Thanks in part to the Modern Language Association and American Historical Association conferences, there’s a lot of talk in the blogosphere and on Twitter right now about what university faculty work should look like, public perceptions of faculty work, and how humanists and historians might think more broadly about how their research and careers intersect with public life.
I have more to say about these topics in a broad, waxing-philosophical sort of way, but for now I thought I’d just share a list of my current projects. Consider it one more data point in describing the workload and work life of a faculty member in history, in my case a junior, tenure-track one at a regional public university.
Please do share your own work. I’d love to hear what’s keeping you occupied, and I suspect I’m not the only one who would appreciate the opportunity to compare and contrast workloads and projects.
Here’s what I’m doing for the next couple weeks:
- Collaborating with a colleague on a proposal for an NEH summer institute
- Collaborating with an interdisciplinary team on an NSF grant proposal to produce a monologue-based play about historical women in science
- Writing a couple short articles for an informal science wiki designed to inform applicants for NSF grants in informal science education. Topics: “In what ways have citizen science programs advanced the public understanding of science and influenced public attitudes about scientific issues?” and “To what extent have humanities content, theory, and methods been incorporated successfully into informal science education, why, and to what end?”
- Revising a chapter on the myth of Black Confederate soldiers for the book Writing History in a Digital Age
- Planning for my ambitious spring course
- Filling out IRB forms so I can later publish research about my spring course
- Peeking at two journal articles that need extensive revision before resubmission
- Continuing to shepherd The Boise Wiki I founded last spring, at this moment by applying for a small grant
- Recruiting history majors to present papers at the regional Phi Alpha Theta conference (I’m the faculty adviser for our local chapter)
- Mentoring my graduate students, two of whom are presenting their museum exhibits—one on Prohibition in Idaho and one on the Idaho boxcar of the Merci Train—this spring
- Planning two trips to archives, funded by a research fellowship from my college
- Preparing a proposal for the Western Museums Association conference
- Playing matchmaker for history interns and organizations
- Planning for my one-credit spring workshop “Rethinking Museums”
When I look at this list, it’s kind of crazy-making, especially since it comes on the heels of an exceptionally busy December. I have a mentoring committee that meets infrequently, and the folks on it do know about these activities. At our last meeting, their biggest suggestion for improvement in my progress toward tenure was “publish book reviews.” While I understand the utility of book reviews as a form of service to the profession, I didn’t know whether to roll my eyes or giggle, as I think I really have enough other stuff on my plate that might trump book reviews in my tenure case a few years hence. (Full disclosure: I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a book review in an academic journal.) So I suppose I should add to my list:
- Contacting journal editors re: book reviews
What’s keeping you busy at the beginning of 2012?
Awesome image by Chris Scott, and used under a Creative Commons license
