much as a quarter of the conference made up of papers on three or four classical composers. If you work on a popular topic, you are much more likely to have luck submitting to IASPM. SAM is, IMO, not as interested in including topics that are popular, break new theoretical ground, or are ethnographic as is IASPM.
A8. While it's true that different program committees have different interests, please be assured that SAM is indeed interested in those topics mentioned by A7! Often the local culture of a particular society is as much determined by what papers are submitted as by what gets chosen. If you'd like to see different topics at SAM, it's up to you to propose something and make it happen!
A9. I'm not sure it this is the place for this discussion, but here's my experience. I've had SAM members tell me pretty much what A8 has said, but I just don't find it to be true. I have known a very large number of ethnomusicologists who have been rejected from SAM, who go on to present the same work at SEM, IASPM, or area studies conferences. The choices they make for their programs make it pretty clear what they're interested in. Also, if they were serious about getting ethno papers, they might consider putting an ethnomusicologist on the program committee more than once every five years or so.
A10. IASPM and SAM are being organized almost entirely separately (i.e., they're sharing hotel space and working on one or two joint sessions, but otherwise they are two separate conferences). In this sense, you can rest assured that the IASPM program committee hasn't seen the SAM program submissions.
A11: I have been on three different SAM program committees over the years (yup, I'm senior), and I can tell you all that it's a two part process. First the abstracts are read individually (and blind) to see if they are coherent and have some ideas behind them. Stage two is when the committee gets together in a room and tries to put together sessions. This is where you can find excellent proposals getting rejected because they are "orphans" and there is nothing else they fit together with to create a session. Inevitably, one or two innovative papers can't be programmed because of this problem. So it's up to you submitters to try and build themes into your abstracts that connect them up with the work others are doing, even if that connection is tenuous. For SAM, just get the word "American" into it somehow. (I am an ethnomusicologist, by the way).
Lack of job ads so far
Q. Is there any reason NOT to get really worried that August 15 has come and gone without even a trickle of new job ads? Feel free to tell me that I am paranoid, but I seem to remember August 15 in past years being a key time for finding new postings.
A1. If I remember correctly, most other disciplines post jobs in August, but ethno/musicology openings tend to be posted throughout the fall. There were also a number of jobs posted quite late last year (like, in the spring). I'm under no illusion that this year will be any better than last year, but I do think it is a little early to be completely panicked! Hang in there.
A2. I just looked at the history of '07-'08 (a pretty good year) and there were NO new jobs offered during August.
A3. (Q. again) Thank you, A1 and A2, for the reassurance.
A4. There hasn't even been time for faculty at prospective hiring universities to meet and argue about "desired qualifications" yet, so it is quite premature. October is historically a major month, that is, if there are any jobs to be found...
A5. Is it just me, or is it the year of the ethnomusicology jobs? 9/14 seems like a much higher ratio than in previous years. Is this a response to increased NASM support for "world music" in the curriculum?
A-A5. It seems a silly question to ask in August, don't you think we should wait for the school year to begin. I am, however, all for separating out Ethno onto its own section, or better yet, its own page.
A6. There's nothing like a little ethno/historical musicology partisanship before the semester gets underway.
A7. But where would we put the Americanists? We could do what theory/comp does in terms of separation..
A8. I like the theory page, especially the discussion at the bottom divided by school.
A9. Yes, a separate section for ethno would be good.
A10. Separate sections would be a problem for those jobs that are neither ethno/muso, or are open to both. This shows up most often with Pop Music positions.
AMS-L job ads
Q. I am subscribed to AMS-L, so why can't I find the University of Chicago and University of Richmond announcements, even in the archives? I've certainly received all the Beethoven discussion, surveys, and other items. What am I missing here?
A: It isn't really AMS-L it is AMS-Announce. They split announcements off of AMS-L four or five years ago.
AMS Conference
Q. How important is the National AMS conference in securing a job? I am having a really hard time justifying the money this year, is it really worth the $600-700 (when you add flight, hotel, registration, ramen, etc together)? What do you all think?
A1: If you're not reading a paper and don't expect to interview or meet with prospective employers, not that important. The cost is high indeed, and while networking can be valuable, it's not everything. That's just my opinion, but $600-$700 can be useful in other ways to further your career (e.g. research).
A2: If you're actively on the job market and you identify primarily as a musicologist, then it's very important. Some schools will hold their preliminary interviews there, and there's a lot to be said for making yourself known to search committee members before the winter decision-making season. Same goes for SEM if you're an ethnomusicologist. Consider talking to your department head about funding, even if you're not presenting; department administration has an interest in ensuring quick outplacement, so they sometimes can offer partial travel support.
A3: I'm more in agreement with A1. Over the past 7 years, neither I nor any of my friends/colleagues has directly benefited from the whole job networking/preliminary interview thing. OTOH, presenting is important to the CV and there is lots of other important stuff that goes on (for instance negotiating a book proposal, or talking with a book review editors of a couple journals to get in on the published book review scene). Also if you've been out of grad school for a few years, it's about the only way to keep in touch both with "the field" and with all your old friends/colleagues.
A4: If you are a confident schmoozer, I think AMS can be worth it. Asking a smart question in the right panel can also help, if you then schmooze after wards. But, for most everyone I know, A3 is correct.
Q2: Does anyone know if it's par for the course that only two jobs so far are listed as interviewing at AMS? It would seem a more worthwhile schmoozing opportunity if more of the above jobs were represented.
A3 (again): Usually there are from 2-6 of these, which I understand is quite a bit less than most other fields. There are plenty (depending on the climate) of informal interviews that happen, and even closed-door interviews, but of course they call you about it.
A4: It's too late for this year but as a TT prof who has been on search committees, etc. I'd say that going to AMS each year is the most important investment you can make in your career if you plan to do anything beyond a local search for positions. It is the easiest place to meet and (more importantly) be met, get a pulse on the latest scholarly trends. Practically every school that is hiring is "interviewing" at AMS in the sense that committee members are looking for people who are promising candidates to jump to the top of the search list. Please do yourself a favor and attend and meet people.
A5: Another TT prof's two cents: AMS can hurt you as well as help you. Most committees make fly-out decisions based on strong dossiers not conference banter; plenty of committee members consider conference interviews unhelpful or even prejudicial, and I have heard people currently serving on searches complain of having been accosted at the AMS conference by a barrage eager job seekers.
A6 Speaking personally: when I go to AMS during a search, I am looking to put faces to names, and to make contact with candidates who have been immediate stand-outs. I'm not bothered at all by having a candidate come up to me and introduce him/herself. It's not going to get you a job, but if you do it in a casual, appropriate manner, it can be the start of a pleasant conversation.
Transcripts
Q. When a school (e.g., Holy Cross) asks for transcripts, do they generally want just graduate transcripts, or are they interested in undergraduate transcripts, too?
A1: You can safely assume they want a copy of your graduate transcript only.
Q2: What about when a school wants materials emailed, and doesn't provide a mailing address (e.g. Carleton), but requests transcripts? Official transcripts (at least at my school) can't be emailed. Is it bad form to call the department and ask what to do, or am I missing something obvious?
A2: Last year, PSU accepted scanned copies of official transcripts through email.
A3: I would agree with A2. If they want it emailed, they know it won't be an official version.
A4: I emailed the search head at Holy Cross, and he said that for now, it would be fine to send unofficial transcripts, but did specify that undergraduate as well as graduate transcripts were expected.
A5: Based on what A4 just typed, I'm beginning to wonder if we should be sending undergraduate transcripts to everyone, too. Why don't they just tell us this in the announcement!?
A6: Am I the only one who thinks that undergraduate transcripts are completely irrelevant at this point? Do the chairs of faculty searches really need to know what gym credits you took in college? On that note, why are graduate transcripts even necessary? I'd be curious what experience others had, but at my graduate program you weren't assigned grades for course work. Letters of recommendation are therefore the only way for a search committee to get a sense of your performance in graduate school.
A7: Yes, undergraduate transcripts do seem a little out of the ordinary, but then as I was photocopying mine, I noticed that my undergrad transcript actually reveals more about me than my grad transcript, i.e. what courses I selected while attending a SLAC vs. what courses I took in grad school because they were the only ones offered in my department. But who knows what a search committee is looking for in the materials they ask for. [Thanks, by the way, to the person who asked about transcripts, otherwise I would have only sent my grad transcript.]
Q3: Any thoughts about a posting that doesn't ask for any transcripts, i.e., U of Delaware?
A8: It seems Delaware is interested in things that matter (teaching, publications, etc.)
Q4: I just accepted an adjunct gig at a local community college to hold me over while I look for a TT position. I gave them official, sealed copies of my transcripts that I had on hand to send out with my application materials, but they said that any transcript marked "Issued to Student" was not official. I always assumed any sealed, stamped transcript was "official." What do you think?
A9: I think you'd better give them what they want, but until you've accepted a TT job you can stick to photocopies when mailing applications.
A10: I'm quite sure that the reason for transcript requests is less for the search committee to scrutinize their contents and more for the HR folks to verify attendance and degree completion and thereby weed out fraudulent applications. Remember the dean of admissions (?) at MIT a few years ago who had claimed all sorts of bogus credentials, including degrees from prestigious institutions? No school wants to get caught in that positionand in the case of state schools, there may very well be a law mandating degree verification via official transcripts.
Recommendation Letters
Q. One of my recommenders often submits letters after the deadline, and has told me that posted deadlines don't apply to recommendation letters. Can anyone confirm that this is true? On the one hand, I can understand that schools would cut faculty recom
A1: Oy vey. I've dealt with this and seen colleagues deal with this and it's not fun. (I've also been on search committees as a student rep, so I've seen the other side of the process.) Recommendation letters are very important-especially if the search
Q2: Related Q: How many people send in more letters than requested, or other materials? I'm surprised, for example, that SLACs don't always request teaching evals in the first round.
A2: My advisor has the attitude that Q1 describes, which has been incredibly stressful. I've gotten into the habit of telling him/her that the deadline is a couple weeks sooner than it really is.
A3: Two cents from someone who is currently on a search committee: I'd rather get a letter that arrives on time from a dossier service than one that arrives late from a faculty member who has cut/pasted to include the name of my institution in the lette
Q1 (again): Well, it's nice to know I'm not alone, at least. And very useful to have some insider perspective on this. Thanks.
A4: Use Interfolio. And request letters from your recommenders in like, June.
Pet Peeves
C: Job "announcements" that direct you to an HR website for a description of the position, yet when you click through, the search is not listed.
D: Frustrated Leading tones.
E: When people delete entire job postings. Unrelated: what happened to Holy Cross?
- Right where it has always been: "College of the Holy Cross"
E: (again): Oh. Well, the frustration still stands.
F: When people get the jobs that I want.
- Yeah, that totally bugs me too.
G: When departmental secretaries get really cagey about revealing who the chair of the search committee is, forcing you to address your letter to "the Members of the Search Committee." Why is this necessary?
- I really wouldn't worry about this. I've been on many search committees, and I can promise you that nobody cares, including the chair, whether the letters are addressed individually or to the committee itself. And incidentally the same goes for your letters of recommendation, which will be read the same way regardless of whether they are a general letter or addressed to the specific department.
H: I have too many academic-job-search related pet peeves to name, so I'll stick with just one for now: online application systems. You know, the ones that make you enter all your contact information even though it's already there on your CV... the seemingly endless pages of affirmative action / veteran status / criminal record boilerplate... the inconsistently labeled document uploading slots (I once had one that had two separate slots for "letter of application" and "cover letter/letter of application")... the general slowness... not to mention the whole "Once you click 'Finish Attaching Documents,' you will NEVER be allowed to attach ANY documents to this posting EVER AGAIN in your LIFE!!" shtick. Do these bug anyone else? If things are going to be printed out and paper copies made for all the committee members anyway, then what do places have against our just sending them a packet of paper, either our own or from Interfolio?
I: Speaking from the other side of the table, I share your dismay at these systems. Give me the old stack of files any day. I don't know when HR started taking over academic hiring, but colleges are convinced they can get massive quantities of helpful data by running searches in this way. It's a blunt, poorly designed tool, and the worst part is that applicants, secretarial staff, and committee members will probably all say it's a depersonalizing time-suck. The endless clicking, clicking, clicking on subfolders and openings pdfs of cvs,writing samples, etc. feels to me entirely disconnected and formless. A folder with the applicant's materials, by contrast, felt like a package and gave one some sense of the individual scholar, without a ton of wasted labor.
J: The "revision history" button doesn't seem to work on the "new" wiki; now I have to wade through the whole thing to see what's changed (if you know how to fix it, that would be good to know).
K: The lack of a track history function in this site and the shift to the beta version in the middle of a hiring season is untenable, what if our current host lost the data? Can we depend on them? Is it possible that we could move next year's wiki to the http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Academic_Jobs_Wiki
where all the other disciplines have already gone (including ethnomusicology/worldmusic)?
L: Hearty agreement. In addition to the issues mentioned, wikihost.org is down way too much of the time (this seems to be the case for the Cultural Anthro wiki, too, so I think it's the whole site that goes down). Wikia.com is probably the way to go, though it is massively annoying that they interpose ads before letting you follow external links. Wikispaces.com might be a way to go.
K: The perennial "inside hire" discussion on every academic job wiki. You never hear about it on the wiki when "inside" candidates *don't* get the job, although that happens routinely. There are bound to be all kinds of "inside" candidates in practically any faculty search, including the hiring dept's alumni, previous or current adjuncts or postdocs, committee members' advisees from previous jobs at other institutions, spouses of people employed at or being recruited by the hiring university, etc. etc. If one of these "inside" candidates makes the finalist stage, they may actually be at a disadvantage, because they don't seem as exciting as fresh new applicants and they probably didn't manage to charm every single member of the committee during their period of "inside" access. The various committee members and admin people involved in the hire usually have different favorites among the finalists, and will make a stink if someone else's favorite seems to be getting special treatment for "inside" reasons. Lots of "insiders" get cut at every stage, and few search committees have enough consensus to rig anything.
K1: I agree with this, except that it rarely seems like someone who gets to the interview stage is at a disadvantage after being in the department for a year. I always want to post in reply to these. "I *agree* anyone who has ever held an adjunct or visiting appointment should be barred from all future employment."
K2: I never understand why people get so up in arms about the inside candidate. I mean, the person has probably been adjuncting or one-yearing for years at the institution. Why shouldn't they get consideration for the service. I guarantee you would feel differently about the inside job if your adjunct job went TT.
K3: I totally agree with K2. If my position became TT I would be elated, especially if they wrote the ad for someone like me.
L: When I am asked to fill out an applicant demographic survey after the search has already moved to the next stage...without me. (x2 #fubu)
N: Online postdoc applications that require you to finish/submit your materials in order for the link to be sent to your faculty recommenders. (x2)
O: Wiki Etiquette Police. (x3)
O1: People who take it upon themselves to delete and edit material because it's not "on topic" (a problem last year more than this year).
P: Are the captchas on this wiki getting impossible or am I just getting old?
P1: If you're getting old, then so am I. But I think they're getting harder, for sure.
Q: Only 54% of musicology Ph.D.s get tenure-track positions (at least among 2003-06 degrees).
R: Successful candidates who update the wiki five seconds after accepting an offer from a school; nothing stings like not getting a job for which you were a finalist and finding out about it from the wiki rather than from the department.
S: I realize such information stings, but the proper response to that person is "congratulations." It makes no sense to depend on the wiki for up-to-date information and then get angry if it's bad news for us personally. How on earth would the successful candidate know when the school has bothered (IF it bothers!) to notify the unsuccessful candidates, so that person can indicate their success only after an acceptable period of mourning has passed? Moreover, I don't think it's always the candidates posting themselves. Sadly, I think some schools are trying to do the nice thing by writing a snail-mail letter, which makes it impossible to beat the wiki.
R again: I am certainly not advocating that successful candidates avoid posting for an unreasonably long period of time; however, I don't think it's too onerous to wait half a day or so to give the department an opportunity to notify finalists by phone or email, especially if the candidates went to all the effort and expense of a campus visit. Asking for a little bit of basic courtesy is not the same thing as asking for some arbitrary 'mourning' period. Though S, you do point out another pet peeve of mine: the failure of schools to promptly acknowledge to candidates that they've moved on.
S again: Sorry my reply was snotty; I shouldn't have used "mourning.' My point was just that we're caught in a warp between the wiki and the 1960s. Many schools are still relying on snail mail notification (which beats no notification, a pet peeve of mine as well) while the wiki is sometimes almost in real time. The annoyance with the time lags is really directed at this strange gap between school time and wiki time; it is neither the fault of the schools (assuming they're providing timely notifications) or the applicants. I would guess that most of these people, unless extremely foolish, are not posting of their job success after they get the phone call, but only after they've signed a contract. Similarly, schools never notify the 'losing' finalists just because the winner has said 'yes," but only after a signed contract is in hand. (Because what if the person gets something else, or bails, and now they have to call you? They don't want you feeling like the second choice.) You wouldn't believe what kind of delay that can be; the contract comes not from the department (often), but from the dean or president's office (so if they're out of town...), is mailed to the candidate and then mailed back (so that can be a week...). That's why I think a proper period would be arbitrary, because the 'winner' can't know when others have been notified.
T: Scare quotes.
U: Prigs who, bitter because they tanked an interview, find some random reason to whine...
V: U, that's really nasty and I doubt you would say that if this weren't anonymous.
W: Nor would you say it if you'd been through many searches. It's possible to ace the interview and be out-aced by s/o else.
X: Sometimes schools do notify other finalists when an offer has been made but not yet formally accepted by contract. Since the offer/negotiation/acceptance process often takes weeks (or even months in some cases), it becomes unrealistic to keep the other finalists from guessing or learning through the grapevine that an offer has already been made. There is an advantage to schools' notifying finalists that an offer has been made to another candidate, because they then provide the professional courtesy of transparency, which may give them credibility in future dealings with the other finalists (whether they end up hiring one of them if the first choice falls through, or whether they just remain colleagues in our relatively intimate discipline). "First choice" often means choosing an apple rather than an orange, and "second choice" candidates who know this won't necessarily take offense at learning they weren't the first pick, especially if department communications are positive. For those of you on the market, I hope it's helpful to know that there are some hiring committees and department chairs who take such considerations into account.
Y: Methinks someone should look up the words "prig" and "irony." (x2)
Z: I would *much* rather find out from the wiki that someone else got a job I interviewed for, and be mentally prepared for the rejection from the school, especially if it comes in the form of a phone call from the chair. This happened to me last year, and it was far easier to be gracious on the phone since I didn't answer it with the frantic hope that it might be an offer rather than a "no, thanks." Of course, it hurts to hear that you didn't get the job, but I also have some sympathy for the chair who has to make the rejection phone calls. Anyway, the great advantage of the wiki is the timely dissemination of information. A waiting period before posting updates would be counterproductive.
?: running out of alphabet letters.
*Conference papers, morphing into state-of-field (was pet peeves)*
AA: Having to bail from my ninth accepted conference paper since 2000, because I'm unemployed, have no credit due to having declared bankruptcy in 2009, and am presently down to $88.
Response to AA: This is eerily similar to a previous discussion last year or the year before, can't remember. If you know you are unable to afford to attend conferences, you really should not submit. That's taking the place of someone who likely would go. As a member of the Board of Directors of a national organization, we see one of these at least once a year and it's frustrating. If you declared bankruptcy two years ago, the probability of finding the personal funding to attend a conference, it's unprofessional to apply.
AA3: I'm sorry, but that seems like an awfully callous response. What if instead of telling people in dire financial positions not to apply (thus making them ineligible for a potentially career-advancing opportunity that might help them out of their situation), national organizations considered offering travel funding for adjuncts and unemployed scholars in the same way that they do for graduate students (who often have funding available from their own institutions anyway).
AA4: Hear, hear. As testimonials show above, the market is so dire that people with PhDs, publications, and book contracts struggle to obtain job interviews, and these conferences have become increasingly important on applicants' CVs.
AA5: Perhaps we should make an effort to organize more local (non AMS) meetings, perhaps involve the local libraries and go interdisciplinary. They might not be as prestigious as the national things, but they are a lot cheaper, and it is easier to make meaningful contacts at smaller meetings.
AA's follow-up: Thanks to everyone, except "Response to AA." Hopefully, that person does not represent the attitude of the rest of my "colleagues" on various Boards of Directors. I stand by my advisor's advice that if my work is valid and accepted, but I can't actually afford to attend, then it is NOT MY PROBLEM. I'd be extremely surprised if you really only encountered one conference-bailer per year, because that would mean that the 46% of Ph.D.s without tenure-track positions have given up, or else that they have money from somewhere else (which I do not). Anyhow, thanks to the rest of you!
Q @ AA: Why do you submit abstracts to conferences if you're nearly certain you'll be unable to attend? I ask this question seriously; I really would like to know what benefit you derive from this practice, especially because it so obviously makes a negative impact on others (i.e. conference organizers and, depending on when you withdraw, attendees and those who would have been invited to present had you not applied).
AA Q @ Q @ AA: Why do you assume that only people with money have a right to submit abstracts? I ask this question seriously; I really would like to know what benefit a profession could possibly derive from such an attitude, especially because it would so obviously make a negative impact on others (i.e., unemployed Ph.D.s who might very well have many of their abstracts accepted). I always remain optimistic that I will get some kind of job by the time I actually have to commit to attending a conference, and, by the way, I have also presented lots of papers. Why don't you think productively and creatively (along the lines of what some other people have suggested above), instead of bitching about things that are not my fault, but the fault of a system that was really only ever designed to work for graduate students and faculty members?
AA6: 1) I think you both are placing far too much value on conference presentations. 2) As someone on a program committee, let me say we notice papers that keep getting submitted over and over again. We also notice those who bail on conferences (in cases where the abstracts are not blindly rated). 3) If your research is that good, then publish it (this doesn't cost a dime and will do your CV much more good).
AA7: Here's another voice in support of AA. Not submitting to a conference because of the likelihood that you won't have enough money to go is just too soul-crushing to think about. Optimism is sometimes the only thing that keeps you going year after year on the job market! And I take issue with the idea that publishing doesn't cost a dime: it's true that you don't have to pay for airfare or a hotel, but there is a real cost of time and energy that shouldn't be discounted. And what if the work is newish and not ready for publication? As AA pointed out, the problem is the system, not the individual. And I question the character and empathy of those who would argue otherwise. Keep hope and your abstracts alive, AA!
AA: Thanks, AA7! As for AA6, trying to get things published is a quite scary prospect, because then one might spend years on something (as I have, more than once, usually while unemployed or severely underemployed), with little or no feedback until it goes through so-called "peer" review, which can be considerably more demoralizing than not being able to afford to present something at a conference. My most recent journal article languished in limbo for TEN YEARS (!), until the editor finally got these relevant conference proceedings from 2001 published in 2011. Wouldn't this sort of thing work a lot better (not to mention vastly more quickly) on specialized academic blogs? What about conference organizers creating short, "stand-by" lists of alternate papers, such as one for each session? What about professors donating back part of their travel stipends to a fund for their un(der)employed colleagues? Get thinking, people!
Q @ AA (again): Good heavens. I didn't intend to attack you in any way. I empathize with your situation. Several of my friends face similar circumstances, and indeed I have faced them myself. With that out of the way, for the benefit of those who consult this page to glean information that might help them search for jobs or otherwise advance their careers, could you answer the question I posed?
AA: With "friends" like this... I have a Ph.D. in musicology, and I submit abstracts related to my work, because I believe in it and I want to present it to other people. Obviously, if my abstracts often beat out other abstracts, then other people also want me to present my work. Despite my extremely limited resources, I have almost always been able to present each accepted paper at least once. Thus, I fail to see how the system could possibly be improved by discouraging "scholars without means" from proposing abstracts just as widely as anyone else. Your attitude merely goes to show that our profession has largely already devolved into one in which inferior papers would be preferred, purely because some people still have access to graduate-school funding, the "bank of Mommy," or whatever. We need reasonable solutions, not lip-service empathy from people on Boards of Directors. The answer is not: "I'm an asshole trying to make your life difficult," but I have a very definite feeling that you're going to see it that way no matter what I say.
AA8: I sympathize with the situation and arguments, though not always the tone, of AA. It may be true that one stands to gain little by applying for a conference that one is "nearly certain" not to attend. But that hypothetical does not apply well to the realities of a financially precarious situation. People often do not have the luxury of knowing at the time of application whether they will ultimately have the funds for a conference. The AMS meeting takes place 9-10 months after abstracts are due. Much can happen in the meantime: air fares rise, rent goes up, or the Nth application for a tenure-track job may be successful. How can one predict these things in January? Should one not apply because of the risk of insufficient funds? If so, how much risk is acceptable, and how much not? I say keep those applications coming, AA.
B. I've both chaired sessions and read papers in sessions in which a participant has bailed (with or without advance notice). While this is really not the end of the world (more inconvenient than anything else), I always find it particularly insulting to two groups of people: The conference organizers have worked hard to create cohesive sessions, and it's not fair to those would-be presenters whose papers likely would have been accepted had an absent participant not submitted. I certainly don't think, though, that it's anyone's malicious intent to throw a wrench into the works or to take a spot on the program knowing full well s/he will bail out. All other factors notwithstanding, it's simply unprofessional to back out of conferences regularly, whatever the circumstances. (Of course, there will be emergencies). At the end of the day, it's not a good thing for anyone, and the absentee's reliability (among other things) certainly becomes questionable.
AA: My best advice is for everyone to have a really solid "Plan B" (even a "Plan C" and a "Plan D") ready to go (i.e., accruing non-academic experience before it is too late), because there is not really any way of knowing what will actually advance one's academic career. To wit: I have presented 14 conference papers and 10 invited talks/lectures, co-edited a book and written another book (other than my dissertation), published 14 articles (book chapters, journal articles, and short/review articles), written 90 music encyclopedia reference articles and 82 concert program notes, and developed and taught dozens of courses. My non-academic and science-academic friends are constantly amazed that we hold all of these conferences all over the place (and I'm not just talking about the national AMS meeting), without even providing a mechanism for un(der)employed presenters to ask for $80 to cover registration, $40 to cover bus fare, or $40 per night to cover a room at the YMCA. That's not "tone." That's reality.
AA3 (again): I really hope that society board member and others at the top of the academic heap who visit this wiki take note of all of these indicators that the job landscape for young scholars is changing. If most of us will spend at least a few years adjuncting (with low salaries, no benefits, and no conference travel funds), then you will not be hearing from us at national conferences unless societies consider small travel stipends for those without access to funds from other institutions.
C: All for the travel stipends, for help with registration fees, and for conferences in affordable locations (though that's tricky: motels in grand rapids are cheap, but it isn't cheap for many to get there). But there is nothing all that new about the 'shadow residency" and its attendant poverty. Of the students in my (musicology) PhD cohort ten years ago, the majority worked during the diss phase or earlier, including adjuncting, vap, 1-years, etc. at area colleges. Our conference funds were student loans. One difference is that adjuncting/vap work is at least recognized as a possible path to permanent employment now, whereas a decade ago it was often disparaged by advisers as slowing down the PhD to no good end.
D: I have gotten travel stipends in the past, both through AMS and SAM. The smaller conferences do not have the money to support even one or two students. The only solution would be to raise the costs for everyone, which would create another pool of people who would need assistance. Or, to bring the rates down so low that the organization goes into the red. Most of the organizations in the US have an unwaged category for membership.
AA: I hope you will understand that I am not very sympathetic to anyone who is unduly "worried" about risking full-time adjuncts also needing assistance due to the (hypothetical) increased costs of providing subsidies, not when faculty members make between $45,000 and $105,000 per year. If I made $75,000 a year and knew that even one unfortunate colleague had no means of presenting her or his work at a conference, I would happily donate my annual conference-travel grant ($800, $1500, $2000 or whatever) into a fund for just such a purpose. I privately borrowed $16,000 to return to school in another field in 2009-10, but I have also not been able to find continuing work in it and have thus been of "no fixed address" since the early summer of 2010. My TOTAL income since July of 2008 has been $20,000, from music-related, but non-academic, work. I have never had any luck getting travel stipends as an "independent" scholar.
E: Right now, AA, the members of next year's class of entering graduate students are signing their scholarship and stipend acceptance letters, delighted with what they perceive as opportunity. If you were a professor, AA, your job would be to recruit and retain those students, even though you know as well as anyone that there will not be professorial positions for many of them. The whole system is dependent on those graduate students showing up every year. If you want more jobs for professors, then more graduate students need to enter the system, which means there will be more people who eventually need professorships, which means recruiting more graduate students, usw. If the graduate students stop showing up, then people who are professors today won't be professors much longer. The product of the system is graduate students, and the income source for the whole endeavor is undergraduate tuition, which, of course, is held afloat by federally-subsidised student loans. It's not a pretty picture regardless of where you've landed in the heirarchy (or pyramid).
F: I have to interject at this point, because, E., you are gilding a sh*tbag lily with some inexcusable air of nonchalance. The primary job of a musicologist is not to create musicologists. The job of a musicologist –- even in a "research institution", whatever that means –- is to teach musical culture to undergrads. That is the single most important contribution to the academic community. Tenured faculty research, such as it is, is only worthwhile to the extent it enriches one's teaching and perspective, and is not, to my mind, an end by itself. There is no reason to fund faculty research unless it provides some benefits to your institution. Now, tenured folk have often relegated the most important aspect of your job –- the music appreciation course –- to inexperienced grad student TA's or underpaid adjuncts. That has a double effect: first, the discipline they represent within the academic community is deprived of its most authoritative voice (namely their own) to the largest contingent of students. Second, they are then required to fill in the TA ranks with doctoral candidates, knowing full well most are, as you intimated, part of a pyramid scheme. There is no reason for any musicologist to enter this path without knowing the full scale of risk they are entering, unless those facts are kept hidden on purpose by their so-called advisors.
I have no bone to pick in this conundrum: I am not a musicologist. I just got the offer of a job of one, because the position required diverse disciplines and a healthy dose of applied classes as well. I do know far too many people in AA's position in many fields, because departments at various disciplines all sell this pipe dream of tenure track to lure students to TA jobs and then leave them to their own devices.
G: As a nearly finished dissertator, who has gotten nowhere with applications for post-docs or jobs, I do wish someone had been honest with me about the state of affairs with the market when I started this journey five years ago. With my over $100,000 in student loan debt thanks to many years of poorly paid g.a. positions, I would have chosen a different career path if I had any clue I would be graduating with a worthless degree. So I guess my point is that I'm sympathetic to AA and others in my situation, but attempting to stay hopeful that the positions I managed to hold outside my department will actually allow me to find a job in "the real world." As I prepare to abandon musicology, and academia in general, I can only say that hindsight is 20/20. If only someone had smacked some sense into me when I told them in what I was planning to major all those years ago....
@G: Don't let me stop you, with you gone that just means I'll have a better chance getting a spot. However, I'm not sure where you are going to go, the rest of the job market is not so hot either - even lawyers are having problems getting jobs. Perhaps you should just try to ignore the folks above and wait out the recession like the rest of us (or better phrased, wait until the recovery reaches musicology...)
H: Sure, the job market is bad and I sympathize since I'm in the same boat, but I did go into musicology knowing full well that there were no guarantees. One of things I made sure to ask departments when I was interviewing for Ph.D. programs was how the graduates fared on the job market and then I did my own research (pretty easy to do with google.) There are also books on the graduate admission process that don't dress it up all rosy like professors might.
Original "Callous" AA responder: It's a bit naive to think professors are going to donate their "travel" stipends to fund scholars who have been accepted to conferences. Despite the optimism of ABDs and grad students, I can assure you, travel expenses are minimum and never even cover the entire conference. I am consistently spending hundreds each year to attend conferences that are not reimbursed; the low salary of the arts makes it unrealistic to think that anybody really "has it made." I do recognize my fortunate situation of having a job, but I didn't expect anyone to pay my way when I was a graduate student. That's what I had the three jobs for outside of the assistantship. There is always a way if you want it bad enough. I also agree with the previous presenter that publications are much more prestigious than conference presentations although of course it is much more difficult (hence why it is more prestigious). It seems to me that most people don't have a problem with the system until they are unemployed. If there were in a tenure track position, I doubt they would bemoaning the state of academe. Sour grapes to me it sounds like. Although I sympathize with my unemployed peers and friends and I recognize the fortunate situation of being in a TT job, it certainly is no cake-walk. Universities no where are throwing money at professors to attend conferences. Most of us are dealing with larger course loads (4-4 here and it's no community college), larger class sizes, decrease in assistantship help and salary cuts. I would venture to say that most untenured track faculty are in a precarious financial situation themselves and to think they're going to donate hundreds to budding scholars is insanity. In case it's gone unnoticed, the economy is terrible. You have to do whatever you have to make it happen; those who can and do will make it. Only the strong survive in this degree program and economy. Pity party members will perish. Sorry to tell it like it is.
"There is always a way if you want it bad enough?" Crap. What are you talking about? You are so lucky, and yet you are elitist, judgmental, and entitled, acting as if you deserve anything. Empty self-importance run rampant. In back to back breaths you call someone unemployed and a sour grape but say you sympathize with the unemployed. "Only the strong survive?" You are lucky, that's all, and you should be ashamed that you have no interest in sharing the blessings that you clearly do not deserve. Finally, "Sorry to tell it like it is" Why? It is your kind of selfish ideology that is increasingly making things worse. Working together we might achieve smaller classes, better assistantships etc. but instead you have this to contribute.
Callous AA responder: What I'm talking about is that if you want to make a conference presentation, you could pick up a menial job in the meantime to help pay for it. That's what I did when I needed extra funding (while my fellow grad students at the time were too grandiose to take such low-paying minimum wage jobs). Yes, it was unpleasant but I knew it wasn't realistic to ask colleagues in TT jobs that were paying mortgages, school loans and car loans to support my academic ventures. That's all I meant. I don't feel like my job was only luck; I worked very hard for many years and I don't think personal attack is really fruitful, although potentially rewarding I suppose. My colleagues and I are working together to try to save our graduate program and assistantships but the situation is dire and there is no real system set up to pledge funds for budding scholars. Perhaps instead of lashing out at me and the system, you could propose starting a fund where people could contribute? I would and do give to charitable causes but the way things stand now, there's no place to donate for assisting those struggling out there. That's a good idea, maybe you should pursue whatever organizations you have submitted to and see if that's a possibility. I know the one I'm a member of has certain "awards" (registration fee, travel funding, etc) that can be applied for. Anyway, I offered potential solutions: finding any kind of employment to make the conferences if you think that will help your resume (personally, in my experience as a search committee member, publications weigh much, much more heavily) and/or set up a fund for unemployed scholars to travel. Or you could complain here, but that's not going to solve much of anything. Look, I know it's not pleasant to hear, but the system isn't going to change radically any time soon. Be the change you want to see in the world.
E, again: Five years ago, G, the job market was much better than it's been the last two years...(although the long-standing rule-of-thumb in all fields for education debt is that you shouldn't rack up more than what you expect from your first-year salary)...so it's understandable that you didn't see the bigger picture and that others with more experience than you didn't see it either.
My observation: very few musicologists got jobs in the 1980s...the last time the job market was this bad. In the last decade, those few from the 80s that got tenure have moved to administrative jobs (deans, dept heads, etc.), because suddenly there are so few faculty qualified for those positions given the low number of hires 25 years ago. With those born before 1946 finally retiring, and the low number of faculty hired in the 80s moving up, there were more hires in the early/mid years of the 00s than there had been in decades. Very few faculty are now over about 50 years-of-age (except, maybe, the advisors of everyone reading this page). Unfortunately, It may be a very long time until there's a hiring year better than this one...the hires of the 90s and the 00s are only mid-career, and no reason to expect departments to expand.
"D" to "AA" I did get a travel stipend from AMS as an independent scholar presenting at a conference. I also don't make anywhere near $75,000, pay for most of my conferences our of pocket, and do/have donate to the national organizations I care about. I also have a mortgage, daycare payments, etc. I understand you're angry, I was angry and made $7,000 one year. The fact is, a lot of us are or were in that boat. Assuming no one understands you - even as you willfully misunderstand the economics of the situation - won't get you very far.
AA6 (again): To me this argument reads more like a misunderstanding than a complete difference of opinion. The unemployed here seem to think that TT professors have money to burn. In my case, my TT salary begins 4 (which I don't believe is anywhere near $75k). I pay for all of my conferences out of pocket (budget cuts eliminated all travel funds three years ago). I too have a mortgage and debt. I basically pay for one or two conferences a year on my own or spend a lot of time writing grants (while teaching 6-7 classes a semester). The number of professors with any kind of research budget is minuscule (almost exclusively limited to those at graduate-degree programs). Sure, we would all like to have conference money and yes we all feel bad about the un/underemployed who don't have the resources to go to conferences (we've almost all been there). The thing is, the vast majority of professors out there don't have money right now either (nor do most unaffiliated conferences). Resources are really tight for all of us, and I think that is the gist of AA's "reality of the situation."
I thought this article did a nice job of retaining some empathy in the face of another dismal job market: http://chronicle.com/article/Survivors-Guilt/126710
AA (after a longish absence): The people who think they've got it bad with mortgages, daycare costs, their travel funding being cut, etc. (even if their pre-tenure salaries are "merely" in the 40,000s) are completely out-of-touch with the realities of those of us living in windowless storage/spare rooms, averaging an income of around $500 per month (for what were only ever supposed to be stop-gap, temporary, part-time jobs), and remaining $85,000 in "short term" (I wish!) debt. I have tried to get additional non-academic (office temp, admin assistant, IT, etc.) jobs in the $12-15 per hour range (including part-time), and I have even gone to a lot of trouble to try to enter a completely new profession, but I have not gotten anywhere with any of that. People not in academia (e.g., hiring managers) seem to be quite sure that anyone with a Ph.D. will be offered some other job at a much higher salary within a few months (so I can't make $25,000), and I don't have enough experience in my new field to find something at its starting salary (so I also can't make $50,000). I'm still not as desperate as the person on here who threatened to commit suicide a year or two ago, but I can sympathize with that response to a much greater extent than I can with what some of my supposed "colleagues" are saying.
"Callous" responder: I can't speak for anyone else, but my point primarily was that we didn't have extra funds to support others' travels for professional reasons. It's my understanding that the original post was saying that people with tt jobs should give up their travel stipend for her/him to use (or those in similar situations). I think we were just trying to explain that we didn't have extra financial resources and then went into detail why. I think we can all agree that we recognize that we are in more fortunate situation than the unemployed; it's just that we don't have unlimited funds to support our own careers as well as someone else's. I would certainly donate a little to an independent scholar fund if it were run on the up and up with some firm rules and regulations in place. I also do not have time to set that up, perhaps one of the people who have extra time can do that.
I to AA: So, to paraphrase Marge Simpson, you made a terrible life-choice and invested your time, energy, and money in the wrong thing. People from all walks of life do that. What are you going to do about it?
G: I'm okay with my choice, after only two months of looking, I'm going into my final interview for a very high paying position with tons of advancement opportunities in the area in which I've been working the last five years outside musicology. Although I complained and moaned at the time, I'm just glad I wasn't funded by my department so I was able to pick up additional marketable skills. Good luck to you all though. I know it's a tough road.
Tip for Job Seekers
For those still in the hunt this year (and those who will be looking again next year), I'd like to offer a suggestion. I've served on several search committees, including one this year, and the candidate who gets an offer is almost invariably the best TEACHER. All of the candidates have exciting research plans, most have a few publications, all are well-trained, bright, and capable scholars. But most of the candidates I've interviewed over the years are mediocre teachers at best. If you're in graduate school, do yourself a favor: participate in workshops or seminars on teaching. Agitate for courses in music history pedagogy - because without them, your graduate program is failing to prepare you for the professional challenges ahead. If you've already graduated, do some self-study in pedagogy. (Start with the article by Jose Bowen in the Journal of Music History Pedagogy on six books on teaching that every college teacher should know.) Don't buy into the decades-old notion that teaching doesn't matter at certain kinds of institutions. It matters everywhere. Yes, searches can hinge on all sorts of factors, and I'm not suggesting that the best teacher always gets the job. But I can say that the most effective way to distinguish yourself during the interview is to be a good (if not outstanding) teacher.
Your comment may reflect the priorities of your institution, but I have been told in private conversation after a search was over, "you were by far the best teacher, but we gave an offer the other candidate because..." I have also served on search committees where there was no lecture or teaching aspect of the interview. The above advice is helpful, but there is no magic bullet.
Ditto the magic bullet comment. Also, if a committee whittles down 100+ applications and finds that 1 or 2 of the final 3 are not good teachers, it seems like committees might want to come up with a more systematic and reliable way to nip that problem in the bud. I wonder how many interviews the "best teachers" aren't getting.
Which might be why some schools are asking for teaching videos, which candidates apparently and understandably find both massively inconvenient and unrepresentative of actual teaching. There's no magic bullet, indeed. Since scholarship is visible prior to the interview, sc's are less likely to find, at the interview, that it's not what they'd hoped. But since teaching is represented only indirectly, sometimes with great apparent promise (awards, etc), there is a greater likelihood of being surprised by it at the interview. Nothing in a file tells you that somebody who appears to be a dedicated and careful scholar considers lecturing about a genre at a sub-wikipedia level acceptable for undergraduates.
Original poster: Not trying to suggest a magic bullet...just offering some advice having served on search committees at several different kinds of institutions (research-focused, liberal arts, other). The committees I've served on are typically disappointed by the quality of teaching at the interview, so improving in that respect can only help your chances.
At the risk of bringing up the dreaded "teaching video" topic again, I've just got to say that, despite the frustration caused by putting one of these together, it's perfectly understandable why a sc might want to see one. At the very least, it suggests that teaching is a priority to that school/department/sc. And if you don't share that priority, then the job isn't a good fit for you. Unrepresentative of actual teaching? Yes, probably. But it's no less representative than the "class" you will likely be asked to "teach" when you arrive on campus for an interview. In my experience, setting up a video camera in the back of my classroom, behind students I actually know, and recording a class session for which I already know the curricular context is far less artificial than the experience of "teach these undergrads you've never met something worthwhile about [topic]." Sure, it's a hassle to put a teaching video together, but why don't we just assume that ONE of the jobs to which we'll apply is going to ask for this at some point, and get one ready. Then, it's just a matter of duplicating when the second school asks for one. And if you aren't teaching while you're applying for jobs, find a class and ask to "borrow" it for a day. Friends/colleagues at nearby universities? Or, people you've never met at a nearby university? Go introduce yourself, explain your situation, ask the professor if it's ok to observe her in one class for a few days, and then to teach it for a day yourself, or even for just 30 minutes. Yes, it's something we'd probably all rather not do, but if you want that $60,000 a year job in Rochester, then do it.
A: In retrospect, teaching myself to use iMovie was the one worthwhile thing that came out of this year's job search.
Back to Pet Peeves:
CMS spending its time (and mine, via surveys)on smartphone apps instead of addressing the many serious issues in music/academic employment raised on the wiki and elsewhere.
Etiquette
Without a working history function, I think a certain degree of etiquette makes the wiki more useful. Maybe "etiquette" is a poor word choice.
A1: It looks like the history function is working a little better now.
Praise
I just wanted to note that it is nice that some programs (B.U. et al) can actually make initial decisions with just a C.V., a Cover Letter and three letters of Rec. Anything else is a waste of time, money and resources (for the candidate AND the committee.) x2
- Unless, of course, the B.U. search is a semi-inside hire...probably this belongs as a 'Pet Peeve.'
- See above in 'Pet Peeves'
- Even moreso those that just ask for a CV, letter, and reference contacts (no letters). Saves money and hassle. Like the reference letters read differently anyway!
- R1: Actually, letters from colleagues in the same field are often very helpful and are taken seriously.
B: Conference interviews that are actually quite pleasant!
-The much improved tone of this year's wiki:-) (x3)
-Did someone do all those hyperlinks her/himself? Thanks, friend! (x2)
Other music job Wikis?
Q. Is there a job listing wiki for applied music? Couldn't find one...
Managing expectations
Q. How has the the bleak job market of the last couple of years affected the basic requirements for a TT job? or put another way, have the extra years that recent graduates have been scrambling to become more competitive (more articles, presentations, etc.) for their first job raised the bar for the Assistant Professor position. For example, is it normal for a school like B.U. to expect two articles or book chapters from a new hire? What are the basic expectations of what one would find on the C.V. of an entering Assistant Professor?
A1 (1/6): This is an important question, but we have to be careful not to generalize too blindly: each hiring scenario is unique. The verbiage in the BU ad suggested that they were looking for someone making a lateral move (i.e., someone already on the tenure-track) or else someone with significant teaching and publishing experience. On the other hand, certain schools explicitly remark that ABD will be considered as long as the degree will be conferred by the start date. For any position that is entry-level, certain things such as articles in major journals, a book contract, or teaching experience outside the graduate institution are clear indications of potential for success. I think this is true regardless of the specific market. These items don't guarantee an interview, or even a call back, but they certainly can't hurt. Remember, institutions are typically looking for someone they can tenure, not a six-year experiment.
A2: On a related note, I can't help but notice that there are an increasing number of job postings out there for those who can teach musicology *and* ethnomusicology (or, ethnomusicology *and* musicology). And theory as well. Is this symptomatic of departmental budget cuts? i.e., are departments having to do more with less?
A3: I think these advertisers are communicating that a musicologist might be expected to teach world music or that an ethnomusicologist would be expected to teach history courses. Hasn't this been true for a long time? It seems practical regardless of the budget situation.
Q2: Well, it will be interesting to see how many, if any, ABDs (graduating this spring) get TT jobs this year. The BU jobs were at least explicitly looking for someone with more experience. I wonder if that same attitude is implicit for many of the other jobs. With the glut of recent Ph.D.s on the market, what incentive do committees have to hire ABDs who, almost by definition, have fewer publications and less teaching experience than those who graduated in 2009 and 2010?
A4: I know it is short-term economic thinking, but ABDs are cheaper to hire than those who already have some years of university-level experience. However, I would hesitate to generalize about search committees based on what appears on this wiki or even in job announcements. After serving on a couple of search committees, I can tell you that there is rarely an underlying logic to them (apart from competing desires on the part of SC members).
A5, to A4: I see this written a lot. Can you explain how an ABD is cheaper than a Ph.D. with one or two years of adjunct or VAP experience, for example?
A6: ABDs are cheaper because directors and deans (who usually hold the purse strings) tend to take a hard line in negotiations. With no leverage (experience, another job offer, or at the very least, degree in hand), ABDs are in the weakest negotiating position and are sometimes automatically brought in at the minimum salary until their degree is complete; that salary might be the same as that of a visiting assistant professor at the same institution. Given the budget pressures impacting state institutions in particular, saving 5-10K on a salary negotiation can make a big difference for a cash strapped department making budget cuts, and calculating administrators know that these candidates will probably come anyway if the alternative is to be unemployed.
Q3: Speaking of expectations, what are ABD candidates to do when half the search committees throw out their applications on the basis of their not having degrees in hand? What is expected of those newly minted PhDs after they receive their degrees in May, four months too late?
A7: One thing that we can do is to start giving our home institutions (and advisors) a hard time for hiring and maintaining adjunct faculty. I wish that there were a society or some kind of organization from whom we could get some help to stem the tide of contingent hiring, but alas, they're busy with the important work of "decentering composers." (x2)
A8: While it's appalling how often institutions go for the cheap labor of adjuncts increasingly often, there's only so much that can be done at the departmental level. Rather than specifically fighting contingent hiring, I would like to see our organizations become more willing to challenge the status quo at the institutional and disciplinary level by finding ways to articulate and demonstrate all the reasons (and there are plenty!) that music/the arts should be an integral part of every student's training. More demand for the arts = more jobs, both TT and contingent. And in a market where more and more of us will (presumably) be looking for adjunct work, increasing the number of adjunct positions would also be helpful, at least in the very short term. (1/28)
A9(To A8):Your suggestion is well intended, but a waste of time. I can see the AMS coming out with a resolution that "The Arts are good," just like the "torture is bad" from a couple of years ago. We should print T shirts! It seems to me that arguing for the importance of the arts to a student's training is akin to arguing that Obama is not a muslim. It is a waste of time and does more damage than good. Contingent hiring is bad for the field. More useful might be a university rating system maintained by the AMS or some such which lists the number of fulltime, tenure track faculty in each department. Such a rating system would be quite influential in the number of yearly graduate and undergraduate applications that each department gets, drive incentive for fulltime hiring, and increase the visibility/membership of the AMS. Concerning the power of departments, I am also under the impression that tenure isn't just job security, but it is protection from repercussion for speaking out: perhaps it is time to put that priviledge to use?
A8 (to A9): Yes, indeed, I agree that tenured faculty need to (a) think about these issues; and (b) speak out. Some are, but in a set of disciplines as collectively resistant to change as the branches of music studies are, those voices are being either ignored or not heard in the first place. And I also agree that a ranking system would be helpful as a gauge and potentially as a policy-making tool, though I don't think such a thing would lead to change without other kinds of work. As for your comment about institutional change being "a waste of time": I respectfully beg to differ. It would certainly be difficult, and it would probably have to come from the ground up...BUT we are all AMS, SEM, SMT members, right? These orgs may be large, but it *is* possible to have a voice in them. Now, whether that voice is heard or effective is another matter, but we on the job market do have *some* agency, whether we wind up in TT jobs, adjuncting, or doing other things to pay the rent. We, too, have a place in either maintaining or changing the status quo, even if that place is less powerful than that of a tenured faculty member, and much less powerful than that of a dean or a college president.
A10 (to A7, A8, and A9): This really isn't an issue of music alone; in fact, it isn't at all. The adjunct problem runs throughout the humanities, indeed throughout academia. I have yet to see any evidence that musicology has it any worse, and actually I think, percentage-wise, we're far less reliant on adjuncts than many disciplines. Decisions about lines are mainly decided by deans and provosts, not departments. And as far as the suggestion about the AMS creating a rating system is concerned: universities won't notice, let alone care. Or rather, they care about the problem, but especially in this age of budget cuts their hands are mostly tied (in a way that they weren't even a few years ago, and I think it's the failure to deal with the problem then, when budgets were much more plush, that's the real scandal). There's a huge amount of public discussion about this, much of it generated by the MLA and AHA, and although it may be therapeutic for those involved, AMS adding its pint-sized voice isn't going to change policies. As for A7's idea of stigmatizing departments that hire adjuncts: these adjuncts are often the department's own PhDs who haven't yet found a TT job. As annoying, infantalizing, and depressing as it may be not to have found a good job, most people would prefer adjuncting in their own department to being unemployed. Should departments stop this?
A7 (to A10) That is an excellent rationalization, but no more."Everyone else is doing it" is never a good excuse. Just because English lit. might be worse off, that certainly doesn't mean we should sit idly by. As for a ratings system, universities won't notice until the quality and quantity of the application pool deteriorates. This might take some time, but the AMS could be effective in this way and music schools are driven by reputation. Didn't you notice that "a few years ago" when departments were plush with money, they still didn't have the funding to do the right thing? I am sure that they never will as long as it is cheaper to hire contingents. Further, the AMS will remain "pint-sized" as long as we think of it as too small to make any positive changes. Indeed, it can't even seem to find a way to host a proper job listing. But I can't help but thinking that it could be more relevant to its younger members. When you buy an apple it is one price, but when you buy by the dozen each apple is cheaper. Along these lines, administrations should be forced to pay more for adjuncts than to have a course taught by a tenured instructor (organized faculties already have this set up and it works.) If you want to give a recent grad a spot, create a postdoc or fellowship, but you can't argue that the lack of jobs is a reason not to create more jobs, circular, no? Finally, concerning stigmatization, the ratings system shouldn't just include adjuncts, I imagine other things like class size, tuition, graduation rate, placement rate et al could all go into it, but I'm just pulling these out of the air. If something like this (the truth) should "stigmatize" a department, then so be it.
A11: It seems that where AMS might try to lobby, and perhaps seek partnership from other academic organizations in doing so, is in helping to make conditions for adjuncts a little better. In particular, it seems that highly trained adjuncts, many of whom have PhDs and years of university-level teaching experience behind them, should be provided basic health care benefits for the period of the contract.
A12: I think the word you're looking for is "union." AAUP is a good place to start, perhaps? The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, associated with AAUP, deserves to be a force. Everything administrators do now insures that TT and part-time faculty will not have the time or energy to pursue these labor-related issues with the fervor that will bring about substantive change. We need strikes, collective bargaining, and a modicum of solidarity across the tenured, non-tenured, part-time chasms. It's only pie-in-the-sky until it happens.
Speaking of Unions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKQkGITsZmI
Salary Info
Q. I look at these "averages" for salaries and wonder if any musicologist in the US makes even the "average" for each rank? The scientists and law profs must make way over the average, and humanists way under.
A1: Music departments and musicology units are among the lowest paid in the university system. As an example (and this is a real example), two musicologists living in the same urban area, one works for a musicology program at an elite, doctoral-granting private university, the other one works for a sociology program at a Research 1 state university; the first one is an associate professor, the second one an assistant professor, yet the second one's salary is almost 10 K higher. When the salary of the second one is compared to another musicologist also working as an assistant professor but at the school of music of the same state u. the difference is more than 15 K.
A2: This is so true. Another example (again real, not hypothetical): an associate musicology prof at an R1 flagship state university serves as an external member of a search in the English department of the same university and discovers that the starting offer for the new candidate's salary is higher than their own. It is routine for musicologists and theorists to make 7-8K less than professors in other humanities disciplines of the same rank at this university, regardless of teaching experience or publication record at the time of hire.
Q: How did this happen?
A3: We're not considered an indispensable to the functioning of a university as English profs (who can teach or coordinate Freshman writing programs) are. We tend to have our salaries brought in line with studio teachers and composers: groups that supplement their income with outside performances and commissions, neither of which we have. And we tend to be in poorly-endowed departments (we're training alumni to be musicians themselves!) so there's not a lot of endowed chairs, etc. (the rising tide that raises all boats). And, of course, it happened in the typical way: many of us did not negotiate and negotiate hard on our initial salary offers. Practice, practice, practice your prepared speech where you conceal your utter joy at getting an offer and say matter-of-factly, "thank you for this offer which I will closely consider. Is it negotiable? because my initial response is that it is on the low side both for the cost of living in the area and for my expertise." Even if you get a "no, it's not negotiable," you haven't lost anything (and gotten good practice at negotiating for your promotion/next job).
A4: This really isn't the case everywhere. At my (R1) institution, musicology salaries are on par with others in the humanities. What they lag behind are the performers' salaries, which are stratospheric if they're a big name, and of course those in the sciences, economics, etc. So while it's true that art/music/etc isn't universally valued as much as we'd like, you really can't make the generalization that it's worse in musicology than it is in the rest of the arts and humanities. Some places yes, other places no.
A5: A3’s suggestion for negotiating is good but not practical. I’ve received my first offer. I was told the salary was non-negotiable. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but it’s totally obvious that I’m working part time this year and facing unemployment next year. To negotiate, I would have to be willing to either reject the job or let on that I’m willing to take anything, and I think that undermines my ability to ask for non-salary things like a research/travel budget. The truth is that ABDs or new PhDs are in the weakest negotiating position of their lives and admins must know this.
A6: To A3, I would say that asking if something is negotiable already weakens your ability to negotiate; I also don't think you really need to start playing hardball like you are trying to close a million dollar sale. To A5, if you frame the entire discussion with the chair differently, things might go better than you would suspect. 1) NO chair wants to lose you as a hire. #2 in line might actually have been a non-pick and the department doesn't want to do another search. If they lose you, that's very bad news for them. Put another way, someone with an offer shouldn't see it as an "us vs. them" scenario, because the department wants you, and in fact needs you. Just because there were 100 applicants doesn't mean the school is ready to offer the job to the other 99. 2) Perhaps you could tell the department you want to take the offer but there are certain items that are "very important to you." Make it clear that no individual item is a deal breaker, if it truly isn't. To name several examples, these could be: a new computer/software, a research/travel budget (perhaps in exchange for one more course per year?), a spousal hire, a guaranteed % raise (perhaps to offset the lower starting salary?), a better library budget, among other things. Any smart chair will see this as an opportunity to get creative without breaking the bank. Get everything in writing.
A7: Ditto A6. And some collected tips
A8: to A7, thanks!!
A9: it seems to me that this discussion is relevant to the discussion on financial woes in the section above (people unable to give conference papers for lack of funding; adjuncts surviving on starvation pay). The inequality of wealth characteristic of the US economy in general is surely being replicated in academia. Does anyone doubt that the superstars in any given field (including musicology) are being paid 4 or even 5 times what a non-TT junior faculty member makes? Are their contributions or their "value" five times greater? Give me a break.
Replacement Jobs
There's probably a better term for this, but I think it would be useful to keep track of what schools do after someone who has taught there accepts a job at another institution. This is my first year on the market, so my first year of watching the wiki seriously, but it seems like quite a high percentage of jobs are going to people who already had jobs (in many case, TT jobs) at other institutions. We should be advocating (through our relevant professional societies or other means) to make sure that these universities hire faculty at (at least) the same level as the person who left to teach at another institution. What we don't want to see is a school lose a tenure-track faculty member and then fill that course load with an adjunct for a long period of time (I understand this might be necessary for a year to do a proper search) or not fill the position whatsoever. So, to that end, I think that Shenandoah University and University of the Incarnate Word are to be commended for promptly initiating TT searches after TT faculty accepted other positions. Can we start a list of other schools who have lost faculty members, and keep track of their steps to replace (or not) these faculty members?
A1: It's not as easy as it sounds to replace at or above the level of the person leaving. Hiring is a major budgetary decision, and, as such, needs to go through the Dean's office at every university I've worked with. If the Dean's office elects to downgrade or eliminate the line of a faculty member who chooses to leave, the department effectively has their hands tied. Another problem for musicology is that an opening means a chance for redistribution and reconsideration. If a music historian leaves, the department might decide that their line might be better used to hire another voice professor, or a composer. The needs of departments are hardly stable. I'm all for more musicology jobs, but the politics is a real uphill battle. The best advocating we can do is to make our work indispensable to our departments and universities.
http://chronicle.com/stats/aaup/
http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries
http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/university-of-virginia-faculty-salaries.pdf
http://www.indystar.com/data/government/state_salaries2008_search.shtml
http://umich.highedsalaries.com/department/details/2074
http://www.uvm.edu/~isis/sr/sr08.pdf
http://www.timesunion.com/data/payroll/2008/
http://ia310825.us.archive.org/2/items/UniversityOfIllinoisSalaryList2008-2009/UI-Sal-2UIUC.pdf
http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/
http://ia310809.us.archive.org/2/items/UniversityOfMinnesotaSalaryList2008-2009/
http://php.app.com/rutgersweb/search.php
http://data.desmoinesregister.com/results/index.php?info=State_Salaries
http://lbloom.net/
http://www.dailyillini.com/salary-guide
http://www.uillinois.edu/trustees/agenda/September%2023,%202010/012%20sepGrayBook2010-2011.pdf - UIUC 2010 Salaries
http://www.archive.org/details/CommonwealthOfPennsylvaniaPayrollDatabase2008
http://www.bostonherald.com/projects/payroll/massachusetts/
http://ia310834.us.archive.org/3/items/UniversityOfConnecticutSalariesSep2008/
http://ia331421.us.archive.org/3/items/OhioStateUniversitySalaryListJune2008/OSU_salaries_as_of_June_2008.pdf
http://ia331414.us.archive.org/0/items/NorthCarolinaStateUniversitySystemSalaries2008/NC-State-Universities-Salaries-2008.pdf
http://ia310803.us.archive.org/1/items/UniversityOfMarylandSalaryListSep2008/
http://www.azcentral.com/news/datacenter/payasu.php?fdepartment=&ftitle=professor&fsalary=0
http://www.azcentral.com/news/datacenter/payasu.php?fdepartment=&ftitle=professor&fsalary=0
http://open.georgia.gov/sta/entryPoint.aud
http://www.kansas.gov/KanView/client/js/#dataTable=salary/emp_salary%3Fid%3D682%26job_title%3DAssistant%20Professor
http://ia310831.us.archive.org/2/items/TexasAmUniversitySalariesSep2008/
http://www.ir.ufl.edu/factbook/v-14_salaries.pdf
http://www.kentucky.com/1028/story/353631.html
http://www.utahsright.com/h_salaries.php
http://blog.nola.com/graphics/2009/02/search_for_state_employee_sala.html
http://transparency.sc.gov/BCB/transparency/BCB-state-salary-query.phtm
http://oira.unc.edu/faculty-salaries-at-research-and-aau-universities.html
http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846/
http://oira.unc.edu/faculty-salaries-at-research-and-aau-universities.html
Acronym guide
CMS: College Music Society
CHE: Chronicle of Higher Education
HERC: Higher Education Recruitment Consortium
IHE: Inside Higher Ed
MVL: Music Vacancy List (published by the College Music Society). Requires a member login.
AMS-L: American Musicological Society listserv
SEM-L: Society of Ethnomusicology listserv
SEM: Society of Ethnomusicology. Their current job list requires a member login.
TT: Tenure Track
VAP: Visiting Assistant Professor
ABD: All-But-Dissertation
Archives
2009-2010 Search
2008-2009 Search
2007-2008 Search
2006-2007 Search
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[note: 2009-2010 page remains available/active. See archive links below]
(Schools listed once, in alphabetical order - Application due date in parentheses)
Current Wiki Time: Thu May 17 05:24:48 CEST 2012
Last Page Update: 2012-02-28 22:52:27.0
N.B. 2011-12 Wiki is at http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Musicology/Ethnomusicology,_2011-12
Please add new links there
Musicology/Ethnomusicology
Tips for Improving Wiki Functionality1. Please keep the schools alphabetized for ease of use.
2. Please delete a school from the old category when you move it to a new one.
3. Please retain spacing and formatting where possible; the "preview" option helps here.
4. Unless you feel like it will give away your identity, please add dates to your posting to make it easier to find updates.
Q: Time to start a new page for the 2011-2012 search? Any thoughts on remaining at wikihost or moving with the rest of the humanities to Academic Jobs wiki?
A1: Time indeed, and I'm in favor of moving to other wiki provider. I think we could all use a fresh start...
Q (again): I've got us started over at Academic Jobs wiki: http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Musicology/Ethnomusicology,_2011-12 . I think we can figure out formatting as we go along (it's a little different than this page). Might I suggest a few things (which can of course be debated)?
1) Let's do a general, alphabetical list of all the jobs, with updates under each posting. [This is the standard format for other job wikis.] Let's ditch the "announced jobs," "jobs at the interview stage," etc.
2) Let's keep musicology/ethnomusicology together. We debated it last year, and most people seemed in favor of keeping all the academic music jobs together.
3) I've added a "General Discussion" heading under the current job postings. Let's keep all of the (expected and interesting) hubbub below that line, and keep all of the job updates with the specific job postings.
A: Could we recap the advantages of the new place? Is it just a better provider or are there advantages to the new format, etc? I am in favour, in theory!
R: wikia is a more stable and reliable provider. wikihost crashes regularly.
R2: I also like the edit function at wikia, which allows you to edit one part of the wiki at a time. My guess is this will prevent big editing mistakes, in which the entire wiki is affected by a single change. Also, I think it's good for musicology/ethnomusicology to be close to the other humanities, even in a virtual space.
R3: I agree with all of the above, but I also really miss the cleaner appearance of wikihost. I find it much easier to scan through quickly, and making edits was a lot less cumbersome. Also all the advertising on wikia (especially the stuff that changes every few seconds) is really distracting and hard on the eyes.
Schools with known acceptances (doctorate-granting institution in CAPS):
American University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Shalini Ayyagari (UC BERKELEY, 2009)
Babson College: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Sandra Graham (NYU, 2001)
Beloit College: Postdoctoral Fellow, Ethnomusicology (two year) - Denise Gill-Gürtan (UC SANTA BARBARA, ABD)
Boston University: Assistant Professor in Ethnomusicology - Marie Abe (UC BERKELEY, 2010)
Boston University: Assistant Professor in Historical Musicology - Patrick Wood Uribe (PRINCETON, 2011)
Bowling Green State University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Katherine Meizel (UC SANTA BARBARA, 2007)
Brandon University, MB, Canada: Assistant Professor, Musicology, discipline open - Colette Simonot (MCGILL, 2011)
Brown University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Joshua Tucker (MICHIGAN, 2005)
Cal State Northridge: Assistant Professor, Musicology- Alexandra Monchick (HARVARD 2010/UMASS Lowell)
Cardiff University: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Studies - Keith Chapin (STANFORD, 2002?)
Cardiff University: Lecturer in Ethnomusicology - Amanda Villepastour (SOAS, 2006)
Carleton College: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Andrew Flory (UNC CHAPEL HILL, 2006/Shenandoah)
Chinese University of Hong Kong: Assistant Professor (Historical Musicology) - Joseph E. Jones (ILLINOIS, 2009)
Cleveland State University, Visiting Assistant Professor, Musicology - Michael Baumgartner (SALZBURG, 2005/U of British Columbia)
Colby College: 1-year Faculty Fellow, Musicology pre-1750 w/early music ensemble directing — Ryan Dohoney (COLUMBIA, 2009)
College of the Holy Cross: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Daniel DiCenso (CAMBRIDGE, ABD)\
Columbia University: Assistant Professor of Music Theory - Benjamin Steege (HARVARD/STONY BROOK)
Columbia University: Assistant Professor of Music with a Specialization in African-American Music - Kevin Fellezs (UC SANTA CRUZ, 2004)
Columbia University: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Musicology (two-year) - Davide Ceriani (HARVARD, 2011)
Cornell University: Asst/Assoc Professor, Musicology - Benjamin Piekut (COLUMBIA, 2008/SOUTHAMPTON)
Dalhousie University: Visiting Lecturer/Assistant Professor, Musicology (50%) - Kelsey Cowger (UCLA, ABD/U of RICHMOND)
Eastman School of Music/U of Rochester: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Jennifer Kyker (UPENN, ABD)
Fordham University: Assistant Professor, Musicology (Renaissance or Early Baroque) - Eric Bianchi (YALE, 2011)
Franklin & Marshall College: Assistant Professor of Music - Karen Leistra-Jones (YALE, 2011)
Georgia Gwinnett College: Assistant Professor of Music - Cathy Kilroe-Smith (GEORGIA, 2011)
Harvard University: College Fellow, Musicology (Renaissance through 18th-c) - Evan MacCarthy (HARVARD, 2010)
Indiana State University: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Terry Dean (GEORGIA, 2009)
Indiana University Post-Doctoral Resident Scholar - Timothy Freeze (MICHIGAN, 2010)
Indiana University, Visiting Assistant Professor, Musicology - Alison Altstatt (U OREGON, 2011)
Ithaca College: Assistant Professor, Music History - Sara Heimbecker (U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2011)
Kalamazoo College: Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, Ethnomusicology - Yona Stamatis (MICHIGAN, 2011)
Kent State University: Assistant Professor (non-tenure track), Ethnomusicology/Music Appreciation - Eve McPherson (UC SANTA BARBARA, 2009)
King's College, University of London: Postdoctoral Fellow, Ethnomusicology (three-year) - Jim Sykes (CHICAGO, 2011)
Luther College: Mellon Postdoc in Ethnomusicology (two-year) - Michael O'Brien (UT-AUSTIN, 2010)
Marlboro College: Tenure-track, Various Specialties - Matan Rubinstein (UW-MADISON, 2009/UW Whitewater)
McGill University: Dean, Schulich School of Music - Sean Ferguson (MCGILL, 2000)
Memorial University, Newfoundland:VAP, Ethnomusicology and/or Popular Music Studies - Chris Tonelli (UC San Diego 2011)
Middlebury College: 3-year VAP, Ethnomusicology - Damascus Kafumbe (FLORIDA STATE, ABD)
Nebraska Wesleyan University: Assistant Professor, Musicology/Ethnomusicology - John D. Spilker (FLORIDA STATE, 2010)
New College of Florida: Visiting Assistant Professor, Musicology/Ethnomusicology - Kariann Goldschmitt (UCLA, 2009/Colby College)
Oberlin College Conservatory (one-semester) - Paul Schick (YALE, 1997)
Ouachita Baptist University: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Jir Shin Boey (INDIANA, 2010)
Pennsylvania State-Erie: one-year, renewable, music history / basic music theory - Hilary Baker (UPENN, 2010)
Princeton University: Assistant Professor, Musicology (open) - Anna Zayaruznaya (HARVARD 2010/NYU)
Saint Anselm College: Assistant Professor, Musicology – Sean Parr (COLUMBIA, 2009)
Saint Michael's College: Assistant Professor, Musicology - William Lee Ellis (U MEMPHIS, 2010)
Santa Clara University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Christina Zanfagna (UCLA, 2010)
Sheffield University: Lecturer, Musicology - Dominic McHugh (KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON, 2009)
Shenandoah Conservatory: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Laurie McManus (UNC CHAPEL HILL, 2011) (Q/A below)
Southern Methodist University: Assistant Professor, Musicology/Ethnomusicology - Peter Kupfer (UCHICAGO, 2010)
Syracuse University, Assistant Professor of Musicology (in Dept. of African-American Studies) - Paul Steinbeck (COLUMBIA?/UChicago)
Texas Christian University: Assistant Professor, Music History/Musicology - William Gibbons (UNC CHAPEL HILL, 2010)
University College Cork: Professor of Music - Jonathan Stock (QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, BELFAST)
University of Arkansas: 3-year renewable, Music Appreciation - Matthew Mihalka (MINNESOTA, ABD)
University of Birmingham, UK: Chair in Musicology - Andrew Kirkman (KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON/Rutgers)
University of California, Berkeley: ACLS New Faculty Fellow, Visiting Asst. Prof. (two-year) - J. Griffith Rollefson (UW-MADISON, 2009/Chapman U)
University of California, Berkeley: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities (two-year postdoc) - Deirdre Loughridge (UPENN, 2011)
University of California, Berkeley: UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow (two-year) - Jessica Bissett Perea (UCLA, 2011)
University of Cambridge, UK: University Lectureship in Music (2-year post) - David Trippett (HARVARD, 2009/Cambridge)
University of Cambridge, UK: Mellon Postdoc in Popular Music and Culture - Monique Ingalls (UPENN, 2008)
University of Chicago: Assistant Professor, Music History - Seth Brodsky (EASTMAN, 2007/Yale)
University of Chicago: Society of Fellows (four-year) - Michael Gallope (NYU, 2011)
University of Delaware: Assistant Prof, Music History (post-1600) - Maria Purciello (PRINCETON, 2005/West Chester U)
University of Hawaii at Manoa: Assistant Professor, Asian Studies (Performing Arts) - Anna Stirr (COLUMBIA, 2009)
University of the Incarnate Word: Assistant Professor, Music History - Kevin Salfen (UNT, 2005/SMU)
University of Iowa: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Nathan Platte (MICHIGAN, 2010)
University of Iowa: Lecturer in Ethnomusicology/Musicology - Trevor S. Harvey (FLORIDA STATE, 2009)
University of Kansas: Assistant Professor, Musicology, Classical/Romantic - Alicia Levin (UNC CHAPEL HILL, 2009)
University of North Carolina at Asheville: Tenure-track Jazz & Popular Music Studies - William Bares (HARVARD, 2009)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Tenure-track Musicianship/Aural skills - Lee Weisert (Northwestern University, DMA 2010)
University of Otago: Lecturer (tenure-track), Musicology - Andrew Deruchie (MCGILL, 2009/U of Ottawa)
University of Otago: Lecturer (tenure-track), Pacific Music - Jennifer Cattermole (MACQUARIE U, AUSTRALIA)
University of Pennsylvania: Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow (two-year), Music - Amy Cimini (NYU, ABD)
University of Pittsburgh: Ethnomusicologist specializing in African Music (junior or senior) - Gavin Steingo (UPENN, 2010/COLUMBIA POSTDOC)
University of Rochester: Assistant Professor, Musicology/Music History - Corbett Bazler (COLUMBIA, 2010)
University of San Diego: Chair, Music - David Harnish (UCLA, 1991/BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY)University of Richmond, Assistant Professor, Musicology - Jessie Fillerup (U OF KANSAS, 2009/U of Mary Washington)
University of Southern California: Provost's Postdoctoral Scholar in the Humanities (Musicology) (two year)- Tracy McMullen (UC SAN DIEGO, 2007)
University of Texas at Austin: Lecturer (one-year), Ethnomusicology (Latin America) - Darien Lamen (UPENN, ABD)
University of York (UK): Lecturer, Musicology - Áine Sheil(KING's COLLEGE, LONDON, 2004)
Utah Valley University: Lecturer, Musicology (one-year) - Ross Hagen (CU-BOULDER, 2010)
Wayne State University: Assistant Professor, Musicology - Joshua Duchan (MICHIGAN, 2007)
Yale University: ACLS New Faculty Fellow, Postdoctoral fellow (two-year) - Emily Green (CORNELL, 2009)
Number of Jobs: So approximately 75 positions filled on this list. Does that make 2010-11 a good year, a bad year, an average year, a less than average year, a more than average year?
Schools with rumored acceptances/offers (name unknown):
Carroll University (1 December, 2010): Assistant Professor in Music (theory, ethno, performance) (rejection email)
Skidmore College (March 11): Visiting Assistant Professor, Music History or Theory (via rejection email 4/18)
University of Alberta: Director of Folkways Alive! With tenure at associate or full, renewable term position. (http://www.iaspm.net/?p=200)
University of California, Los Angeles: Lecturer or Visiting Assistant Prof., Musicology (via rejection email 6/6)
University of Kentucky: Lecturer in World Music Performance (2 year, possibly renewable non-tenure-track)
University of Pittsburgh: Senior Musicologist ??Someone must know who got this position (by now 3/17)??
University of Texas, Brownsville: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology
University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh: Assistant Professor, Music History (snail mail 5/2)
Whitman College: Assistant Professor, Music history and "any instrument other than violin" (rejection email 5/27)
Williams College (25 April 2011): Visiting Professor (Fall 2011 only), Ethnomusicology with focus on African music
Schools that have requested campus visits:
University of Cape Town, South African College of Music: Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer/Lecturer, Musicology
University of Edinburgh (27 May 2011): Teaching Fellow in Music
University of Lethbridge: Three-year, Music History - Phone 4/15
University of Missouri (18 January 2011): Assistant or Associate Professor, Musicology or Ethnomusicology, research and teaching interests in Black Studies (MVL)]]
Victoria University of Wellington/New Zealand School of Music : Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Musicology (eighteenth century and/or theoretical and analytical approaches to musicology)
Schools that are conducting phone and/or video interviews:
Mahidol University in Thailand: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Email request (video interview): 2/9 (x2)
Montclair State University: Three adjunct positions - Email request (video interview) - 4/8
University of Auckland: Lecturer in Ethnomusicology - Shortlist established; video interviews in place of campus visit - 1/11
University of Notre Dame: World Music and World Christianity (rank open) - 2/14
Washington University: Musicology, advertised as year-long sabbatical replacement, morphed into one-semester adjunct - 5/18
Schools that have requested more materials:
University of Notre Dame: World Music and World Christianity - 2/8
Schools requesting conference interviews:
Schools that have sent out rejection letters and/or established a shortlist:
College of Mount Saint Vincent, 5/16
Announced jobs with no further information on their status:
Cal State San Marcos(no deadline listed): "Pianist/Theorist/Ethnomusicologist" (CHE)
According to the Theory/Comp Wiki Carroll is conducting phone interviews.
Claflin University (1 July 2011): Asst Prof/TT, Musicology/Ethnomusicology (CHE)
Delaware State University (Open until filled): Chair Music department
Goldsmiths, University of London (30 March 011): Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Music
Mahidol University in Thailand (1 December 2010): Historical Musicology (MVL)
Saarland University: Research Fellowship in Musicology, 16th-century music, proficiency in Spanish and/or Italian required
Simpson College (1 December 2010): Assistant Professor with a bunch of other stuff...
Texas A&M University (9 May 2011): Assistant Lecturer, ethnomusicology or musicology (2 openings);
University of California, Los Angeles (1 March 2011): Tenured, Mickey Katz endowed chair in Jewish music, "composition, performance, ethnomusicology, musicology, or other scholarly disciplines" (MVL) http://bit.ly/e5w0NO
University of Liverpool (26 May 2011): Lecturer in Music
University of Sheffield (26 January 2011): Chair / Senior Lecturer in Music Performance
University of Texas, Arlington (announced 18 April 2011): 1-year VAP in String Bass/Music History.
University of Western Australia (26 May 2011): Assistant Professor / Associate Professor in Early Music http://www.seek.com.au/Job/assistant-professor-associate-professor/in/perth-cbd-inner-western-suburbs/19818254 (application deadline 1 July 2011)
University of York (3 February 2011): Lecturer in Music (musicologist, performer or composer)
Canceled and failed searches:
East Carolina University: Asst/Assoc Prof, Musicology post-1750, secondary American music or vocal lit. - Email from chair confirms search canceled (state budget/funding cuts) (3/22)
Indiana University: Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology (4/28) - snail mail letter received on 5/13 saying that they did not make a permanent hire and would continue the search next year
Kennesaw State University: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology - Letter stating that the search was canceled due to funding (2/5)
University of Michigan-Dearborn (MVL) - Email from chair confirmed search canceled (11/11)
York University: Assistant Professor, Music of the Americas ("including expertise in plucked strings") - Email states no finalist was offered the position (7/8)
Deadline Calendar (in chronological order; YYYY.MM.DD)
2011.02.15 Nebraska Wesleyan University
2011.02.15 Cal State Northridge
2011.03.01 University of Otago
2011.03.10 Whitman College
2011.03.11 Skidmore College
2011.03.14 University of Cambridge
2011.03.23 UT Austin
2011.03.30 Goldsmiths, University of London
2011.04.08 University College Cork
2011.04.10 University of Arkansas
????.??.?? Saarland University
????.??.?? Georgia Gwinnett College (rolling deadline)
End of Search Year: (maybe it's time for another count?)
I was on the market this year and secured a TT job: 4
I was on the market this year and have a full-time position next year (VAP, etc.): 2
I was on the market this year and have a part-time adjunct position next year: 3
I was on the market this year and have a TA or fellowship next year: 5
I was on the market this year and don't know what I'm planning to do for employment next year: 4
I will be on the market again next year: 7
I didn't secure a TT job, and will not return to the market next year: 1
I didn't secure a TT job, and have not decided whether I will return to the market next year: 1
Discussion of Specific Schools
ACLS New Faculty Fellowships
Q: Was anyone in musicology offered this fellowship this year?
A1: I'm an ethnomusicologist, and I got a rejection email yesterday (1/14/2011) (x2). They'll post the recipients on their website eventually.
A2: Yes. (x2. I wonder how many of us there are in ethno/historical musicology out of the whole bunch.)
A3: Congratulations, A2! (x3)
A4: There is a separate wiki.
A5: List of ACLS New Faculty Fellows now posted at http://www.acls.org/research/nff.aspx?id=5556 Five awardees in ethno/musicology.
AMS 50 Dissertation Fellowships
Q1: Has anyone heard anything? The initial e-mail confirmation said that decisions would come out around the end of March.
A1: Winners have been notified. (4/7)
Q2: Were winners notified on 4/7 or in mid-March, as in past years? Have any alternates been notified? Or are alternates only notified as each winner goes honorary?
A2: Looking on last year's wiki, it seems that there was a notification of award received in the end of March and then rejection e-mails received on 4/20.
A3: Seems winners only heard on 4/7. Have any alternates been notified since then?
Q3: 4/7 was just yesterday. Do they usually notify the winners and alternates at the same time?
A4: Received notification of award 4/6.
Q4: Have the winners been announced yet? (4/23)
A5: Winners will be announced in the AMS newsletter (August). Same for Howard Mayer Brown award.
Q5: Has anyone received a rejection e-mail yet? It's great to find all of this information from the wiki, but if all of the awards have been given out, a curt rejection e-mail would be nice.
Boston University (Historical Musicology)
Q: What other materials did they request?
A: Two articles or book chapters.
Brown
I thought Brown's rejection letter was the best (and most accurate, probably) I've ever gotten: "Your application did not meet our specific needs at this time." (2/5)
A1: That's pretty standard language. I once got a reject (another school) that said "none of your qualifications meets our needs at this time."
Cal State Northridge
Q1: I read in the news that the California Governor-elect is proposing to cut even more from the UC and Cal State systems. This combined with the statement in the job ad about it being contingent on the budget makes me wonder if this job search will proceed. Does anyone from California know anything about this?
Q2: What materials do they want? Cover Letter? CV? Letters? Teaching Video? American Idol Audition Tape?
A1: I just got off the phone with the Admin. Coordinator at CSUN. They want a CV, cover letter, list of references, and 3 letters of recommendation mailed directly to the department. They do not require an online application.
A2: Regardless of what someone said on the phone, their job listing (HigherEd, linked above) specifically mentions a transcript.
Q: Has anyone heard *anything* more from these schools that are long past their campus visits?
Q2: Does anyone know if ALL of the jobs in the California State system have been cut? I notice that none (with the exception of some postdocs which come from private funding agencies) have advanced beyond the campus interview stage. I was shortlisted at two, and have heard nothing so far. Could this be related to the 500 million dollar state budget cut?
Q3: I have been shortlisted as well at CSUN and haven't heard anything lately.
A: California probably is waiting for the May budget revise, which is due sometime next week.
A2: Also short-listed at CSUN. Have heard nothing either, nor have I been reimbursed. I heard through the grapevine a couple of weeks ago that the job has been canceled.
Cardiff University
Q1: What are you all doing about signing the application. Must a signature be scanned or can I just email the darn thing without one?
A1: If they accept e-mailed letters, I write at the bottom "submitted electronically on DATE" or something to that effect.
A2: Do you have online banking? I cut and pasted a signature from a check scanned by the bank and it worked great.
Carleton College
Q1: Has anyone heard anything positive from Carleton? I see that some people have received rejection emails already. I haven't heard anything positive or negative yet, but I'm wondering if I should just be waiting for the other shoe to drop.
A1: I've yet to hear from Carleton either positively or negatively. (1/6) x5
A2: I was informed during an SEM interview that the SC would not be seriously reviewing applications until February and not to expect to hear back until mid-semester. I was surprised to see that they sent out rejections already.
A3: I was equally surprised that the last round of rejection emails came out the same day as phone calls to finalists. As painful as it was to get that email, it was much better than getting the news from the wiki. Thanks for being on top of it, Carleton!
Q2: So there have been TWO rounds of rejection emails? Could someone confirm this for my paranoid mind? I received neither rejection email, but I also did not receive a phone call today. Anyone else in this situation (1/18).
A4: Yes, I've not heard either way either (1/18). Did you do a conference interview? (I did)
Q2 again: Yep, I did a conference interview too. Maybe we're the backup pool or something. (Or maybe that's my own wishful thinking.)
Q1 again: I also did a conference interview, and I have yet to receive either a phone call or an email rejection. (1/19 afternoon)
A5: I got an email rejection from them THREE WEEKS after seeing on the wiki that they had sent out rejections. I don't know what any of it means, but I would really like to...Why such a staggered notification process?
A6: It doesn't seen that odd to me. Let's say they made a first round of cuts to come up with a long list, then culled that to a long short list of finalists (thus the two rounds of rejection emails). They invited their top picks for campus visits, and the rest are alternates in case none of their finalists work out. I actually think the staggered rejections are a sign that they were dedicated to keeping applicants informed of their status. Better that than being in the dark until the bitter end, I think. (x2)
Colby College
Q1: Has anyone heard form Colby? It's been two months since the deadline.
A1: I got a receipt of materials, but that was toward the beginning of January.
A2: I've heard that they are currently interviewing candidates.
College of the Holy Cross
Q: Has anyone heard from Holy Cross about AMS interviews?
A1: Just got an e-mail from them requesting one, though I have no idea what that actually means (e.g. am I now "short-listed"?).
A2: I think it means they liked your undergraduate transcripts.
A3: Why would they bother emailing the eve of the conference when people are in transit and away from email?
A4: I think the "short list" usually refers to the group invited for campus visits (this is the "long list"). I got the email too, but nothing afterward. Did anyone else hear anything more?
A5: Despite the 24-hour advance notice, did anyone actually have an interview with Holy Cross at AMS?
A1 (again): I'm wondering the same things as A4 and A5. I got the e-mail on 11/3, and replied to it the next day, but never heard anything more. As it turns out I wasn't able to be at the conference, but the e-mail did offer the possibility of a phone conversation the following week - which has now come and gone. Needless to say, I'm more than a little concerned. Can anyone clarify the situation? I sure hope this doesn't mean I've lost my chance....
A6: Long-list interviews did take place at the AMS meeting.
A7: I had an interview at AMS and was told I was on the "tentative long short list." They're still accepting applications through Dec. 15 to be on track with other hiring at the College, so I don't think anyone's chance has come and gone, especially if you received an e-mail.
Q2: For those of you who got requests for more materials, what were they seeking? And did you also have AMS interviews?
A1 yet again, responding to A7, and piggybacking on Q2: Well, my chance did come and go, because they never got back to me about an interview, and I was not among those to whom they sent a request for more materials. Did anyone else have this experience?
A7 again: I received a request for more materials following my AMS interview. They asked for two writing samples, as well as syllabi and teaching materials for two classes.
Q2 again: Thanks, A7!
A8: It's been about a month now - has anyone heard any news?
College of Mount St. Vincent
Has anyone heard anything about this?
Columbia University
Q1: The given Columbia University link doesn't work at the moment. Is the job advertised elsewhere?
A1: Yes, the correct link is now given above (as of 10/13/10), along with a second posting for 2 Mellon postdocs. I apologize for posting a garbled link initially for an hour or so. Reposted now with both listings having the correct link. If the link does not work for you, please email departmentbusiness@gmail.com. (A. Fox, Chair, Music, Columbia U)
Q2: any updates? shortlist finalized by this time last year (1/26).
East Carolina
Q: Has anyone heard anything regarding anything??
A: No, and in fact I emailed the chair to ask about the search timeline and got an email bounceback. Bad sign!
Eastman School of Music
Q1: The announcement circulated by e-mail lists gave Oct 18 as the deadline, while the one posted on their website said Oct 4. I just checked with E. Koskoff and she confirmed that it's Oct 18.
Q2: I just re-read last year's discussion of Eastman's teaching video requirement, and I wholeheartedly agree with whoever said it was a mickey-mouse requirement. Applying for jobs is an onerous-enough process already. The teaching video is a pointless requirement that will not really help the committee evaluate the applicants in any meaningful way, and will require hours more of unpaid work from the beleaguered job-seekers. Eastman should decide on their short list based on phone interviews, as is customary, call in their three people, and make the decision based on the campus visits. In conclusion, this is not a seat on the President's Cabinet, but a $60,000 a year job in Rochester, New York. The insanity must end.
Q4: [Reply to Q3 in U. Rochester] Odd, I was contacted last week and asked to send a teaching video by November 8th. I did not receive the email mentioned by Q3. Anyone else in this situation?
Q6: On 10/26 Eastman contacted all applications to state what they would request later for additional materials - has an actual request for these materials gone out yet?
A: Interviews happened before break; don't know why no one posted here
Fordham University
Q1: Why hasn't this been posted anywhere else? Can someone confirm this search is for real?
A1: It was posted on the CMS MVL and the AMS Announce list.
C: Subsequent email circulated to faculty advisors indicates that medievalists are also welcome to apply: "Please note that qualified medievalists will have opportunities to teach in the Medieval Studies graduate program." (MVL)
Q2: Anyone received any updates on this since AMS?
A2: They are conducting Skype interviews for candidates who weren't at AMS.
Harvard College Fellows
Q1: Did anyone ever get a request for more materials, etc. from Harvard? I may have missed some movement on the wiki, but it appeared to me that they went from 'No Information' to hiring one of their own pretty much overnight.
Indiana University
Q: I saw this job advertised on the AMS list, but it is not on their human resources page? Has the search been canceled?
A1: I received a snail mail acknowledgment from the executive associate dean along with an AA/EEO form after submitting my materials online. No reason to believe it has been canceled. http://music.indiana.edu/faculty/positions.shtml
Q: Hmm. I applied well in advance of the deadline, but (unlike A1) still haven't received any acknowledgment. Anyone else in a similar situation? (x3)
A2: I also received a snail mail acknowledgment from the executive associate dean along with an AA/EEO form.
A3: I only just received mine today (11/23), even though I applied pretty far in advance.
Indiana University Post-Doctoral Resident Scholar
Q: Has there been any indication of the timeline for this search?
Indiana State University
Q: Does anyone have any information on the status of this search?
A: They seem to be in the review process now. I received a friendly email today asking for a transcript that I had somehow failed to upload (oops). (1/25)
A2: Don't feel bad, A1; the ad didn't request a transcript and the online system had several duplicate spaces. In a word, confusing. To answer the original question, 10 days out from the deadline seems a little early for any significant movement, but one can always hope it goes quickly.
A3: I also received an email asking for a transcript, and yes, as A2 notes, the online application was confusing. (1/25)
A4: The online application was confusing, but I submitted my transcript when I saw the space to upload one to the electronic application. (1/25)
Q2: Does anyone know what the nature of the need for the search is? Is the person currently in the position leaving? (1/25)
A5: I suspect that the current person is leaving or that there is a tenure-track search.
Ithaca College
Q: The Ithaca College search says, "only original letters or copies of letters held on file at the career planning office of an accredited academic institution are acceptable." Does Interfolio dossier service qualify as acceptable?
A: When I sign on to Interfolio, it comes up as XYZ University Career Services, powered by Interfolio. I would hope that counts. I'm just wondering what they're trying to head off. Fake recommendation letters? Isn't musicology a small enough field that such things could be confirmed?
A2: Just got off the phone from someone in HR at Ithaca, and she confirmed that Interfolio should be fine, as long as the letters were coming directly from Interfolio to their institution.
Q2: Anybody heard anything from Ithaca?
A2: They have now established a long list. (1/21)
R: Quite bizarre to see this re-posted on HigherEdJobs today (2/21) with the notation, "Applications no longer being accepted for this job."
Kennesaw University
Q1: Has anyone heard anything about this job since the deadline - even an acknowledgment, or word that they contacted one of your references?
A1: I've heard nothing.
A2: I called on December 6 to confirm receipt of materials. They could only confirm that a file was created for my application with no details about its completeness.
A3: Snail mail acknowledgment of materials received (12/11)
A4: Two months past the deadline, and not a peep on the wiki. Is is possible the search has been cancelled?
Kent State
[not really a] Q: Good heavens, 40K a year to teach a 5/5 course load? I know someone will take this job given how terrible the market is, but this really does seem like a new low.
A1: Actually, the University of New Hampshire posted a job last year that was 5/5 and they were offering 28K for ABD candidates and 32K for Ph.D. 40K seems almost reasonable after that!
A2: Wow! that's either 3200 or 4000 per course! I am making that as an adjunct! blech.
A3: blech x2. I made more than twice the former figure as an adjunct. That's just ridiculous.
Luther College
Q: Can anyone confirm that interviews for this postdoc actually took place at SEM? I consulted with several other applicants who were asked to submit teaching evaluations. But we heard nothing back from the search committee. Did interviews actually take place?
A: Yes, I know several people who had SEM interviews for this position.
Marlboro College
Q: I cannot find this job posting anywhere! Help?
A: Here is the link.
Princeton University
Q: Where is this advertised?
A: Higher Ed. Jobs
Q: I submitted my app. online and sent my references to the department, as requested. The online app. still says it is incomplete (lacking references), although the references should have gotten there weeks ago. Anyone have this same problem?
A: I'd suggest calling or emailing the department - not the search chair, but the contact person given on the app.
A2: the same thing happened to me. My school's letter service says all 3 letters were mailed weeks ago but Princeton didn't get them. The other schools I had letters sent to did get them. So troubling!
A3: I just checked mine and the website says they've been received. Maybe the mode of delivery makes a difference? I went w/ Interfolio, snail mail, sent out on 10/26. Definitely call. Princeton's HR office is helpful - I called before submitting my application.
Q: How was it communicated that letters were to be sent directly to the department? I saw no such indication in the posting and had referees upload directly to the site. I hope that was ok!
Saint Anselm
Q: Has anyone heard of any recent developments with this search?
A: On-campus interviews took place this week.
Q2: Campus interviews were 7-8 weeks ago (as of 4/5). Does anyone know what's happening with this search?
Santa Clara University
Q: Last week this was listed in "Schools that have requested campus visits" and now it's been moved back to telephone interviews. Why?
Shenandoah Conservatory
Q: I thought there were two job openings at Shenandoah; is it now just one?
A: The original ad mentioned "budgetary approval" for the second position. But I think they plan to run another search in the upcoming academic year.
Simpson College
Q: Can anybody provide a URL on the Assistant Professorship in a bunch of stuff?
A: http://www.simpson.edu/hr/jobs/asstprofmusic.html
C: It certainly looks like the music history component is lowest in priority, after opera conductor, accompanist, piano instructor, and vocal coach.
Southern Methodist University
Q: SMU's confirmation of receipt of application said they were hoping to do interviews in late November or early December. Has anyone heard of any developments with this search?
Q2: (1/18) Has anyone called to ask about the status of this search?
A2: This department has a certain "reputation" of late (I'll leave it at that) and I'm not surprised no one has heard anything. To be fair, SMU is not the only program with a November deadline that has not progressed their search.
A3: I have no idea what SMU's "certain reputation" is, but I just emailed the chair to check on the search process and got back a quick and cordial email saying that they'd been stymied by weather delays but would be shortlisting quite soon.
A4: I also have no idea what the reputation is, because it certainly wasn't borne out in the conversation I had about this position with someone from SMU at the AMS.
A5: It has been a full month since they "hoped to have a short list soon." No one has heard from them more recently?
Texas Christian
Q: Anyone else not receive confirmation of materials? (1/24)
A1: I did, snailmail 1/13
University of Alberta
Q: Are they accepting applications via email? I can't tell based on the call.
UCLA, Lecturer/VAP
Q: Are there any clues about the timeline for this search? The start date would seem to indicate an ASAP search, yet it has been out for a few weeks w/ no motion on here.
University of Birmingham
C1: The outcome of the Birmingham search was listed as "University of Birmingham, UK: Chair in Musicology - Andrew and Mrs. Kirkman." I changed the listing to remove "and Mrs." which seems utterly inappropriate. The "Schools with Acceptances" list should include specific information (i.e. people's names). The use of "Mrs." here is vague and most likely sexist. If someone wants to complain about spousal hires, especially when making a patronizing allusion to a woman being the second hire, then do it elsewhere than on our acceptances list. And please become educated on the fuller context that as led to such institutional developments. (http://www.stanford.edu/group/gender/ResearchPrograms/DualCareer/DualCareerFinal.pdf)
University of Chicago
Q: Regarding their request for additional material: has anyone gotten a request for materials after 11/16? Just wondering whether that was it, or whether the requests might be coming in phases. I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering: they probably got well over 100 applicants.
University of Delaware
Q: They just advertised for musicology (I forget where). Haven't they had a number of openings in musicology the past five years or so? What's the story?
A1: Nothing untoward. The last national search was three years ago. The person hired subsequently accepted an unbeatable offer at a major research university.
Other searches have been for temporary and part-time positions to handle this and the overloads of a growing department.
Q: Any news on the progress of this search since Dec.? (1/30)
A2: Some referees have been e-mailed. (1/31)
A3: Snail mail rejection letter indicating campus interviews in progress received 3/5/11.
University of Hawai'i at Mânoa
NB: Posted to the SEM members' area job board with this note: "position for a researcher/instructor in Asian performing arts with Ph.D. in hand; ethnomusicologists are encouraged to apply." (SEM, http://www.pers.hawaii.edu/wuh/srchresults.aspx?si=572388)
Q: Has anyone heard anything? (3/6)
University of Iowa
Q: What's up with the Lecturer position? Am I to automatically assume it's not TT just because it's not called a professorship?
A1: Yes. Contract will most likely be for one year.
University of Kansas
Q: For those of us who are considering applying to U. of Kansas (where the job description reads "Scholarly productivity in Classic or Romantic required, with expertise in music of the United States preferred") are we interpreting that to mean that they'd prefer an Americanist who has published on Classic/Romantic topics, a scholar of 18th/19th c. American music, or an 18th/19th century scholar with experience in other American topics? It's such an oddly-phrased description!
A: It seems to me that they are searching for a C/R scholar. If that scholar has some background in American music, all the better. If they wanted an Americanist, they wouldn't have used "required" and "preferred" in the way that they did.
Q2: Anyone hear anything more from Kansas yet? Even when I updated my file with them (earlier in the search), there was no reply, actually. (1/21)
A2: I spoke with a member of the search committee at AMS and was told they were unlikely to narrow the list before February.
University of Notre Dame
Q: Anyone know what's happened with this search? Has a list been announced? Anyone contacted?
A: Further materials have been requested (2/8).
Q: And as noted above, phone and/or video interviews have happened. Has anyone heard about a shortlist?
Q: Have Campus interviews taken place yet? [x2 wondering, and are there more of us wondering?]
A: I heard campus visits have happened (late March)/are happening. Competition result expected mid-May.
A: Apparently last campus interview will be mid-May.
University of Otago
Q: May I ask when the offer was made, and if acceptance is anticipated?
Q: Isn't this an odd state of affairs given that the application deadline isn't until March?
A: There are two Otago jobs this season. I imagine this one refers to the earlier of the two (deadline was in November).
Q: That makes more sense!
Q: The status of this job was recently updated, giving the name, institutional info, etc. of a person who had apparently accepted. This information, however, was soon deleted. To whoever made this change (or somebody else in the know): why?
C: For whatever it might be worth, I know with certainty that a candidate has accepted the position. I've twice edited the top of the page to reflect this, but each time somebody has very quickly undone the change. Who knows why.
C2: I wouldn't want someone else posting my name, for what it's worth.
University of Pittsburgh
Q1: Any guesses on the bizarre turn of events? 2008: 2 Asst. Prof jobs pre-1800 cancelled for financial reasons, nothing in 2009 and now a Senior Musicologist before 1850. Anyone know anything?
C1: This doesn't strike me as bizarre at all. It might simply be that the department feels the need for another senior faculty member and that's the best allocation of resources. For example, if a senior faculty member were planning to retire of has had to reduce his/her teaching load due to other professional or personal commitments, this makes perfect sense.
Q2: Has anyone heard of any developments with their searches? The deadlines passed over a month ago.
University of Rochester
Split (at long last) from the Eastman discussion. Nothing has been deleted.
Q3: Yes, I just got the funniest, most non-committal little e-mail from them: "We anticipate contacting a group of candidates in mid-December with a request for additional material. It is very likely that we will request a teaching video (30 minutes to an hour) at that time" (emphasis mine). No idea whether this went to everyone who applied, or just to those most likely to be contacted. But you're right, Q2, it's definitely a pretty silly requirement - especially when they're eventually going to see their finalists teach IN PERSON.
Q3: [Reply to Q4 in Eastman] Oh, you know what, I think I may accidentally have mixed up Eastman and U of Rochester. I see there's an Ethno position at Eastman listed above, and a Musicology one at U of Rochester - the e-mail had to do with the latter. Mea culpa. Sorry about that.
Q5: Can anyone confirm that they "anticipate" a shortlist in mid-December? I've received no indications from them as to a timetable for this search.
A: Rochester sent me the same email that Q3 mentions (an "account verification" email). Although perhaps at this point, we should split this discussion into Eastman and Rochester to avoid any more confusion.
University of San Diego
NB: The ad is for a "tenured professor of music and department chair" with administrative and leadership experience, so they are almost certainly looking for a senior person.
A letter sent in early March told applicants states that the school would provide more information on April 5. As of April 9 none of the promised information has been sent, at least to this candidate. I wonder if something's amiss with this one.
A: Post has been filled (see above)
University of Sheffield
Q1 x2: Any news on this? Interviews were supposed to be 23 February for the musicology post.
A: Post has been filled (see above)
Utah Valley University
Q1: Anyone know when this job would start? Next spring? Next fall? Sooner?
Q2: The job title implies that this position is non-tenure track. Can anyone confirm this? (9/10)
A1: The Dean confirmed this is a 1-year position. The description on their own website is clear, but the announcement circulated by e-mail was not.
C: Textbook inside job: an unusually quick deadline following the announcement, and then the hire was made within a week. Surely no interviews took place here.
C2: Spousal hire, in fact. The candidate had already been adjuncting at the University.
Q1(again): Yeah. It is really strange to advertise a one-year in the fall, which is why I was confused about when the job would actually start. Oh well. I'm glad to know that UVU is doing their best to support their adjuncts and lecturers. That's a commendable thing.
C3: While this search was surely handled legally, the fact that it was so obviously a sham given the timeline and lack of interviews is insulting to those who spent considerable time and effort making application. I'm not even on the market, just a casual observer, and I was disgusted by how this affair appears.
C4: Comes with the territory - they certainly have the right to hire who they want and even decide before they see other applications, especially in the case of a spousal hire. They announce the job because they have to, but set a short deadline to prevent too many fruitless applications (and possibly to tip off those who know the signs that it will be an internal hire). When applying for a junior faculty position, you have to assume you're not going to get an interview from most of them (unless you're that superstar that the rest of us hate...) - there's just too much competition.
Wayne State University
Q: Any idea what kind of materials they're looking for? Cover letter and CV, obviously, but do they want the recommendation letters now or just the names of references?
A1: Just a cover letter, CV and list of 5 references. One of the postings I saw underlined, for emphasis, a sentence stating that other materials shouldn't be submitted at this time.
Q2: It's been over a month since more materials were requested. Has anyone heard anything about the status of this search?
A2: I was one of those five who sent additional materials. I have not heard anything as yet. (3/14)
A3: I have received rejection notices from them by snail-mail a few days ago and by e-mail today (3/16).
A4?: I was one of the candidates from whom WSU requested extra materials specific to that position. Received generic email rejection sans salutation or signature. Nice! (x2)
Whitman College
Q: This job ad made me laugh all morning. It reads like the opposite of York's "plucked" strings request. I guess they must have more than enough violins on faculty. (x2)
A: I can just picture the faculty getting together to write the ad: "For the love of GOD, no more violins!!!"
York University
Q: I'm wondering how others are approaching the bizarrely specific requirement for plucked string expertise. If the job seems like a good fit otherwise, is it worth applying?
A1: Good question. Six-week summer intensive in frailing banjo?
A2: It could also be an inside hire. i.e., they want to hire one of their postdocs or grad students, but they have to announce the position publicly for the hire to be "legal," so they specify an impossibly unique combination of skills. Same goes if they want to hire someone who is not Canadian.
A3: Or they could just want someone who can run a specific type of ensemble.
A4: Not a bizarre request at all if you consider the vast repertoire of music from the Americas that feature plucked-string instruments (from the banjo and guitar to the cavaquinho and vihuela).
A5: Is it common to request have such a specific instrument requirement? I've seen lots of jobs that advertise specific ensembles, but why in the world would it matter if you played fiddle or plucked strings or strummed your guitar?
A6: Very bizarre. Have you ever heard of a struck or blown specialist in music?
A7: As someone said at SEM, Harpsichordists of the world, Apply!
Q: Does an innovative application of radion modulation technique on a drumheller harp with Centressar strings qualify for this position? Or is it restricted to the (now conventional) study of Xantha performance practice?
A8: Regarding the harpsichord comment - my sense is that they're looking for someone w/a more direct relationship to the strings.
A2: @A8, I'm guessing that A7's comment was satire. (Although I'd love to see a harpsichordist try for it.)
Q3: I heard a rumor that references were contacted a few weeks ago. Does anyone know if this is true?
A1: Yes. References were asked to submit letters last week.
Wiki Counter(Check all that apply)
I am a musicologist: 34
I am an ethnomusicologist: 15
I am a little of both: 18
I am currently in a TT position: 3
I am currently in a VAP/Lecturer position: 22
I am a recent PhD and on the market: 22
I am a no-longer-so-recent PhD and on the market: 5
I am ABD and on the market: 20
I am ABD and no longer on the market:
I am not on the market but am an interested observer: 8
I am a member of a search committee: 2
I have a doctorate, publications, and several years of teaching experience but still cannot make my way out of adjunct purgatory: 3
I have a doctorate, publications, and several years of teaching experience but am unemployed: 1
My tenure-track position was cut: 1
Wiki Counter, Pt. II
(including postdoc apps)
I have submitted zero applications this academic year:
I have submitted 1-2 applications this academic year: 5
I have submitted 3-5 applications this academic year: 5
I have submitted 6-8 applications this academic year: 1
I have submitted 9-11 applications this academic year: 6
I have submitted 12-14 applications this academic year: 5
I have submitted 15-19 applications this academic year: 4
I have submitted 20-29 applications this academic year: 11
I have submitted 30+ applications this academic year: 2
General discussion
New Wiki Year?
I don't understand how this works, but it seems that the only changes on the wiki lately are a back and forth about a certain spousal hire and a few lingering announcements. Indiana U has announced a tenure-track job, officially kicking off a new job search season. So... can we move on? Anyone?
Older Candidates
Q1: I couldn't help but notice that the hires for most full-time positions range from ABD to a graduation date of 2009. It makes me wonder if those of us who had for various reasons taken adjunct and VAP positions might be relegated to doing so for the remainder of our careers? In my case, I have publications, service at the national level, and years of teaching experience. I've often made it to the telephone interview stage, and have had a number of campus interviews afterwards, but always seem to come in second. Perhaps institutions feel that hiring someone in the mid-forties is somehow undesirable?
R1: I have noticed this as well and would love to hear from someone who has recently served on a hiring committee, not only about "older candidates," but about those who earned their degrees 3 or 4 years ago as opposed to within the past couple of years. I am a fairly young candidate (early 30s), but completed my degree a few years ago, have held a number of visiting positions since graduate school, and have a growing list of publications, but am finding it much more difficult to obtain interviews than I did when ABD or just finished. As I prepare to head back on the market next year, I cannot help but wonder whether those just finishing or recently finished are given particular preference, or whether it is simply the case that those most recently finished happen to be this year's strongest candidates in other respects.
R2: I'm ABD, solid but not spectacular credentials, and I ended up with next to no interest in my applications. As for other ABD's in my program, it was either almost nothing or multiple interviews/awesome offers. From my perspective, those who fared best this cycle had a degree in hand for a year or two. I see a lot of 2009 and 2010 on the list, and I know a lot of 2009/10 folks with a lot of interest/offers. Having a finished dissertation helped, although some ABD's played their cards well. Still, I know a lot of very talented, very personable, multiple award winning people who are unemployed or underemployed. (Actually - - if you put them together, they'd make a pretty enviable music department...) Which is a long way of saying that I have absolutely no idea what separated the multiple interview candidates from the waiting for Godot candidates. Except for the obvious superstars, it doesn't seem to hinge on age, experience, publications, awards, etc.
R3: How would you define "obvious superstars"? I think this is a concept that should be dispelled entirely, as it rarely has anything to do with actual professional accomplishment and only serves to reinforce the notion that there are "in" institutions and "out" institutions. No one can waltz in and take any job he or she pleases. Last year's market is all the evidence we need.
R2 again: Regarding "obvious superstars," I wasn't thinking strictly in terms of "in" institutions and "out" institutions. It seems that there are a very small number of people who could, in fact, waltz in and take any job. They're the people who do everything right: dissertation topic, committee, networking, well timed and placed publications, internal awards, national awards, name recognition, etc., etc., etc. It has something to do with institution and adviser, to be sure, but more to do with pursuing the kind of research questions that most musicologists find fascinating and coming up with interesting things to say. Problematic though it may be, musicology has a superstar culture. It has for some time.
R4: All effort aside, there is indisputably a large element of luck in all of this. If there were a formula or some quantatative way of scoring each of us, then, as in golf, there would be a cut line, and you would/could know whether you're in or out. Ultimately things are decided by the unique situation of every college or university. It is often difficult to know what schools are looking for when they advertise jobs, so many of the decisions we all make...dissertation topic, even what graduate school to attend...must be done blindly years before we actually look for a job. I'm not sure I know what a superstar is in musicology, but often the most distinguished candidates have resume features that emerge long before the job-hunt years....undergrad awards of real distinction, Mellon and Fulbright scholarships, etc., every prize imaginable...so adding one more thing to one's resume doesn't serve to tip things one way or the other. Yet, distinguished candidates languish every year, and any of us could indeed have some lucky qualification or fluke experience that garners attention. This is why advising undergrads not to do humanities grad school is so difficult...no way of knowing whether that young student might be the one who catches the golden ring. Best if one can develop several acceptable life scenarios and go whichever way opportunities emerge...but easier said than done...and apart from university teaching, the Ph.D. is mostly a liability.
R3: It is a mistake to equate "superstardom" within the relatively small field of musicology with marketability in the relatively large field of music studies. When superstar status lands you a job, it is only at an institution that cares about such thing, and those are few and far between.
R5: My experience suggests that younger, newly minted PhDs appeal to search members as obviously cheaper, more tractable candidates. This was even metioned to me once as part of an on-campus interview. Not sure that having years of a proven teaching record matters as much as we'd all like to think, even at supposed "teaching" schools.
cover letters
Q: If a job posting says applicants should send a CV and list of recommenders to such-and-such address, and that's ALL it says, is it okay to also send a cover letter? I know we shouldn't send stuff they don't ask for, as a general rule, but it feels weird to send just a CV and a list of names, with no introductory letter...is it assumed that you always include a letter? I'm second- and triple-guessing myself, here.
A1: I would go ahead and send the cover letter, since it's standard practice and wouldn't add too much material to the package.
Adjuncting
So, if many of us are going to end up adjuncting this coming year, I was wondering what strategies people have used to find adjunct work? There are some obvious ones (ie, networking among people you know, at local conferences, etc), but what about sending an unsolicited CV to local institutions? In my experience, departments often find adjuncts through word-of-mouth referrals rather than official job postings, and I thought it would be interesting to gather some collective wisdom about the adjunct search. What has worked for you?
R1: Here’s what worked for me: I knew I was moving to a largish city. I had an opportunity to meet someone on a faculty in that city when they visited my campus, hit it off with them, arranged to have coffee when I moved, gave them my resume, told them they could contact my advisor, told my advisor they might be contacted, and waited. It worked, it’s a sample size of one, but these things are possible. It seems lots of departments find themselves in need of instructors on very short notice and will call someone who can do the job with a resume on file.
R2: I moved to a city and needed adjuncting while I was finishing writing a few years ago. I composed a short and general here's-my-teaching-experience kind of letter and sent it with a list of references and CV to 5-10 schools in the area, and someone contacted me. Obviously, networking in person would be the best, but, short of that, cold letters can work, too. Be sure your CV is oriented towards teaching and reflects the broadest possible range of courses and topics that you have experience with and might be interested in. Good luck!
NEH 2011 Summer Stipends
(My apologies; but the Social Sciences/Humanities wiki didn't seem to have 2011 information..)
Has anyone heard anything yet concerning this year's awards? The notification deadline was supposedly the end of March.
R1. Don't know about the stipends, but the NEH summer seminar for Rome promised notification on April 1, I was rejected politely by 10am!
OP: Thanks; I managed to hear back that they "have not made a final determination and do not know when they will do so," or something to that effect.
R2: I saw somewhere (Chronicle?) that the director was waiting for the 2011 budget to be resolved before releasing awards information.
R3: They notified me (by email) that I was successful on 5 April.
AMS 2011 San Francisco
Just curious whether anyone has heard back yet regarding paper/abstract submissions. I have not been able to find a firm "you should hear back by" date from AMS this year.
A: It says April 15 right on the AMS San Francisco website: http://www.ams-net.org/sanfrancisco/
A2: FWIW: my paper was accepted for Indianapolis last year and I received an email to that effect from the chair around April 1.
A3: The committee meets next weekend (beginning of April). April 15 really is the date by which you will hear something.
Thanks everyone! Sorry A, I was just looking on the CFP page.
A4: Since I'm sure I'm not the only one checking my email every five minutes, the AMS website says we'll hear "about April 15," not necessarily by or on it (damn it!).
A5. Just heard (yes!) at 2:15 EST that my paper was accepted. 4/15
Q: Can anybody with knowledge of how the AMS program committee explain why "additional notifications" will come out on Monday the 18th?
A: So far, everyone I know who received notice on the 15th was accepted. Don't know if that means anything regarding what will be sent on the 18th. 4/15 6:17 PM EDT
Q: It doesn't make too much sense to me that they notify people who are accepted on the 15th and rejected on the 18th. Why not just notify everyone on the same day?
This sure feels like the grad school application process again! Others have received positive responses, fairly certain that means a "no thanks" is heading your way...just a wonderful feeling...
A6: I assume there is a practical reason for not rejecting right away. If someone has been accepted, but already knows that s/he can't make the conference, they may have a "waitlist" to ensure that the program is full. Makes sense?
A7: No, that does not make sense. That would presume that everyone who received an acceptance on 4/15 was asked to accept or not by 4/18, and that is not the case (I've seen two acceptances). Also, the committee sends out all acceptances/rejections at the same time (although this year making it obvious that not all notifications were issued on the same day this year). It is not like applying to college and waiting for space to clear out.
A8: It would have been better just to say that notifications were going out in "mid-April" rather than give a date and then another date.
A9: There have been lots of acceptances already, so I'm also assuming that not having heard so far means a "no." I really wish they'd do it all at once.
Q3: Did anyone hear from AMS today (Mon, April 18)? It's about 9pm, and I still haven't received any sort of notification. (x3 [@ 10:30 p.m.])
A9 (again): Nope, I didn't hear anything one way or the other on the 18th. Still waiting.
A10: So, according to the AMS website, apparently all but 15 out of the 196 presenters have confirmed. If some of those 15 decline to present, there might be a small round of acceptances on Thursday. So it seems we were all waiting for the inevitable rejection letter which will probably come sometime today. I do have to give the program committee credit for transparency.
A11: Rejection, c. 12:30EST on 4/21. (x2)
AMS 2011 Meeting Labor Dispute
Q2: Is anyone else feeling conflicted about crossing the hotel boycott to present?
This is not immediately related to the job search, but it concerns all of us affiliated in any way with AMS. Since we can all relate to the financial and emotional distress of tenuous employment conditions, please read and consider signing the following petition.
So the response of President Robertson (letter 3/21) is that the AMS is contrained by rigid budgeting, and with blinders firmly in place, the mission of the Society to "advance research" continues undeterred.
Darn that high price of integrity! I guess we were naive to expect anything different...
What bothers me about the reasoning is that it hides behind the mission of the society. OK, I get that cancelling the ontract has a significant financial penalty, and that the nature of the job action isn't entirely clear since it's not an official strike (which would make the society's position easy since insurance would absorb the penalty). But equating the penalty price with the budget for fellowships (including AMS 50) and subventions makes it appear an either/or choice....so class implications in our work or their work...or perhaps even more stark in the oppositional value of graduate student work and hotel workers' work. So let's see. By the time everyone attending pays hotel charges and registration fees, eats at hotel restaurants, etc. the economic impact of this meeting must be about $2M ($2,000,000). So is a penalty of $130,000 (or $170,000) really that large? And even if the penalty cannot be negotiated down, might not another hotel without labor problems offer a discount for the windfall business? But my point isn't to argue the logistics of the issue. My point is the use of the Society's scholarly mission as an excuse not to speak or act on behalf of the powerless is concerning, especially considering how powerless many or most of us reading this wiki feel.
Here's a fun idea-why don't we stage a coup d'etat? The current topic on the AMS-list has mentioned the fact that very little is known about the candidates for office, very few people actually vote, and very few people want to serve. What if we organized and got an 'independent scholar' elected? (I bet there are more unemployed folks here than voting members of the AMS. I wonder if affiliation is a requirement of service...would they be so bold? To quote the most recent post "the society ought to aspire to represent all members, students and those without academic affiliation." How quaint, let's hold them at their word!!!
Interest expressed in your applications
Q1: I'm curious about how many people have had "bites" on their applications this year. Is it a small(ish) number of people who have received interest from multiple schools? (Have searches been interested in the same candidates?) Or have many candidates been getting hits, suggesting that searches have been contacting a broader segment of the pool? I know no one knows the answer to this, but I thought we might be able to get a sense here on the wiki. My stats: Female, PhD 2010, no publications, currently doing a 2-year position: several hits last year, but none this year of the 30 or so applications I've sent out.
Q2: This is interesting! might we add gender to the list?
Q3: Could we also add (sub)discipline (including the same candidate getting bites for both musicology and ethno jobs)?
Comment: The revelations below make me feel far less inadequate as I look at unemployment next year. We all keep some pretty amazing company.
C2: The comment above really strikes at the heart of the issue. Simply put, there is no silver bullet. Research topic, teaching experience, degree-in-hand, prestigious awards, conference papers, publications: internal politics can trump all of these things. There is always someone with a better CV who didn't get your job; but that's not really what hiring is about, is it? The stats below are interesting, but they don't really shed light on much Truth, if you will.
C3 (also Q1 poster): Yes, I'm not sure these stats reveal any Truth, or even get at my original question(s). But I too have felt better after seeing that there are so many of us in the same position. For me, it also brings home the fact that while we are certainly competitive with each other on the job market, we are ultimately colleagues who are facing the same crappy circumstances. So hang in there everyone and know that it's not you - it's the market.
C2 again: Awesome post, C3. I have become closer with my PhD cohort over the past couple of years, when we could have been splintered by the competition. It's tough out there, but we are better colleagues when we can celebrate the successes of others, especially our friends.
C4 It's so hard for search committees to parse so many, dare I say similar, high quality applications, especially if the search committee includes all or mostly performance faculty. I've observed that awards and grants...Mellon, Fulbright, maybe AMS 50...distinguish an application. Also work experience between college and grad school might give the candidate some distinctive, not-run-of-the-mill qualifications, and also suggests maturity and experience holding a job.
C5: I agree with C4, although perhaps we should also factor in the degree-granting institution? Or does that play no role in it?
C6: It's really neat reading these, since they very revealing of just how much of a game of chance this whole job application thing is. My advisor tells me over and over again that publishing the best thing I can do to help my chances on the job market - yet I see people below with few or no publications that have gotten several bites, and people with several publications (including ABDs) who have not even gotten one bite. Makes me wonder: are certain research topics/areas more likely to get bites these days than others? To what extent do search committees have topical preferences not specified in the job posting itself?
Q4: I asked this question below but since I didn't get a response, I figured that I would also ask it here. How important is presenting a paper at AMS to one's CV? The broader question is whether or not the prestige of the conference presentations and publications makes that much of a difference.
A1: Male. Last year = degree but no publications, no hits. This year publications and degree, still no hits. I stopped counting my apps.
A2: Female. Last year = degree, publication accepted but not yet published: 2 campus interviews. This year, 1 more publication accepted and another submitted: multiple bites but no campus interviews. I stopped counting my apps after 25.
A3: Female. ABD (filing in April), publication accepted but not yet published at the time of my apps (published now). I got two bites but no interviews. Think I applied to like 14 jobs.
A4: Male. PhD (2010, musicology), no peer-review publication, first year on market: 13 applications, 4 bites, 1 interview, 1 offer.
A5: Female. PhD (2010), 2 peer-review publications, first year on market: not sure how many apps, 4 bites, 1 interview as of now
A6: Male. PhD (2009), one peer review publication, 2nd year on the market: 9 bites leading to 3 campus interviews, 1 offer
A7: Female. PhD (2010, hybrid ethno/musico), 2 small publications this school year, second year on market (doing a 1-year gig this year). This year: many apps, no bites yet.
A8 (hope this is not redundant): Female. PhD (2010), 1 peer-review pub., 3rd yr. on market (doing postdoc). This yr: 11 or so apps, 2 bites, 1 interview.
A9: Male. PhD (2009), one peer review article, one book contract, 2nd year on market: ca. 20 apps, 3 phone interviews, no campus visits
A10: Male. PhD (2010, ethno/area studies), one postdoc, two peer review, two chapters, one book contract, adjuncting, 2nd year on market: 25 apps, no bites. Changing my name to "Yale"
A11: Female. PhD (2009, ethno/pop music), 2-year VAP, one chapter, no peer review, 3rd year on the market. 1 more materials, 2 phone interviews, no campus visits.
A12: Female, PhD (2009, musicology). Third time on the market (though my outside committee member insists the first time didn't count). One peer-reviewed publication that I just got page proofs for, another in a conference proceedings volume that's taking its dear, dear time. Last year I had one phone interview and one, maybe two requests for more materials; this year zilch. Both this year and last I sent in on the order of 15-20 applications.
A13: Male. PhD (2008, musicology). One monograph in publication, 2 peer-reviewed articles out (3rd about to be accepted), 1 book chapter, 1 conference proceedings, currently a part time research fellow. One bite in the past (fellowship), nothing else.
A14: Male. PhD (2010, musicology). Two peer-reviewed articles forthcoming. Currently in a 1-yr. full-time VAP. Second year on the market; I sent 33 applications this year. I got nibbles from 8 places: 5 phone interviews and 3 requests for more information; of those 8 nibbles, I recieved two campus visits and one job offer.
A15: Male, PhD (2011, musicology). One peer-reviewed article under review. Currently unemployed. 1 conference interview, 1 video interview, 1 bite on a post-doc.
A16: Female, PhD (2010, musicology). One peer-reviewed article in press. Adjunct. Have sent c. 30 apps/year for past 3 yrs, have yet to receive a bite/request for more materials.
Application Numbers
Dear Search Committee Members, could you please provide a rough estimate of the number of applications that you are receiving/ have received for each position?
A1: We received ~130 applications for a TT search in ethnomusicology.
- Thank you, A1, for sharing that figure. It's always nice to be able to get some perspective. Would love to see a general musicology search response from someone....A2: Roughly 100, musicology TT
A3: (Word of mouth from committee member), ca. 200, musicology TT, specialty open
A4: 142 applicants for TT musicology
A5: These numbers are very helpful, but you can bet they include some WTF Candidates. A little levity at the height of the notification season.
A6: Some food for thought from a recent TT search pool: applicants were 29% ABD, 50% PhD 2007-2010, 21% PhD 2006 or earlier. (Also, about 10% of the total pool already had TT jobs.) As others have noted, a postdoc/adjunct career stage is becoming more and more common, and may last a long time.
A&: One of the UK top music departments just filled a general opening in musicology for a lecturer and they received 300 applications.
R to A&: You might have thought with that many applications that they would be hired someone more experienced. Curious...
A* SO curious! It's almost as if people had important qualities beyond what you can dig up about them on the web. Weird.
R to A*: But no publications? Bizarre.
R2: Why bizarre? Attaching value to publishing during graduate school is not necessarily universal.
A7: University of Richmond's rejection letter mentioned 170 applicants. Does anybody know how many total job-seekers there are in any given hiring season?
C to A7: I can't answer that question. But the person hired for the Richmond job had only been appointed to Mary Washington last year or the year before. Congrats to the candidate on landing two TT jobs in two years, but statistically doesn't that mean there are even fewer permanent jobs than it appears??
A8: Probably not. There are always a few TT candidates on the market looking to trade up, and the positions they vacate typically become TT openings the following year.
Conference informal interviews
Q. What does an "informal interview" at a conference entail?
A1: Not sure. But I've heard the AMS conference venue has a hot tub.
A2: No such thing as an "informal interview", IMHO. If it's going to make the difference between making the next cut or not, you should prepare as if it were a formal interview.
A3: Focus on the things that are harder to convey through a letter/c.v. Faculty like to hire someone they can get along with, for example.
Q.: For those of you visiting here who are on search committees (we know you are here!) Do an applicant's materials have to be submitted on the expensive 100% cotton resume paper or is this just a waste of money? Saving money on this paper would go a long way towards keeping up with the rent...
A1: Save your money. Everything gets copied for the members of the committee.
Q1: How are we defining "recent" Ph.D.?
A1: I'd suggest 3 years- mid tenure review if you're (super) lucky or long enough to have your sea legs.
C: Just added a "Deadline Calendar" section to help keep track of which submission deadlines are coming up (and to help prioritize when things come to a head in the fall). What do y'all think?
A1: Great idea!
Thoughts on the new rankings*
Q. Thoughts on this? I don't know how many of us will be qualified to go through the statistics, but you can get something of an idea from the web site.
R1. I got a good chuckle that it is a musicology degree that is apparently the longest median to completion.
Society for American Music Conference
Q. Does anyone know when decisions are going to be sent out for the Cincinnati conference or if they have been sent out already?
A1. Last year acceptances were sent out on 31 July.
Q2. Has anyone out there received a decision one way or the other? Since it's a joint meeting with IASPM, I'm wondering if the decisions are going to be sent later than last year's.
A2. I haven't received anything as of August 9. I don't think it's likely that SAM being a joint meeting will effect its notification date, though. The IASPM deadline isn't until October 1, and it would be crazy of SAM to wait that long (or until IASPM had reviewed its submissions) to send out notifications.
A3. Acceptance received today (8/9) (x3, for seminar paper)
A4. Rejection received 8/11. What's the etiquette for submitting the same abstract to the IASPM portion of this conference? :)
A5. I think Ms Mentor would say "Tacky"
A6 I can't see why it's an issue at all; submit away.
A7. I've read at both conferences. Not only do I think it's not "tacky," I think it's quite foolish not to submit to IASPM if your paper fits the conference themes. They may be meeting together, but SAM and IASPM are two very different societies with different interests, leadership, program committees. Have a look at a couple of SAM programs. I've seen as much as a quarter of the conference made up of papers on three or four classical composers. If you work on a popular topic, you are much more likely to have luck submitting to IASPM. SAM is, IMO, not as interested in including topics that are popular, break new theoretical ground, or are ethnographic as is IASPM.
A8. While it's true that different program committees have different interests, please be assured that SAM is indeed interested in those topics mentioned by A7! Often the local culture of a particular society is as much determined by what papers are submitted as by what gets chosen. If you'd like to see different topics at SAM, it's up to you to propose something and make it happen!
A9. I'm not sure it this is the place for this discussion, but here's my experience. I've had SAM members tell me pretty much what A8 has said, but I just don't find it to be true. I have known a very large number of ethnomusicologists who have been rejected from SAM, who go on to present the same work at SEM, IASPM, or area studies conferences. The choices they make for their programs make it pretty clear what they're interested in. Also, if they were serious about getting ethno papers, they might consider putting an ethnomusicologist on the program committee more than once every five years or so.
A10. IASPM and SAM are being organized almost entirely separately (i.e., they're sharing hotel space and working on one or two joint sessions, but otherwise they are two separate conferences). In this sense, you can rest assured that the IASPM program committee hasn't seen the SAM program submissions.
A11: I have been on three different SAM program committees over the years (yup, I'm senior), and I can tell you all that it's a two part process. First the abstracts are read individually (and blind) to see if they are coherent and have some ideas behind them. Stage two is when the committee gets together in a room and tries to put together sessions. This is where you can find excellent proposals getting rejected because they are "orphans" and there is nothing else they fit together with to create a session. Inevitably, one or two innovative papers can't be programmed because of this problem. So it's up to you submitters to try and build themes into your abstracts that connect them up with the work others are doing, even if that connection is tenuous. For SAM, just get the word "American" into it somehow. (I am an ethnomusicologist, by the way).
Lack of job ads so far
Q. Is there any reason NOT to get really worried that August 15 has come and gone without even a trickle of new job ads? Feel free to tell me that I am paranoid, but I seem to remember August 15 in past years being a key time for finding new postings.
A1. If I remember correctly, most other disciplines post jobs in August, but ethno/musicology openings tend to be posted throughout the fall. There were also a number of jobs posted quite late last year (like, in the spring). I'm under no illusion that this year will be any better than last year, but I do think it is a little early to be completely panicked! Hang in there.
A2. I just looked at the history of '07-'08 (a pretty good year) and there were NO new jobs offered during August.
A3. (Q. again) Thank you, A1 and A2, for the reassurance.
A4. There hasn't even been time for faculty at prospective hiring universities to meet and argue about "desired qualifications" yet, so it is quite premature. October is historically a major month, that is, if there are any jobs to be found...
A5. Is it just me, or is it the year of the ethnomusicology jobs? 9/14 seems like a much higher ratio than in previous years. Is this a response to increased NASM support for "world music" in the curriculum?
A-A5. It seems a silly question to ask in August, don't you think we should wait for the school year to begin. I am, however, all for separating out Ethno onto its own section, or better yet, its own page.
A6. There's nothing like a little ethno/historical musicology partisanship before the semester gets underway.
A7. But where would we put the Americanists? We could do what theory/comp does in terms of separation..
A8. I like the theory page, especially the discussion at the bottom divided by school.
A9. Yes, a separate section for ethno would be good.
A10. Separate sections would be a problem for those jobs that are neither ethno/muso, or are open to both. This shows up most often with Pop Music positions.
AMS-L job ads
Q. I am subscribed to AMS-L, so why can't I find the University of Chicago and University of Richmond announcements, even in the archives? I've certainly received all the Beethoven discussion, surveys, and other items. What am I missing here?
A: It isn't really AMS-L it is AMS-Announce. They split announcements off of AMS-L four or five years ago.
AMS Conference
Q. How important is the National AMS conference in securing a job? I am having a really hard time justifying the money this year, is it really worth the $600-700 (when you add flight, hotel, registration, ramen, etc together)? What do you all think?
A1: If you're not reading a paper and don't expect to interview or meet with prospective employers, not that important. The cost is high indeed, and while networking can be valuable, it's not everything. That's just my opinion, but $600-$700 can be useful in other ways to further your career (e.g. research).
A2: If you're actively on the job market and you identify primarily as a musicologist, then it's very important. Some schools will hold their preliminary interviews there, and there's a lot to be said for making yourself known to search committee members before the winter decision-making season. Same goes for SEM if you're an ethnomusicologist. Consider talking to your department head about funding, even if you're not presenting; department administration has an interest in ensuring quick outplacement, so they sometimes can offer partial travel support.
A3: I'm more in agreement with A1. Over the past 7 years, neither I nor any of my friends/colleagues has directly benefited from the whole job networking/preliminary interview thing. OTOH, presenting is important to the CV and there is lots of other important stuff that goes on (for instance negotiating a book proposal, or talking with a book review editors of a couple journals to get in on the published book review scene). Also if you've been out of grad school for a few years, it's about the only way to keep in touch both with "the field" and with all your old friends/colleagues.
A4: If you are a confident schmoozer, I think AMS can be worth it. Asking a smart question in the right panel can also help, if you then schmooze after wards. But, for most everyone I know, A3 is correct.
Q2: Does anyone know if it's par for the course that only two jobs so far are listed as interviewing at AMS? It would seem a more worthwhile schmoozing opportunity if more of the above jobs were represented.
A3 (again): Usually there are from 2-6 of these, which I understand is quite a bit less than most other fields. There are plenty (depending on the climate) of informal interviews that happen, and even closed-door interviews, but of course they call you about it.
A4: It's too late for this year but as a TT prof who has been on search committees, etc. I'd say that going to AMS each year is the most important investment you can make in your career if you plan to do anything beyond a local search for positions. It is the easiest place to meet and (more importantly) be met, get a pulse on the latest scholarly trends. Practically every school that is hiring is "interviewing" at AMS in the sense that committee members are looking for people who are promising candidates to jump to the top of the search list. Please do yourself a favor and attend and meet people.
A5: Another TT prof's two cents: AMS can hurt you as well as help you. Most committees make fly-out decisions based on strong dossiers not conference banter; plenty of committee members consider conference interviews unhelpful or even prejudicial, and I have heard people currently serving on searches complain of having been accosted at the AMS conference by a barrage eager job seekers.
A6 Speaking personally: when I go to AMS during a search, I am looking to put faces to names, and to make contact with candidates who have been immediate stand-outs. I'm not bothered at all by having a candidate come up to me and introduce him/herself. It's not going to get you a job, but if you do it in a casual, appropriate manner, it can be the start of a pleasant conversation.
Transcripts
Q. When a school (e.g., Holy Cross) asks for transcripts, do they generally want just graduate transcripts, or are they interested in undergraduate transcripts, too?
A1: You can safely assume they want a copy of your graduate transcript only.
Q2: What about when a school wants materials emailed, and doesn't provide a mailing address (e.g. Carleton), but requests transcripts? Official transcripts (at least at my school) can't be emailed. Is it bad form to call the department and ask what to do, or am I missing something obvious?
A2: Last year, PSU accepted scanned copies of official transcripts through email.
A3: I would agree with A2. If they want it emailed, they know it won't be an official version.
A4: I emailed the search head at Holy Cross, and he said that for now, it would be fine to send unofficial transcripts, but did specify that undergraduate as well as graduate transcripts were expected.
A5: Based on what A4 just typed, I'm beginning to wonder if we should be sending undergraduate transcripts to everyone, too. Why don't they just tell us this in the announcement!?
A6: Am I the only one who thinks that undergraduate transcripts are completely irrelevant at this point? Do the chairs of faculty searches really need to know what gym credits you took in college? On that note, why are graduate transcripts even necessary? I'd be curious what experience others had, but at my graduate program you weren't assigned grades for course work. Letters of recommendation are therefore the only way for a search committee to get a sense of your performance in graduate school.
A7: Yes, undergraduate transcripts do seem a little out of the ordinary, but then as I was photocopying mine, I noticed that my undergrad transcript actually reveals more about me than my grad transcript, i.e. what courses I selected while attending a SLAC vs. what courses I took in grad school because they were the only ones offered in my department. But who knows what a search committee is looking for in the materials they ask for. [Thanks, by the way, to the person who asked about transcripts, otherwise I would have only sent my grad transcript.]
Q3: Any thoughts about a posting that doesn't ask for any transcripts, i.e., U of Delaware?
A8: It seems Delaware is interested in things that matter (teaching, publications, etc.)
Q4: I just accepted an adjunct gig at a local community college to hold me over while I look for a TT position. I gave them official, sealed copies of my transcripts that I had on hand to send out with my application materials, but they said that any transcript marked "Issued to Student" was not official. I always assumed any sealed, stamped transcript was "official." What do you think?
A9: I think you'd better give them what they want, but until you've accepted a TT job you can stick to photocopies when mailing applications.
A10: I'm quite sure that the reason for transcript requests is less for the search committee to scrutinize their contents and more for the HR folks to verify attendance and degree completion and thereby weed out fraudulent applications. Remember the dean of admissions (?) at MIT a few years ago who had claimed all sorts of bogus credentials, including degrees from prestigious institutions? No school wants to get caught in that positionand in the case of state schools, there may very well be a law mandating degree verification via official transcripts.
Recommendation Letters
Q. One of my recommenders often submits letters after the deadline, and has told me that posted deadlines don't apply to recommendation letters. Can anyone confirm that this is true? On the one hand, I can understand that schools would cut faculty recom
A1: Oy vey. I've dealt with this and seen colleagues deal with this and it's not fun. (I've also been on search committees as a student rep, so I've seen the other side of the process.) Recommendation letters are very important-especially if the search
Q2: Related Q: How many people send in more letters than requested, or other materials? I'm surprised, for example, that SLACs don't always request teaching evals in the first round.
A2: My advisor has the attitude that Q1 describes, which has been incredibly stressful. I've gotten into the habit of telling him/her that the deadline is a couple weeks sooner than it really is.
A3: Two cents from someone who is currently on a search committee: I'd rather get a letter that arrives on time from a dossier service than one that arrives late from a faculty member who has cut/pasted to include the name of my institution in the lette
Q1 (again): Well, it's nice to know I'm not alone, at least. And very useful to have some insider perspective on this. Thanks.
A4: Use Interfolio. And request letters from your recommenders in like, June.
Pet Peeves
C: Job "announcements" that direct you to an HR website for a description of the position, yet when you click through, the search is not listed.
D: Frustrated Leading tones.
E: When people delete entire job postings. Unrelated: what happened to Holy Cross?
- Right where it has always been: "College of the Holy Cross"
E: (again): Oh. Well, the frustration still stands.
F: When people get the jobs that I want.
- Yeah, that totally bugs me too.
G: When departmental secretaries get really cagey about revealing who the chair of the search committee is, forcing you to address your letter to "the Members of the Search Committee." Why is this necessary?
- I really wouldn't worry about this. I've been on many search committees, and I can promise you that nobody cares, including the chair, whether the letters are addressed individually or to the committee itself. And incidentally the same goes for your letters of recommendation, which will be read the same way regardless of whether they are a general letter or addressed to the specific department.
H: I have too many academic-job-search related pet peeves to name, so I'll stick with just one for now: online application systems. You know, the ones that make you enter all your contact information even though it's already there on your CV... the seemingly endless pages of affirmative action / veteran status / criminal record boilerplate... the inconsistently labeled document uploading slots (I once had one that had two separate slots for "letter of application" and "cover letter/letter of application")... the general slowness... not to mention the whole "Once you click 'Finish Attaching Documents,' you will NEVER be allowed to attach ANY documents to this posting EVER AGAIN in your LIFE!!" shtick. Do these bug anyone else? If things are going to be printed out and paper copies made for all the committee members anyway, then what do places have against our just sending them a packet of paper, either our own or from Interfolio?
I: Speaking from the other side of the table, I share your dismay at these systems. Give me the old stack of files any day. I don't know when HR started taking over academic hiring, but colleges are convinced they can get massive quantities of helpful data by running searches in this way. It's a blunt, poorly designed tool, and the worst part is that applicants, secretarial staff, and committee members will probably all say it's a depersonalizing time-suck. The endless clicking, clicking, clicking on subfolders and openings pdfs of cvs,writing samples, etc. feels to me entirely disconnected and formless. A folder with the applicant's materials, by contrast, felt like a package and gave one some sense of the individual scholar, without a ton of wasted labor.
J: The "revision history" button doesn't seem to work on the "new" wiki; now I have to wade through the whole thing to see what's changed (if you know how to fix it, that would be good to know).
K: The lack of a track history function in this site and the shift to the beta version in the middle of a hiring season is untenable, what if our current host lost the data? Can we depend on them? Is it possible that we could move next year's wiki to the http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/Academic_Jobs_Wiki
where all the other disciplines have already gone (including ethnomusicology/worldmusic)?
L: Hearty agreement. In addition to the issues mentioned, wikihost.org is down way too much of the time (this seems to be the case for the Cultural Anthro wiki, too, so I think it's the whole site that goes down). Wikia.com is probably the way to go, though it is massively annoying that they interpose ads before letting you follow external links. Wikispaces.com might be a way to go.
K: The perennial "inside hire" discussion on every academic job wiki. You never hear about it on the wiki when "inside" candidates *don't* get the job, although that happens routinely. There are bound to be all kinds of "inside" candidates in practically any faculty search, including the hiring dept's alumni, previous or current adjuncts or postdocs, committee members' advisees from previous jobs at other institutions, spouses of people employed at or being recruited by the hiring university, etc. etc. If one of these "inside" candidates makes the finalist stage, they may actually be at a disadvantage, because they don't seem as exciting as fresh new applicants and they probably didn't manage to charm every single member of the committee during their period of "inside" access. The various committee members and admin people involved in the hire usually have different favorites among the finalists, and will make a stink if someone else's favorite seems to be getting special treatment for "inside" reasons. Lots of "insiders" get cut at every stage, and few search committees have enough consensus to rig anything.
K1: I agree with this, except that it rarely seems like someone who gets to the interview stage is at a disadvantage after being in the department for a year. I always want to post in reply to these. "I *agree* anyone who has ever held an adjunct or visiting appointment should be barred from all future employment."
K2: I never understand why people get so up in arms about the inside candidate. I mean, the person has probably been adjuncting or one-yearing for years at the institution. Why shouldn't they get consideration for the service. I guarantee you would feel differently about the inside job if your adjunct job went TT.
K3: I totally agree with K2. If my position became TT I would be elated, especially if they wrote the ad for someone like me.
L: When I am asked to fill out an applicant demographic survey after the search has already moved to the next stage...without me. (x2 #fubu)
- I don't know that we should blame the departments for sometimes insensitive timing of demographic surveys--I'm pretty sure most
of those come from HR (or similar)--completely beyond the control of the department. Having said that--I wonder whether enough
people respond to those surveys to make them useful in any way....
M: When undergraduate music majors express interest in going to graduate school without doing any research into the realities of it.N: Online postdoc applications that require you to finish/submit your materials in order for the link to be sent to your faculty recommenders. (x2)
O: Wiki Etiquette Police. (x3)
O1: People who take it upon themselves to delete and edit material because it's not "on topic" (a problem last year more than this year).
P: Are the captchas on this wiki getting impossible or am I just getting old?
P1: If you're getting old, then so am I. But I think they're getting harder, for sure.
Q: Only 54% of musicology Ph.D.s get tenure-track positions (at least among 2003-06 degrees).
R: Successful candidates who update the wiki five seconds after accepting an offer from a school; nothing stings like not getting a job for which you were a finalist and finding out about it from the wiki rather than from the department.
S: I realize such information stings, but the proper response to that person is "congratulations." It makes no sense to depend on the wiki for up-to-date information and then get angry if it's bad news for us personally. How on earth would the successful candidate know when the school has bothered (IF it bothers!) to notify the unsuccessful candidates, so that person can indicate their success only after an acceptable period of mourning has passed? Moreover, I don't think it's always the candidates posting themselves. Sadly, I think some schools are trying to do the nice thing by writing a snail-mail letter, which makes it impossible to beat the wiki.
R again: I am certainly not advocating that successful candidates avoid posting for an unreasonably long period of time; however, I don't think it's too onerous to wait half a day or so to give the department an opportunity to notify finalists by phone or email, especially if the candidates went to all the effort and expense of a campus visit. Asking for a little bit of basic courtesy is not the same thing as asking for some arbitrary 'mourning' period. Though S, you do point out another pet peeve of mine: the failure of schools to promptly acknowledge to candidates that they've moved on.
S again: Sorry my reply was snotty; I shouldn't have used "mourning.' My point was just that we're caught in a warp between the wiki and the 1960s. Many schools are still relying on snail mail notification (which beats no notification, a pet peeve of mine as well) while the wiki is sometimes almost in real time. The annoyance with the time lags is really directed at this strange gap between school time and wiki time; it is neither the fault of the schools (assuming they're providing timely notifications) or the applicants. I would guess that most of these people, unless extremely foolish, are not posting of their job success after they get the phone call, but only after they've signed a contract. Similarly, schools never notify the 'losing' finalists just because the winner has said 'yes," but only after a signed contract is in hand. (Because what if the person gets something else, or bails, and now they have to call you? They don't want you feeling like the second choice.) You wouldn't believe what kind of delay that can be; the contract comes not from the department (often), but from the dean or president's office (so if they're out of town...), is mailed to the candidate and then mailed back (so that can be a week...). That's why I think a proper period would be arbitrary, because the 'winner' can't know when others have been notified.
T: Scare quotes.
U: Prigs who, bitter because they tanked an interview, find some random reason to whine...
V: U, that's really nasty and I doubt you would say that if this weren't anonymous.
W: Nor would you say it if you'd been through many searches. It's possible to ace the interview and be out-aced by s/o else.
X: Sometimes schools do notify other finalists when an offer has been made but not yet formally accepted by contract. Since the offer/negotiation/acceptance process often takes weeks (or even months in some cases), it becomes unrealistic to keep the other finalists from guessing or learning through the grapevine that an offer has already been made. There is an advantage to schools' notifying finalists that an offer has been made to another candidate, because they then provide the professional courtesy of transparency, which may give them credibility in future dealings with the other finalists (whether they end up hiring one of them if the first choice falls through, or whether they just remain colleagues in our relatively intimate discipline). "First choice" often means choosing an apple rather than an orange, and "second choice" candidates who know this won't necessarily take offense at learning they weren't the first pick, especially if department communications are positive. For those of you on the market, I hope it's helpful to know that there are some hiring committees and department chairs who take such considerations into account.
Y: Methinks someone should look up the words "prig" and "irony." (x2)
Z: I would *much* rather find out from the wiki that someone else got a job I interviewed for, and be mentally prepared for the rejection from the school, especially if it comes in the form of a phone call from the chair. This happened to me last year, and it was far easier to be gracious on the phone since I didn't answer it with the frantic hope that it might be an offer rather than a "no, thanks." Of course, it hurts to hear that you didn't get the job, but I also have some sympathy for the chair who has to make the rejection phone calls. Anyway, the great advantage of the wiki is the timely dissemination of information. A waiting period before posting updates would be counterproductive.
?: running out of alphabet letters.
*Conference papers, morphing into state-of-field (was pet peeves)*
AA: Having to bail from my ninth accepted conference paper since 2000, because I'm unemployed, have no credit due to having declared bankruptcy in 2009, and am presently down to $88.
Response to AA: This is eerily similar to a previous discussion last year or the year before, can't remember. If you know you are unable to afford to attend conferences, you really should not submit. That's taking the place of someone who likely would go. As a member of the Board of Directors of a national organization, we see one of these at least once a year and it's frustrating. If you declared bankruptcy two years ago, the probability of finding the personal funding to attend a conference, it's unprofessional to apply.
AA3: I'm sorry, but that seems like an awfully callous response. What if instead of telling people in dire financial positions not to apply (thus making them ineligible for a potentially career-advancing opportunity that might help them out of their situation), national organizations considered offering travel funding for adjuncts and unemployed scholars in the same way that they do for graduate students (who often have funding available from their own institutions anyway).
AA4: Hear, hear. As testimonials show above, the market is so dire that people with PhDs, publications, and book contracts struggle to obtain job interviews, and these conferences have become increasingly important on applicants' CVs.
AA5: Perhaps we should make an effort to organize more local (non AMS) meetings, perhaps involve the local libraries and go interdisciplinary. They might not be as prestigious as the national things, but they are a lot cheaper, and it is easier to make meaningful contacts at smaller meetings.
AA's follow-up: Thanks to everyone, except "Response to AA." Hopefully, that person does not represent the attitude of the rest of my "colleagues" on various Boards of Directors. I stand by my advisor's advice that if my work is valid and accepted, but I can't actually afford to attend, then it is NOT MY PROBLEM. I'd be extremely surprised if you really only encountered one conference-bailer per year, because that would mean that the 46% of Ph.D.s without tenure-track positions have given up, or else that they have money from somewhere else (which I do not). Anyhow, thanks to the rest of you!
Q @ AA: Why do you submit abstracts to conferences if you're nearly certain you'll be unable to attend? I ask this question seriously; I really would like to know what benefit you derive from this practice, especially because it so obviously makes a negative impact on others (i.e. conference organizers and, depending on when you withdraw, attendees and those who would have been invited to present had you not applied).
AA Q @ Q @ AA: Why do you assume that only people with money have a right to submit abstracts? I ask this question seriously; I really would like to know what benefit a profession could possibly derive from such an attitude, especially because it would so obviously make a negative impact on others (i.e., unemployed Ph.D.s who might very well have many of their abstracts accepted). I always remain optimistic that I will get some kind of job by the time I actually have to commit to attending a conference, and, by the way, I have also presented lots of papers. Why don't you think productively and creatively (along the lines of what some other people have suggested above), instead of bitching about things that are not my fault, but the fault of a system that was really only ever designed to work for graduate students and faculty members?
AA6: 1) I think you both are placing far too much value on conference presentations. 2) As someone on a program committee, let me say we notice papers that keep getting submitted over and over again. We also notice those who bail on conferences (in cases where the abstracts are not blindly rated). 3) If your research is that good, then publish it (this doesn't cost a dime and will do your CV much more good).
AA7: Here's another voice in support of AA. Not submitting to a conference because of the likelihood that you won't have enough money to go is just too soul-crushing to think about. Optimism is sometimes the only thing that keeps you going year after year on the job market! And I take issue with the idea that publishing doesn't cost a dime: it's true that you don't have to pay for airfare or a hotel, but there is a real cost of time and energy that shouldn't be discounted. And what if the work is newish and not ready for publication? As AA pointed out, the problem is the system, not the individual. And I question the character and empathy of those who would argue otherwise. Keep hope and your abstracts alive, AA!
AA: Thanks, AA7! As for AA6, trying to get things published is a quite scary prospect, because then one might spend years on something (as I have, more than once, usually while unemployed or severely underemployed), with little or no feedback until it goes through so-called "peer" review, which can be considerably more demoralizing than not being able to afford to present something at a conference. My most recent journal article languished in limbo for TEN YEARS (!), until the editor finally got these relevant conference proceedings from 2001 published in 2011. Wouldn't this sort of thing work a lot better (not to mention vastly more quickly) on specialized academic blogs? What about conference organizers creating short, "stand-by" lists of alternate papers, such as one for each session? What about professors donating back part of their travel stipends to a fund for their un(der)employed colleagues? Get thinking, people!
Q @ AA (again): Good heavens. I didn't intend to attack you in any way. I empathize with your situation. Several of my friends face similar circumstances, and indeed I have faced them myself. With that out of the way, for the benefit of those who consult this page to glean information that might help them search for jobs or otherwise advance their careers, could you answer the question I posed?
AA: With "friends" like this... I have a Ph.D. in musicology, and I submit abstracts related to my work, because I believe in it and I want to present it to other people. Obviously, if my abstracts often beat out other abstracts, then other people also want me to present my work. Despite my extremely limited resources, I have almost always been able to present each accepted paper at least once. Thus, I fail to see how the system could possibly be improved by discouraging "scholars without means" from proposing abstracts just as widely as anyone else. Your attitude merely goes to show that our profession has largely already devolved into one in which inferior papers would be preferred, purely because some people still have access to graduate-school funding, the "bank of Mommy," or whatever. We need reasonable solutions, not lip-service empathy from people on Boards of Directors. The answer is not: "I'm an asshole trying to make your life difficult," but I have a very definite feeling that you're going to see it that way no matter what I say.
AA8: I sympathize with the situation and arguments, though not always the tone, of AA. It may be true that one stands to gain little by applying for a conference that one is "nearly certain" not to attend. But that hypothetical does not apply well to the realities of a financially precarious situation. People often do not have the luxury of knowing at the time of application whether they will ultimately have the funds for a conference. The AMS meeting takes place 9-10 months after abstracts are due. Much can happen in the meantime: air fares rise, rent goes up, or the Nth application for a tenure-track job may be successful. How can one predict these things in January? Should one not apply because of the risk of insufficient funds? If so, how much risk is acceptable, and how much not? I say keep those applications coming, AA.
B. I've both chaired sessions and read papers in sessions in which a participant has bailed (with or without advance notice). While this is really not the end of the world (more inconvenient than anything else), I always find it particularly insulting to two groups of people: The conference organizers have worked hard to create cohesive sessions, and it's not fair to those would-be presenters whose papers likely would have been accepted had an absent participant not submitted. I certainly don't think, though, that it's anyone's malicious intent to throw a wrench into the works or to take a spot on the program knowing full well s/he will bail out. All other factors notwithstanding, it's simply unprofessional to back out of conferences regularly, whatever the circumstances. (Of course, there will be emergencies). At the end of the day, it's not a good thing for anyone, and the absentee's reliability (among other things) certainly becomes questionable.
AA: My best advice is for everyone to have a really solid "Plan B" (even a "Plan C" and a "Plan D") ready to go (i.e., accruing non-academic experience before it is too late), because there is not really any way of knowing what will actually advance one's academic career. To wit: I have presented 14 conference papers and 10 invited talks/lectures, co-edited a book and written another book (other than my dissertation), published 14 articles (book chapters, journal articles, and short/review articles), written 90 music encyclopedia reference articles and 82 concert program notes, and developed and taught dozens of courses. My non-academic and science-academic friends are constantly amazed that we hold all of these conferences all over the place (and I'm not just talking about the national AMS meeting), without even providing a mechanism for un(der)employed presenters to ask for $80 to cover registration, $40 to cover bus fare, or $40 per night to cover a room at the YMCA. That's not "tone." That's reality.
AA3 (again): I really hope that society board member and others at the top of the academic heap who visit this wiki take note of all of these indicators that the job landscape for young scholars is changing. If most of us will spend at least a few years adjuncting (with low salaries, no benefits, and no conference travel funds), then you will not be hearing from us at national conferences unless societies consider small travel stipends for those without access to funds from other institutions.
C: All for the travel stipends, for help with registration fees, and for conferences in affordable locations (though that's tricky: motels in grand rapids are cheap, but it isn't cheap for many to get there). But there is nothing all that new about the 'shadow residency" and its attendant poverty. Of the students in my (musicology) PhD cohort ten years ago, the majority worked during the diss phase or earlier, including adjuncting, vap, 1-years, etc. at area colleges. Our conference funds were student loans. One difference is that adjuncting/vap work is at least recognized as a possible path to permanent employment now, whereas a decade ago it was often disparaged by advisers as slowing down the PhD to no good end.
D: I have gotten travel stipends in the past, both through AMS and SAM. The smaller conferences do not have the money to support even one or two students. The only solution would be to raise the costs for everyone, which would create another pool of people who would need assistance. Or, to bring the rates down so low that the organization goes into the red. Most of the organizations in the US have an unwaged category for membership.
AA: I hope you will understand that I am not very sympathetic to anyone who is unduly "worried" about risking full-time adjuncts also needing assistance due to the (hypothetical) increased costs of providing subsidies, not when faculty members make between $45,000 and $105,000 per year. If I made $75,000 a year and knew that even one unfortunate colleague had no means of presenting her or his work at a conference, I would happily donate my annual conference-travel grant ($800, $1500, $2000 or whatever) into a fund for just such a purpose. I privately borrowed $16,000 to return to school in another field in 2009-10, but I have also not been able to find continuing work in it and have thus been of "no fixed address" since the early summer of 2010. My TOTAL income since July of 2008 has been $20,000, from music-related, but non-academic, work. I have never had any luck getting travel stipends as an "independent" scholar.
E: Right now, AA, the members of next year's class of entering graduate students are signing their scholarship and stipend acceptance letters, delighted with what they perceive as opportunity. If you were a professor, AA, your job would be to recruit and retain those students, even though you know as well as anyone that there will not be professorial positions for many of them. The whole system is dependent on those graduate students showing up every year. If you want more jobs for professors, then more graduate students need to enter the system, which means there will be more people who eventually need professorships, which means recruiting more graduate students, usw. If the graduate students stop showing up, then people who are professors today won't be professors much longer. The product of the system is graduate students, and the income source for the whole endeavor is undergraduate tuition, which, of course, is held afloat by federally-subsidised student loans. It's not a pretty picture regardless of where you've landed in the heirarchy (or pyramid).
F: I have to interject at this point, because, E., you are gilding a sh*tbag lily with some inexcusable air of nonchalance. The primary job of a musicologist is not to create musicologists. The job of a musicologist –- even in a "research institution", whatever that means –- is to teach musical culture to undergrads. That is the single most important contribution to the academic community. Tenured faculty research, such as it is, is only worthwhile to the extent it enriches one's teaching and perspective, and is not, to my mind, an end by itself. There is no reason to fund faculty research unless it provides some benefits to your institution. Now, tenured folk have often relegated the most important aspect of your job –- the music appreciation course –- to inexperienced grad student TA's or underpaid adjuncts. That has a double effect: first, the discipline they represent within the academic community is deprived of its most authoritative voice (namely their own) to the largest contingent of students. Second, they are then required to fill in the TA ranks with doctoral candidates, knowing full well most are, as you intimated, part of a pyramid scheme. There is no reason for any musicologist to enter this path without knowing the full scale of risk they are entering, unless those facts are kept hidden on purpose by their so-called advisors.
I have no bone to pick in this conundrum: I am not a musicologist. I just got the offer of a job of one, because the position required diverse disciplines and a healthy dose of applied classes as well. I do know far too many people in AA's position in many fields, because departments at various disciplines all sell this pipe dream of tenure track to lure students to TA jobs and then leave them to their own devices.
G: As a nearly finished dissertator, who has gotten nowhere with applications for post-docs or jobs, I do wish someone had been honest with me about the state of affairs with the market when I started this journey five years ago. With my over $100,000 in student loan debt thanks to many years of poorly paid g.a. positions, I would have chosen a different career path if I had any clue I would be graduating with a worthless degree. So I guess my point is that I'm sympathetic to AA and others in my situation, but attempting to stay hopeful that the positions I managed to hold outside my department will actually allow me to find a job in "the real world." As I prepare to abandon musicology, and academia in general, I can only say that hindsight is 20/20. If only someone had smacked some sense into me when I told them in what I was planning to major all those years ago....
@G: Don't let me stop you, with you gone that just means I'll have a better chance getting a spot. However, I'm not sure where you are going to go, the rest of the job market is not so hot either - even lawyers are having problems getting jobs. Perhaps you should just try to ignore the folks above and wait out the recession like the rest of us (or better phrased, wait until the recovery reaches musicology...)
H: Sure, the job market is bad and I sympathize since I'm in the same boat, but I did go into musicology knowing full well that there were no guarantees. One of things I made sure to ask departments when I was interviewing for Ph.D. programs was how the graduates fared on the job market and then I did my own research (pretty easy to do with google.) There are also books on the graduate admission process that don't dress it up all rosy like professors might.
Original "Callous" AA responder: It's a bit naive to think professors are going to donate their "travel" stipends to fund scholars who have been accepted to conferences. Despite the optimism of ABDs and grad students, I can assure you, travel expenses are minimum and never even cover the entire conference. I am consistently spending hundreds each year to attend conferences that are not reimbursed; the low salary of the arts makes it unrealistic to think that anybody really "has it made." I do recognize my fortunate situation of having a job, but I didn't expect anyone to pay my way when I was a graduate student. That's what I had the three jobs for outside of the assistantship. There is always a way if you want it bad enough. I also agree with the previous presenter that publications are much more prestigious than conference presentations although of course it is much more difficult (hence why it is more prestigious). It seems to me that most people don't have a problem with the system until they are unemployed. If there were in a tenure track position, I doubt they would bemoaning the state of academe. Sour grapes to me it sounds like. Although I sympathize with my unemployed peers and friends and I recognize the fortunate situation of being in a TT job, it certainly is no cake-walk. Universities no where are throwing money at professors to attend conferences. Most of us are dealing with larger course loads (4-4 here and it's no community college), larger class sizes, decrease in assistantship help and salary cuts. I would venture to say that most untenured track faculty are in a precarious financial situation themselves and to think they're going to donate hundreds to budding scholars is insanity. In case it's gone unnoticed, the economy is terrible. You have to do whatever you have to make it happen; those who can and do will make it. Only the strong survive in this degree program and economy. Pity party members will perish. Sorry to tell it like it is.
"There is always a way if you want it bad enough?" Crap. What are you talking about? You are so lucky, and yet you are elitist, judgmental, and entitled, acting as if you deserve anything. Empty self-importance run rampant. In back to back breaths you call someone unemployed and a sour grape but say you sympathize with the unemployed. "Only the strong survive?" You are lucky, that's all, and you should be ashamed that you have no interest in sharing the blessings that you clearly do not deserve. Finally, "Sorry to tell it like it is" Why? It is your kind of selfish ideology that is increasingly making things worse. Working together we might achieve smaller classes, better assistantships etc. but instead you have this to contribute.
Callous AA responder: What I'm talking about is that if you want to make a conference presentation, you could pick up a menial job in the meantime to help pay for it. That's what I did when I needed extra funding (while my fellow grad students at the time were too grandiose to take such low-paying minimum wage jobs). Yes, it was unpleasant but I knew it wasn't realistic to ask colleagues in TT jobs that were paying mortgages, school loans and car loans to support my academic ventures. That's all I meant. I don't feel like my job was only luck; I worked very hard for many years and I don't think personal attack is really fruitful, although potentially rewarding I suppose. My colleagues and I are working together to try to save our graduate program and assistantships but the situation is dire and there is no real system set up to pledge funds for budding scholars. Perhaps instead of lashing out at me and the system, you could propose starting a fund where people could contribute? I would and do give to charitable causes but the way things stand now, there's no place to donate for assisting those struggling out there. That's a good idea, maybe you should pursue whatever organizations you have submitted to and see if that's a possibility. I know the one I'm a member of has certain "awards" (registration fee, travel funding, etc) that can be applied for. Anyway, I offered potential solutions: finding any kind of employment to make the conferences if you think that will help your resume (personally, in my experience as a search committee member, publications weigh much, much more heavily) and/or set up a fund for unemployed scholars to travel. Or you could complain here, but that's not going to solve much of anything. Look, I know it's not pleasant to hear, but the system isn't going to change radically any time soon. Be the change you want to see in the world.
E, again: Five years ago, G, the job market was much better than it's been the last two years...(although the long-standing rule-of-thumb in all fields for education debt is that you shouldn't rack up more than what you expect from your first-year salary)...so it's understandable that you didn't see the bigger picture and that others with more experience than you didn't see it either.
My observation: very few musicologists got jobs in the 1980s...the last time the job market was this bad. In the last decade, those few from the 80s that got tenure have moved to administrative jobs (deans, dept heads, etc.), because suddenly there are so few faculty qualified for those positions given the low number of hires 25 years ago. With those born before 1946 finally retiring, and the low number of faculty hired in the 80s moving up, there were more hires in the early/mid years of the 00s than there had been in decades. Very few faculty are now over about 50 years-of-age (except, maybe, the advisors of everyone reading this page). Unfortunately, It may be a very long time until there's a hiring year better than this one...the hires of the 90s and the 00s are only mid-career, and no reason to expect departments to expand.
"D" to "AA" I did get a travel stipend from AMS as an independent scholar presenting at a conference. I also don't make anywhere near $75,000, pay for most of my conferences our of pocket, and do/have donate to the national organizations I care about. I also have a mortgage, daycare payments, etc. I understand you're angry, I was angry and made $7,000 one year. The fact is, a lot of us are or were in that boat. Assuming no one understands you - even as you willfully misunderstand the economics of the situation - won't get you very far.
AA6 (again): To me this argument reads more like a misunderstanding than a complete difference of opinion. The unemployed here seem to think that TT professors have money to burn. In my case, my TT salary begins 4 (which I don't believe is anywhere near $75k). I pay for all of my conferences out of pocket (budget cuts eliminated all travel funds three years ago). I too have a mortgage and debt. I basically pay for one or two conferences a year on my own or spend a lot of time writing grants (while teaching 6-7 classes a semester). The number of professors with any kind of research budget is minuscule (almost exclusively limited to those at graduate-degree programs). Sure, we would all like to have conference money and yes we all feel bad about the un/underemployed who don't have the resources to go to conferences (we've almost all been there). The thing is, the vast majority of professors out there don't have money right now either (nor do most unaffiliated conferences). Resources are really tight for all of us, and I think that is the gist of AA's "reality of the situation."
I thought this article did a nice job of retaining some empathy in the face of another dismal job market: http://chronicle.com/article/Survivors-Guilt/126710
AA (after a longish absence): The people who think they've got it bad with mortgages, daycare costs, their travel funding being cut, etc. (even if their pre-tenure salaries are "merely" in the 40,000s) are completely out-of-touch with the realities of those of us living in windowless storage/spare rooms, averaging an income of around $500 per month (for what were only ever supposed to be stop-gap, temporary, part-time jobs), and remaining $85,000 in "short term" (I wish!) debt. I have tried to get additional non-academic (office temp, admin assistant, IT, etc.) jobs in the $12-15 per hour range (including part-time), and I have even gone to a lot of trouble to try to enter a completely new profession, but I have not gotten anywhere with any of that. People not in academia (e.g., hiring managers) seem to be quite sure that anyone with a Ph.D. will be offered some other job at a much higher salary within a few months (so I can't make $25,000), and I don't have enough experience in my new field to find something at its starting salary (so I also can't make $50,000). I'm still not as desperate as the person on here who threatened to commit suicide a year or two ago, but I can sympathize with that response to a much greater extent than I can with what some of my supposed "colleagues" are saying.
"Callous" responder: I can't speak for anyone else, but my point primarily was that we didn't have extra funds to support others' travels for professional reasons. It's my understanding that the original post was saying that people with tt jobs should give up their travel stipend for her/him to use (or those in similar situations). I think we were just trying to explain that we didn't have extra financial resources and then went into detail why. I think we can all agree that we recognize that we are in more fortunate situation than the unemployed; it's just that we don't have unlimited funds to support our own careers as well as someone else's. I would certainly donate a little to an independent scholar fund if it were run on the up and up with some firm rules and regulations in place. I also do not have time to set that up, perhaps one of the people who have extra time can do that.
I to AA: So, to paraphrase Marge Simpson, you made a terrible life-choice and invested your time, energy, and money in the wrong thing. People from all walks of life do that. What are you going to do about it?
G: I'm okay with my choice, after only two months of looking, I'm going into my final interview for a very high paying position with tons of advancement opportunities in the area in which I've been working the last five years outside musicology. Although I complained and moaned at the time, I'm just glad I wasn't funded by my department so I was able to pick up additional marketable skills. Good luck to you all though. I know it's a tough road.
Tip for Job Seekers
For those still in the hunt this year (and those who will be looking again next year), I'd like to offer a suggestion. I've served on several search committees, including one this year, and the candidate who gets an offer is almost invariably the best TEACHER. All of the candidates have exciting research plans, most have a few publications, all are well-trained, bright, and capable scholars. But most of the candidates I've interviewed over the years are mediocre teachers at best. If you're in graduate school, do yourself a favor: participate in workshops or seminars on teaching. Agitate for courses in music history pedagogy - because without them, your graduate program is failing to prepare you for the professional challenges ahead. If you've already graduated, do some self-study in pedagogy. (Start with the article by Jose Bowen in the Journal of Music History Pedagogy on six books on teaching that every college teacher should know.) Don't buy into the decades-old notion that teaching doesn't matter at certain kinds of institutions. It matters everywhere. Yes, searches can hinge on all sorts of factors, and I'm not suggesting that the best teacher always gets the job. But I can say that the most effective way to distinguish yourself during the interview is to be a good (if not outstanding) teacher.
Your comment may reflect the priorities of your institution, but I have been told in private conversation after a search was over, "you were by far the best teacher, but we gave an offer the other candidate because..." I have also served on search committees where there was no lecture or teaching aspect of the interview. The above advice is helpful, but there is no magic bullet.
Ditto the magic bullet comment. Also, if a committee whittles down 100+ applications and finds that 1 or 2 of the final 3 are not good teachers, it seems like committees might want to come up with a more systematic and reliable way to nip that problem in the bud. I wonder how many interviews the "best teachers" aren't getting.
Which might be why some schools are asking for teaching videos, which candidates apparently and understandably find both massively inconvenient and unrepresentative of actual teaching. There's no magic bullet, indeed. Since scholarship is visible prior to the interview, sc's are less likely to find, at the interview, that it's not what they'd hoped. But since teaching is represented only indirectly, sometimes with great apparent promise (awards, etc), there is a greater likelihood of being surprised by it at the interview. Nothing in a file tells you that somebody who appears to be a dedicated and careful scholar considers lecturing about a genre at a sub-wikipedia level acceptable for undergraduates.
Original poster: Not trying to suggest a magic bullet...just offering some advice having served on search committees at several different kinds of institutions (research-focused, liberal arts, other). The committees I've served on are typically disappointed by the quality of teaching at the interview, so improving in that respect can only help your chances.
At the risk of bringing up the dreaded "teaching video" topic again, I've just got to say that, despite the frustration caused by putting one of these together, it's perfectly understandable why a sc might want to see one. At the very least, it suggests that teaching is a priority to that school/department/sc. And if you don't share that priority, then the job isn't a good fit for you. Unrepresentative of actual teaching? Yes, probably. But it's no less representative than the "class" you will likely be asked to "teach" when you arrive on campus for an interview. In my experience, setting up a video camera in the back of my classroom, behind students I actually know, and recording a class session for which I already know the curricular context is far less artificial than the experience of "teach these undergrads you've never met something worthwhile about [topic]." Sure, it's a hassle to put a teaching video together, but why don't we just assume that ONE of the jobs to which we'll apply is going to ask for this at some point, and get one ready. Then, it's just a matter of duplicating when the second school asks for one. And if you aren't teaching while you're applying for jobs, find a class and ask to "borrow" it for a day. Friends/colleagues at nearby universities? Or, people you've never met at a nearby university? Go introduce yourself, explain your situation, ask the professor if it's ok to observe her in one class for a few days, and then to teach it for a day yourself, or even for just 30 minutes. Yes, it's something we'd probably all rather not do, but if you want that $60,000 a year job in Rochester, then do it.
A: In retrospect, teaching myself to use iMovie was the one worthwhile thing that came out of this year's job search.
Back to Pet Peeves:
CMS spending its time (and mine, via surveys)on smartphone apps instead of addressing the many serious issues in music/academic employment raised on the wiki and elsewhere.
Etiquette
Without a working history function, I think a certain degree of etiquette makes the wiki more useful. Maybe "etiquette" is a poor word choice.
A1: It looks like the history function is working a little better now.
Praise
I just wanted to note that it is nice that some programs (B.U. et al) can actually make initial decisions with just a C.V., a Cover Letter and three letters of Rec. Anything else is a waste of time, money and resources (for the candidate AND the committee.) x2
- Unless, of course, the B.U. search is a semi-inside hire...probably this belongs as a 'Pet Peeve.'
- See above in 'Pet Peeves'
- Even moreso those that just ask for a CV, letter, and reference contacts (no letters). Saves money and hassle. Like the reference letters read differently anyway!
- R1: Actually, letters from colleagues in the same field are often very helpful and are taken seriously.
B: Conference interviews that are actually quite pleasant!
-The much improved tone of this year's wiki:-) (x3)
-Did someone do all those hyperlinks her/himself? Thanks, friend! (x2)
Other music job Wikis?
Q. Is there a job listing wiki for applied music? Couldn't find one...
Managing expectations
Q. How has the the bleak job market of the last couple of years affected the basic requirements for a TT job? or put another way, have the extra years that recent graduates have been scrambling to become more competitive (more articles, presentations, etc.) for their first job raised the bar for the Assistant Professor position. For example, is it normal for a school like B.U. to expect two articles or book chapters from a new hire? What are the basic expectations of what one would find on the C.V. of an entering Assistant Professor?
A1 (1/6): This is an important question, but we have to be careful not to generalize too blindly: each hiring scenario is unique. The verbiage in the BU ad suggested that they were looking for someone making a lateral move (i.e., someone already on the tenure-track) or else someone with significant teaching and publishing experience. On the other hand, certain schools explicitly remark that ABD will be considered as long as the degree will be conferred by the start date. For any position that is entry-level, certain things such as articles in major journals, a book contract, or teaching experience outside the graduate institution are clear indications of potential for success. I think this is true regardless of the specific market. These items don't guarantee an interview, or even a call back, but they certainly can't hurt. Remember, institutions are typically looking for someone they can tenure, not a six-year experiment.
A2: On a related note, I can't help but notice that there are an increasing number of job postings out there for those who can teach musicology *and* ethnomusicology (or, ethnomusicology *and* musicology). And theory as well. Is this symptomatic of departmental budget cuts? i.e., are departments having to do more with less?
A3: I think these advertisers are communicating that a musicologist might be expected to teach world music or that an ethnomusicologist would be expected to teach history courses. Hasn't this been true for a long time? It seems practical regardless of the budget situation.
Q2: Well, it will be interesting to see how many, if any, ABDs (graduating this spring) get TT jobs this year. The BU jobs were at least explicitly looking for someone with more experience. I wonder if that same attitude is implicit for many of the other jobs. With the glut of recent Ph.D.s on the market, what incentive do committees have to hire ABDs who, almost by definition, have fewer publications and less teaching experience than those who graduated in 2009 and 2010?
A4: I know it is short-term economic thinking, but ABDs are cheaper to hire than those who already have some years of university-level experience. However, I would hesitate to generalize about search committees based on what appears on this wiki or even in job announcements. After serving on a couple of search committees, I can tell you that there is rarely an underlying logic to them (apart from competing desires on the part of SC members).
A5, to A4: I see this written a lot. Can you explain how an ABD is cheaper than a Ph.D. with one or two years of adjunct or VAP experience, for example?
A6: ABDs are cheaper because directors and deans (who usually hold the purse strings) tend to take a hard line in negotiations. With no leverage (experience, another job offer, or at the very least, degree in hand), ABDs are in the weakest negotiating position and are sometimes automatically brought in at the minimum salary until their degree is complete; that salary might be the same as that of a visiting assistant professor at the same institution. Given the budget pressures impacting state institutions in particular, saving 5-10K on a salary negotiation can make a big difference for a cash strapped department making budget cuts, and calculating administrators know that these candidates will probably come anyway if the alternative is to be unemployed.
Q3: Speaking of expectations, what are ABD candidates to do when half the search committees throw out their applications on the basis of their not having degrees in hand? What is expected of those newly minted PhDs after they receive their degrees in May, four months too late?
A7: One thing that we can do is to start giving our home institutions (and advisors) a hard time for hiring and maintaining adjunct faculty. I wish that there were a society or some kind of organization from whom we could get some help to stem the tide of contingent hiring, but alas, they're busy with the important work of "decentering composers." (x2)
A8: While it's appalling how often institutions go for the cheap labor of adjuncts increasingly often, there's only so much that can be done at the departmental level. Rather than specifically fighting contingent hiring, I would like to see our organizations become more willing to challenge the status quo at the institutional and disciplinary level by finding ways to articulate and demonstrate all the reasons (and there are plenty!) that music/the arts should be an integral part of every student's training. More demand for the arts = more jobs, both TT and contingent. And in a market where more and more of us will (presumably) be looking for adjunct work, increasing the number of adjunct positions would also be helpful, at least in the very short term. (1/28)
A9(To A8):Your suggestion is well intended, but a waste of time. I can see the AMS coming out with a resolution that "The Arts are good," just like the "torture is bad" from a couple of years ago. We should print T shirts! It seems to me that arguing for the importance of the arts to a student's training is akin to arguing that Obama is not a muslim. It is a waste of time and does more damage than good. Contingent hiring is bad for the field. More useful might be a university rating system maintained by the AMS or some such which lists the number of fulltime, tenure track faculty in each department. Such a rating system would be quite influential in the number of yearly graduate and undergraduate applications that each department gets, drive incentive for fulltime hiring, and increase the visibility/membership of the AMS. Concerning the power of departments, I am also under the impression that tenure isn't just job security, but it is protection from repercussion for speaking out: perhaps it is time to put that priviledge to use?
A8 (to A9): Yes, indeed, I agree that tenured faculty need to (a) think about these issues; and (b) speak out. Some are, but in a set of disciplines as collectively resistant to change as the branches of music studies are, those voices are being either ignored or not heard in the first place. And I also agree that a ranking system would be helpful as a gauge and potentially as a policy-making tool, though I don't think such a thing would lead to change without other kinds of work. As for your comment about institutional change being "a waste of time": I respectfully beg to differ. It would certainly be difficult, and it would probably have to come from the ground up...BUT we are all AMS, SEM, SMT members, right? These orgs may be large, but it *is* possible to have a voice in them. Now, whether that voice is heard or effective is another matter, but we on the job market do have *some* agency, whether we wind up in TT jobs, adjuncting, or doing other things to pay the rent. We, too, have a place in either maintaining or changing the status quo, even if that place is less powerful than that of a tenured faculty member, and much less powerful than that of a dean or a college president.
A10 (to A7, A8, and A9): This really isn't an issue of music alone; in fact, it isn't at all. The adjunct problem runs throughout the humanities, indeed throughout academia. I have yet to see any evidence that musicology has it any worse, and actually I think, percentage-wise, we're far less reliant on adjuncts than many disciplines. Decisions about lines are mainly decided by deans and provosts, not departments. And as far as the suggestion about the AMS creating a rating system is concerned: universities won't notice, let alone care. Or rather, they care about the problem, but especially in this age of budget cuts their hands are mostly tied (in a way that they weren't even a few years ago, and I think it's the failure to deal with the problem then, when budgets were much more plush, that's the real scandal). There's a huge amount of public discussion about this, much of it generated by the MLA and AHA, and although it may be therapeutic for those involved, AMS adding its pint-sized voice isn't going to change policies. As for A7's idea of stigmatizing departments that hire adjuncts: these adjuncts are often the department's own PhDs who haven't yet found a TT job. As annoying, infantalizing, and depressing as it may be not to have found a good job, most people would prefer adjuncting in their own department to being unemployed. Should departments stop this?
A7 (to A10) That is an excellent rationalization, but no more."Everyone else is doing it" is never a good excuse. Just because English lit. might be worse off, that certainly doesn't mean we should sit idly by. As for a ratings system, universities won't notice until the quality and quantity of the application pool deteriorates. This might take some time, but the AMS could be effective in this way and music schools are driven by reputation. Didn't you notice that "a few years ago" when departments were plush with money, they still didn't have the funding to do the right thing? I am sure that they never will as long as it is cheaper to hire contingents. Further, the AMS will remain "pint-sized" as long as we think of it as too small to make any positive changes. Indeed, it can't even seem to find a way to host a proper job listing. But I can't help but thinking that it could be more relevant to its younger members. When you buy an apple it is one price, but when you buy by the dozen each apple is cheaper. Along these lines, administrations should be forced to pay more for adjuncts than to have a course taught by a tenured instructor (organized faculties already have this set up and it works.) If you want to give a recent grad a spot, create a postdoc or fellowship, but you can't argue that the lack of jobs is a reason not to create more jobs, circular, no? Finally, concerning stigmatization, the ratings system shouldn't just include adjuncts, I imagine other things like class size, tuition, graduation rate, placement rate et al could all go into it, but I'm just pulling these out of the air. If something like this (the truth) should "stigmatize" a department, then so be it.
A11: It seems that where AMS might try to lobby, and perhaps seek partnership from other academic organizations in doing so, is in helping to make conditions for adjuncts a little better. In particular, it seems that highly trained adjuncts, many of whom have PhDs and years of university-level teaching experience behind them, should be provided basic health care benefits for the period of the contract.
A12: I think the word you're looking for is "union." AAUP is a good place to start, perhaps? The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, associated with AAUP, deserves to be a force. Everything administrators do now insures that TT and part-time faculty will not have the time or energy to pursue these labor-related issues with the fervor that will bring about substantive change. We need strikes, collective bargaining, and a modicum of solidarity across the tenured, non-tenured, part-time chasms. It's only pie-in-the-sky until it happens.
Speaking of Unions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKQkGITsZmI
Salary Info
Q. I look at these "averages" for salaries and wonder if any musicologist in the US makes even the "average" for each rank? The scientists and law profs must make way over the average, and humanists way under.
A1: Music departments and musicology units are among the lowest paid in the university system. As an example (and this is a real example), two musicologists living in the same urban area, one works for a musicology program at an elite, doctoral-granting private university, the other one works for a sociology program at a Research 1 state university; the first one is an associate professor, the second one an assistant professor, yet the second one's salary is almost 10 K higher. When the salary of the second one is compared to another musicologist also working as an assistant professor but at the school of music of the same state u. the difference is more than 15 K.
A2: This is so true. Another example (again real, not hypothetical): an associate musicology prof at an R1 flagship state university serves as an external member of a search in the English department of the same university and discovers that the starting offer for the new candidate's salary is higher than their own. It is routine for musicologists and theorists to make 7-8K less than professors in other humanities disciplines of the same rank at this university, regardless of teaching experience or publication record at the time of hire.
Q: How did this happen?
A3: We're not considered an indispensable to the functioning of a university as English profs (who can teach or coordinate Freshman writing programs) are. We tend to have our salaries brought in line with studio teachers and composers: groups that supplement their income with outside performances and commissions, neither of which we have. And we tend to be in poorly-endowed departments (we're training alumni to be musicians themselves!) so there's not a lot of endowed chairs, etc. (the rising tide that raises all boats). And, of course, it happened in the typical way: many of us did not negotiate and negotiate hard on our initial salary offers. Practice, practice, practice your prepared speech where you conceal your utter joy at getting an offer and say matter-of-factly, "thank you for this offer which I will closely consider. Is it negotiable? because my initial response is that it is on the low side both for the cost of living in the area and for my expertise." Even if you get a "no, it's not negotiable," you haven't lost anything (and gotten good practice at negotiating for your promotion/next job).
A4: This really isn't the case everywhere. At my (R1) institution, musicology salaries are on par with others in the humanities. What they lag behind are the performers' salaries, which are stratospheric if they're a big name, and of course those in the sciences, economics, etc. So while it's true that art/music/etc isn't universally valued as much as we'd like, you really can't make the generalization that it's worse in musicology than it is in the rest of the arts and humanities. Some places yes, other places no.
A5: A3’s suggestion for negotiating is good but not practical. I’ve received my first offer. I was told the salary was non-negotiable. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but it’s totally obvious that I’m working part time this year and facing unemployment next year. To negotiate, I would have to be willing to either reject the job or let on that I’m willing to take anything, and I think that undermines my ability to ask for non-salary things like a research/travel budget. The truth is that ABDs or new PhDs are in the weakest negotiating position of their lives and admins must know this.
A6: To A3, I would say that asking if something is negotiable already weakens your ability to negotiate; I also don't think you really need to start playing hardball like you are trying to close a million dollar sale. To A5, if you frame the entire discussion with the chair differently, things might go better than you would suspect. 1) NO chair wants to lose you as a hire. #2 in line might actually have been a non-pick and the department doesn't want to do another search. If they lose you, that's very bad news for them. Put another way, someone with an offer shouldn't see it as an "us vs. them" scenario, because the department wants you, and in fact needs you. Just because there were 100 applicants doesn't mean the school is ready to offer the job to the other 99. 2) Perhaps you could tell the department you want to take the offer but there are certain items that are "very important to you." Make it clear that no individual item is a deal breaker, if it truly isn't. To name several examples, these could be: a new computer/software, a research/travel budget (perhaps in exchange for one more course per year?), a spousal hire, a guaranteed % raise (perhaps to offset the lower starting salary?), a better library budget, among other things. Any smart chair will see this as an opportunity to get creative without breaking the bank. Get everything in writing.
A7: Ditto A6. And some collected tips
A8: to A7, thanks!!
A9: it seems to me that this discussion is relevant to the discussion on financial woes in the section above (people unable to give conference papers for lack of funding; adjuncts surviving on starvation pay). The inequality of wealth characteristic of the US economy in general is surely being replicated in academia. Does anyone doubt that the superstars in any given field (including musicology) are being paid 4 or even 5 times what a non-TT junior faculty member makes? Are their contributions or their "value" five times greater? Give me a break.
Replacement Jobs
There's probably a better term for this, but I think it would be useful to keep track of what schools do after someone who has taught there accepts a job at another institution. This is my first year on the market, so my first year of watching the wiki seriously, but it seems like quite a high percentage of jobs are going to people who already had jobs (in many case, TT jobs) at other institutions. We should be advocating (through our relevant professional societies or other means) to make sure that these universities hire faculty at (at least) the same level as the person who left to teach at another institution. What we don't want to see is a school lose a tenure-track faculty member and then fill that course load with an adjunct for a long period of time (I understand this might be necessary for a year to do a proper search) or not fill the position whatsoever. So, to that end, I think that Shenandoah University and University of the Incarnate Word are to be commended for promptly initiating TT searches after TT faculty accepted other positions. Can we start a list of other schools who have lost faculty members, and keep track of their steps to replace (or not) these faculty members?
A1: It's not as easy as it sounds to replace at or above the level of the person leaving. Hiring is a major budgetary decision, and, as such, needs to go through the Dean's office at every university I've worked with. If the Dean's office elects to downgrade or eliminate the line of a faculty member who chooses to leave, the department effectively has their hands tied. Another problem for musicology is that an opening means a chance for redistribution and reconsideration. If a music historian leaves, the department might decide that their line might be better used to hire another voice professor, or a composer. The needs of departments are hardly stable. I'm all for more musicology jobs, but the politics is a real uphill battle. The best advocating we can do is to make our work indispensable to our departments and universities.
http://chronicle.com/stats/aaup/
http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries
http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/university-of-virginia-faculty-salaries.pdf
http://www.indystar.com/data/government/state_salaries2008_search.shtml
http://umich.highedsalaries.com/department/details/2074
http://www.uvm.edu/~isis/sr/sr08.pdf
http://www.timesunion.com/data/payroll/2008/
http://ia310825.us.archive.org/2/items/UniversityOfIllinoisSalaryList2008-2009/UI-Sal-2UIUC.pdf
http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/
http://ia310809.us.archive.org/2/items/UniversityOfMinnesotaSalaryList2008-2009/
http://php.app.com/rutgersweb/search.php
http://data.desmoinesregister.com/results/index.php?info=State_Salaries
http://lbloom.net/
http://www.dailyillini.com/salary-guide
http://www.uillinois.edu/trustees/agenda/September%2023,%202010/012%20sepGrayBook2010-2011.pdf - UIUC 2010 Salaries
http://www.archive.org/details/CommonwealthOfPennsylvaniaPayrollDatabase2008
http://www.bostonherald.com/projects/payroll/massachusetts/
http://ia310834.us.archive.org/3/items/UniversityOfConnecticutSalariesSep2008/
http://ia331421.us.archive.org/3/items/OhioStateUniversitySalaryListJune2008/OSU_salaries_as_of_June_2008.pdf
http://ia331414.us.archive.org/0/items/NorthCarolinaStateUniversitySystemSalaries2008/NC-State-Universities-Salaries-2008.pdf
http://ia310803.us.archive.org/1/items/UniversityOfMarylandSalaryListSep2008/
http://www.azcentral.com/news/datacenter/payasu.php?fdepartment=&ftitle=professor&fsalary=0
http://www.azcentral.com/news/datacenter/payasu.php?fdepartment=&ftitle=professor&fsalary=0
http://open.georgia.gov/sta/entryPoint.aud
http://www.kansas.gov/KanView/client/js/#dataTable=salary/emp_salary%3Fid%3D682%26job_title%3DAssistant%20Professor
http://ia310831.us.archive.org/2/items/TexasAmUniversitySalariesSep2008/
http://www.ir.ufl.edu/factbook/v-14_salaries.pdf
http://www.kentucky.com/1028/story/353631.html
http://www.utahsright.com/h_salaries.php
http://blog.nola.com/graphics/2009/02/search_for_state_employee_sala.html
http://transparency.sc.gov/BCB/transparency/BCB-state-salary-query.phtm
http://oira.unc.edu/faculty-salaries-at-research-and-aau-universities.html
http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846/
http://oira.unc.edu/faculty-salaries-at-research-and-aau-universities.html
Acronym guide
CMS: College Music Society
CHE: Chronicle of Higher Education
HERC: Higher Education Recruitment Consortium
IHE: Inside Higher Ed
MVL: Music Vacancy List (published by the College Music Society). Requires a member login.
AMS-L: American Musicological Society listserv
SEM-L: Society of Ethnomusicology listserv
SEM: Society of Ethnomusicology. Their current job list requires a member login.
TT: Tenure Track
VAP: Visiting Assistant Professor
ABD: All-But-Dissertation
Archives
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2008-2009 Search
2007-2008 Search
2006-2007 Search
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