Italian 2010-2011


 * Galileo_facing_the_Roman_Inquisition.jpg

Your Current Position
ABD, but looking to defend this year: 4

VAP: 1

Adjunct: 2

PhD in hand, currently unemployed:1

PhD in hand, currently in non-TT job: 2

Currently in TT job:

Other:

Your Field
Medieval: 2

Renaissance: 1

17th:

18th:

19th:

20th: 5

Cinema: 1

SLA/Pedagogy (language and culture):

Linguistics and sociolinguistics:

Other? Define:

Your Language Background
Native speaker: 1

Non-native speaker: 5

Heritage speaker:

Jobs
Franklin College, Lugano, Switzerland

Assistant Professor of Italian and Modern Languages

Full-time, continuing position in an extended contract system and beginning August 2011, pending funding.

Application deadline: November 10, 2010

Requirements


 * Ph.D. in Italian Studies

Preferences


 * specific interest in language pedagogy and language acquisition


 * extensive experience teaching undergraduate Italian-language courses


 * innovative teacher and program coordinator


 * able to work across multiple languages

Logistics


 * electronic submission of a letter of application, a cv, and recent teaching evaluations


 * there will be conference call interviews, followed by on-campus interviews for finalists


 * direct all questions to Professor Fabio Ferrari, search committee co-chair, at fferrari@fc.edu


 * submit application materials to italsearch@fc.edu

UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Tenure-Track position at Assistant Professor level, to begin July 1, 2011.

Application deadline: November 30, 2010.

Requirements
 * Only applications from candidates with the Ph.D. already in hand will be considered.
 * Specialization: any field of Italian literature, history or culture between 1559 and 1870, with the ability to contribute to an interdisciplinary curriculum ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Preferences
 * We especially welcome applications from individuals who will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education.

Logistics
 * Appointments for interviews at the 2011 MLA Convention in Los Angeles will be made in December.
 * Send letter of application, complete dossier including CV and at least three recommendations (refer potential letter-writers to the UC Berkeley Statement of Confidentiality at http://apo.chance.berkeley.edu/evalltr.html), and a writing sample (in English or Italian; no more than 25 pages), to Steven Botterill, Chair, Department of Italian Studies, 6303 Dwinelle Hall, UC, Berkeley, CA 94720-2620.
 * Postmark deadline for completed application is November 30, 2010.

Colby College, Waterville ME

Assistant Professor of Italian

Non tenure track, continuing

Application Deadline: November 26, 2010

Dartmouth College, Hanover NH

Language Program Director

Senior Lecturer, 5 year renewable

Application Deadline: October 20, 2010

Eastman School of Music, Rochester NY

Assistant Professor of Italian

Non tenure track

Application Deadline: October 31, 2010

Bucknell University, Lewisburg PA

Assistant Professor,

Tenure Track

Application Deadline: October 15, 2010

Emory University

Lecturer

Three year renewable

Application Deadline: November 30, 2010

Gettysburg College

Resident Teaching Fellowship

One semester, beginning January 2011. Possibility for one year renewal.

Application Deadline: November 1, 2010

Loyoloa University Maryland

Humanities Chair

Two semester appointment, 2011-2012

Application Deadline: November 30, 2010

Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware OH

Assistant Professor of Humanities

Tenure track

Application Deadline: November 1, 2010

San Diego State University, San Diego CA

Assistant Professor, European Studies

Tenture track

Application Deadline: October 25, 2010

Univ. of Southern California

Assistant Professor, Mediterranean Studies

Tenure track

Application Deadline: November 15, 2010

Colorado College, Colorado Springs CO

Assistant Professor

Tenure track

Application Deadline: December 1, 2010

....Plus many more. Currently 26 positions on the mlajil. Not so bad for such a bad year.

--Wait. There are 8 tenure-track jobs specifically in Italian, which in reality means only 6 for modernists (no berkeley, no bucknell) or 3 for medievalists (no Berkeley, no U-Mass Amherst, no Denver, no John Carroll, no Dominican). Not to mention probably at least three of these 8 jobs already are probably destined for inside candidates (and you know where those are: those universities whose job ads expire a week after the posting date, those who already have visiting assistant professors with the identical sought specializations...). So much for a cornucopia. We are more like the poor Kafkian hunger artist.

Interviews Scheduled
Bucknell

===Bucknell phone interview (scheduled 10/25) x2 ...this seems early, right? SC mentioned that they want to fill the position before the end of the semester. So yes, it is early and yes, they're moving extremely fast. Strange, any sense of the back story there? I think that Bucknell knows very well where it stands as far as likability -- so to speak. They know we are desperate to have a job, and they want candidates to sign a contract before they are contacted by other schools. They are just taking advantage of current miserable state of affairs.===

--- They have an inside candidate.

-- The previous poster might have just solved the riddle. Why waiting if you already have your answer? Congrats to the insider, while we -- the remnants - brace for another painful year.

- They do? From what's on their website all I can tell is that they have two non-TT faculty members who don't fit the search criteria. Is there someone hiding in the wings?

--- One of them is teaching a course that matches exactly the only specific requirement they pointed out :(

-- This is true, but they have new program requirements based on the recently adopted Core Curriculum. They need some one who actually does Renaissance, can teach Dante, and does both of those things in English (and can teach a little Italian on the side). Their "inside candidate" isn't a Med/Ren person, so I doubt that they could hire her for the position given the parameters of the ad. The market is sad enough as it is, let's not start jumping at shadows.

---I hate to say it, but then why are they interviewing other modernists?

Word on the Street
If there were 128 applicants last year for the TT position at DePaul (won by a graduate of Harvard), certainly this year promises even more competition with so many newly-minted Phds out of work. It is, of course, impossible to predict the amount of jobs that will be available this year. But the ADFL's mid-year report from last year offers disheartening statistics.

The mid-year chart ("Number and percentage share of jobs advertised in the October MLA Job Information List") runs from 1997-2009.

The Italian numbers depict a clear and evident crisis.

1997: 22

1998: 20

1999: 25

2000: 24

2001: 29

2002: 30

2003: 18

2004: 18

2005: 12

2006: 19

2007: 20

2008: 24

2009: 4

Or, percentage-wise, from a high of 5.6% (2002, 2008) of foreign language JIL jobs to 2.0% (2009).

With renewed competition now from scholars in Italy and English-speaking countries (especially, of course, the UK),

it is becoming more and more difficult to find not merely a tenure-track job but even an adjunct position.