Talk:North American History 2018-19

Discussion moved from Emory Posting: African-American positions & candidates' ethnicity

 * Most likely, they hired a white scholar who teaches Af-Am history. This is the trend in the academy. Sadly.
 * So no white people are supposed to study Af-Am history? We're professional historians. I don't see why the race of a scholar should have implications for what subject matter one pursues.
 * Ummm... No; offer went out and was accepted and the scholar they hired is not white.
 * As someone serving on a search committee for race/ethnicity (not at Emory), I can assure you that the trend in the academy is NOT to hire white scholars working on African American History. However, racial diversity is very very important to the lifeblood of a department and a university. It is completely naive for white students working on African American History to be unaware of ithe dynamics that go into choosing this field as their expertise and the very complex racial politics that go along with working and publishing as a white scholar. If you are unaware, you need to talk to your advisor. This is not saying it is not possible, but that it is very very complicated.
 * Furthermore, please remember that interviews are professional evaluations. We have seen some very entitled people with no professional filter coming to campus with little preparation or interest in our program (again, this has nothing to do with Emory).