Saturday, November 15, 2008

Job Opening in Medieval History: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

by EILEEN JOY

I want to alert all of our readers who may be medieval historians in search of a job that Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is currently searching for a medieval historian [this person would be replacing my friend Michael Moore, an historian of the Carolingian period, who recently left SIUE to take a position at the University of Iowa]. I can tell you that SIUE, more than any institution with which I have been associated, really puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to support for faculty research and teaching. Although the current economic climate is horrendous [for example, a friend informed me last week that her university in South Carolina has rescinded all travel funding and sabbaticals that were already pre-approved, frozen all job hires, and is also asking faculty to take on additional courses], at SIUE we are holding steady, partly thanks to progressive state funding and a Graduate School that is superior in terms of its external funding rates. As a result, travel funding is generous and there are close to ten annually recurring internal grant programs, and I can tell you that I have benefited enormously from those [two summer research fellowships and reassigned time practically every single year I've been here--in fact, I am not teaching at all next semester thanks to one of these grants]. In addition, SIUE puts a lot of support behind cross-disciplinary, team-taught courses and is continually devising new ways, with financial support, to encourage faculty to innovate new courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The History department has a very vibrant intellectual atmosphere and clearly values premodern studies [the chair of the search committee for this position is an art historian of ancient Assyria]--in fact, for several years now, their two-semester theory seminar for their M.A. students has been taught by a three-person team of an historian of intellectual French history [who studied with Derrida at Irvine], the early modernist [who works on material culture of the Italian Renaissance], and my friend Michael, before he left. I reflect that I am beginning to sound a little bit like an SIUE public relations machine, so I will simply append the job ad here:

H-Net Job Posting: Medieval History

2 comments:

Another Damned Medievalist said...

Not that I'm actively looking, but I'm always keeping an eye out ... Eileen, do you know if it's an absolute junior search, or do you think they would be interested in someone currently up for T&P, but with a publication and research record more suitable to "teaching" schools?

Eileen Joy said...

ADM: not necessarily an absolutely junior search. When Michael was hired he had already taught for 6 years at Wellesley and for 3 years at University of Houston.