German 2020-2021

This page is dedicated to academic jobs in German. The jobs found here are added by individuals as well as drawn from sources such as the MLA job list, Higher Ed Jobs, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, jobs.ac.uk, and other lists and websites.

Please add jobs with the following format:

Name of college/university, title/rank, preferred area(s) of specialization, application due date, link to job ad.

As job search progress indicators become available, add the type of information and date. The link to a job description can be deleted after the application due date. After an offer has been accepted, please underline the name of the institution so that we can easily see which positions have already been filled.

For example:

1. Midwest Dreamland U, asst. prof., 20th C, due 11/1/19, link
   • writing sample requested by email, 12/1 (x5)
   • phone interview scheduled, 12/15 (x4)
   • MLA interview scheduled, 12/20 (x3)
   • on-campus interview invitation, 1/15
   • offer extended, 3/15
   • offer accepted, 3/25
   • rejection letter received, 4/1

Last year's page: German Studies 2019-2020 .

See also Comparative Literature, Critical Theory, Ethnic Studies, and Philosophy.

Tenure Track Faculty Positions 

1. Carnegie Mellon U (PA), asst. prof., Critical Race Studies, Racism, and Black and Afrodiasporic Studies, due 10/15/20, link
   • Zoom Interview scheduled, 11/12 (x2)
   • Zoom interview scheduled, 11/13 (x1)
   • Follow up interview with German faculty, 11/18 (x2)
   • On campus interview invitation, 11/25 (x2)
2. Hamilton C (NY), asst. prof., due 11/9/20, link

Visiting/Non-Tenure Track/Term-Limited Faculty Positions

See also: Humanities and Social Sciences Postdocs 2020-2021

1. Colorado C, 1-yr. visiting asst. prof., due 12/15/20, German Studies link
2. Macalester C (MN), 3-yr. visiting asst. prof., German Studies, due 12/10/20, link
3. St. Norbert C (WI), 3-yr. visiting asst. prof., German, due 12/1/20, link
4. U of Maryland, Global Campus, Collegiate Faculty, World Languages and Culture, German Language, link
   • contacted for phone interview, 10/29
   • rejection e-mail, 11/5
   • rejection email, 10/15
5. U of Rhode Island, Max Kade visiting prof., link

Spring 2021 Positions

1. Illinois SU, instructional asst. prof, 1 class, though not stated on listing, open until filled link
2. Washington U in St. Louis (MO), lecturer, Germanic langs. and Literature, due 11/23/20, link

Faculty Positions outside of Canada and the U.S.

1. Lalia Berlin, instructor for second-year, advanced German classes, link

Multi-Language Faculty Positions

1. U of California, Berkeley, asst. prof. of comp. lit., critical theory, due 10/15/20, link
   • Writing sample request

Demographics

Change the count in the category to which you belong. This permits us to have somewhat of an overview on the nature of the market demographics in German Studies. 

ABD (early): 2

ABD (will finish this academic year): 5

Ph.D. in hand (visiting asst. prof., lecturer/senior lecturer, post-doc, adjunct): 5

Ph.D. in hand (alt ac):

Ph.D. in hand (unemployed): 2

Assistant Professor: 1

Associate Professor: 2

Full Professor: 

Search Committee Member:

Lurker:

Concerned grandmother:

Faculty "Job Coach": 1

Discussion

1. With the job market died the illusion that I could land a position if I just work hard and get lucky please the right people. How liberating!
   1.  Hear, Hear!
   2.  It's a 'better chance at the winning the lottery' year
2.  wow - I was expecting drought but not quite a desert...
3. inb4 "but it's still early."
4. Maybe it's about time that mandatory retirement age was reintroduced. That was a boomer kick to the face of young faculty.
5. Do you really think that mandatory retirement would help right now?  My current institution would not hire a TT line for German, given *gestures vaguely*...
6. I hear that excuse a lot but if they really cared they could negotiate to preserve the line in exhange for an early departure. Of course they're not interested in actually serving Germanistik, only themselves.
   1. You are aware that tenured profs have very little power at the institutional level, right? There’s no negotiating for something administrations refuse to fund. It’s not like people suddenly lose their souls when they get promoted. There are much larger forces at work.
   2. "actually serving Germanistik"?!?!? Hahaha! Is that part of an oath that's required upon admittance into the profession? Wow . . .
   3. You wouldn't care, would you boomer.
7. I am a tenured professor who could retire financially. But if I retired right now, the administration would cash in the line and take the opportunity to close down German for good. The department has zero negotiating powers. Administrators very rarely strike deals (Department: "We'll give you this, and in return you keep the TT line in German." Provost: "Super! Agreed!"), and if they do, they break their promises as a matter of course. They probably never meant to keep them from the start; they were only placating or buying time. That is how it has been for the last 30 years at the two institutions I served. How often have we, have I been lied to! So I am just hanging in there for the sake of my program and the students that thrive in it, in the vain hope that things will improve, the program will survive, and finally some lucky candidate will continue the work and serve the students, who love German and deserve much better. I truly feel for everybody who is in the (non-existent) job market right now. As the Germans say: "So viel kann man gar nicht essen, wie man da kotzen muss."
8. At this point, with tenure definitely already in its death knells, I wouldn't even mind if retirements aren't replaced with TT lines. A solid lecturer position with an open contract would be enough.
   1. agreed
   2. yes, but TT lines don't appear to get converted into lecturer positions, from what I've seen. Best case, adjuncts if they really need the courses taught, or the program just shrinks or disappears.
9. Applicant beware on University of Maryland Global Campus: it's a for-profit in all but name. It's not College Park or any of the respectable campuses in the system, but something more like Purdue Global. Its purpose is to sell off-the-shelf mostly online classes to underprivileged students in order to raise revenue for the rest of the Maryland system, and as such the only real concern of the organization is "enrollments, enrollments, enrollments." It should tell you something that an outfit you saw advertised at a nearby bus stop felt the need to use the word "quality" eight times in its job ad, because the courses you'll be teaching are anything but. Management is openly hostile to faculty, and they have used contract renewal time to cut salaries and benefits. I know this is an "any old port in the storm" year (like every year), but you might find that at UMGC the costs to your happiness and your professional integrity outweigh the benefits.
10. I have mixed feelings reading #9. They are accredited. Also, not everyone has the luxury of being a full-time student on a physical campus. None of the universities I know about aren't concerned with 'enrollments' - and I don't think any universities are non-profit. Somewhere up the line people are talking about money and enrollments, regardless of where they may be.
    1. You missed the point. The point is that UMGC is a toxic place to work that also sells its students short. And that is so by design.
    2. Thank you for the clarification. Sounds like you have some experience here. Good luck in your future endeavors!