ANN: Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellowship in Revolutionary Era Studies

March 7, 2020 By The Junto Moderator in Academia, Announcements Tags: announcements, Job Market, McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution, postdoc, Siena College Leave a comment

Siena College’s McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution will award a one-year Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellowship for the academic year 2020-2021. The fellowship supports an early-career scholar whose research and teaching advance the McCormick Center’s mission to foster greater appreciation, interest, and awareness of the events and ideals behind the struggle for American independence. The McCormick Center collaborates with Saratoga National Historical Park and Battlefield and other regional community partners to achieve its mission and support the undergraduate Certificate in Revolutionary Era Studies (CRES).

Scholars without ongoing positions who have earned a Ph.D. in history or historically based interdisciplinary degrees (i.e. American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, etc.) within the last 3-years may apply for this fully funded, 10-month fellowship (September 1, 2020-June 30, 2021). We especially welcome applicants with expertise in the history of colonial and Revolutionary era New York, working in any subfield of history (economic, political, labor, religious, art, cultural intellectual, among others). A background screening will be required.

The McCormick Center Fellow will teach a 2/2 course load in the Department of History, contribute to the McCormick Center’s community programming, and complete a scholarly project. As a visiting faculty member in Siena College’s History Department, the fellow will receive office space, have full access to library resources, and opportunities to participate in the Capital Region community of academic and public history scholars. Continue reading →

Frogs and Cats, or, Access and Privilege

September 5, 2018 By Carla Cevasco in Academia, Opinion Tags: Geography, Jamestown, Job Market, material culture, research travel, resource access, sensory history, vastearlyamerica Leave a comment

I have never heard anything like those frogs. I was crunching along the gravel walkway from Historic Jamestowne back to the bus after the final reception of the Omohundro Institute conference in June. As I walked through the woods, the James River at my back, the calls of frogs and insects hammered at the air, drowning out the chatter of other attendees and the crunch of my own footsteps.

An hour before, I had gazed down into the archaeological dig of a kitchen site, in which researchers had discovered what they argue are cannibalized human remains in 2012. All the hairs on my neck stood up. Continue reading →

About that AHA Jobs Chart

November 20, 2017 By Jonathan Wilson in Academia, Opinion Tags: adjuncts, American Historical Association, career diversity, careers, Job Market, jobs 4 Comments

"Advertised Job Openings Compared to Number of New History PhDs," American Historical Association This week, the American Historical Association previewed a forthcoming report on the number of full-time history jobs. The post is entitled “Another Tough Year for the Academic Job Market in History”—which is a bit misleading, since it documents the continuation of a decade-long collapse. In the last hiring year (2016-2017), employers advertised only 289 tenure-track faculty positions and 212 other full-time jobs in the AHA Career Center. During that same year, to judge by the recent past, American universities probably granted more than 1,000 new doctorates in history.

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Guest Post: Why and How You Should Build a Web Presence

September 21, 2017 By The Junto Moderator in Academia, Guest Posts, Technology Tags: academia, advice, blogging, careers, Historical Profession, Job Market, online presence, professionalization 3 Comments

Today’s guest post is by Lindsay M. Chervinsky. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis and is completing her manuscript, “The President’s Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.”

As the new school year starts, many departments are offering seminars for their graduate students on skills and approaches to find a job in this difficult market. Editorials on ChronicleVitae and the American Historical Association mission to document where historians work demonstrate that the history community is beginning to welcome “non-traditional” employment opportunities. While these efforts represent a great first step to introducing students to jobs in editing, public history, and teaching, I would argue that there should be a broader conversation about learning to create a public voice and building a web presence.

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Where Historians Work: Q&A with Emily Swafford of the AHA

May 25, 2017 By Katy Lasdow in Interview, Public History, Where Historians Work Tags: alt-ac, Alternate careers, American Historical Association, careers, Historical Profession, Job Market, jobs, resources, Where Historians Work 1 Comment

Denver_Swafford_square200x200 Welcome to the first installment of our “Where Historians Work: The View from Early America” series. Today, The Junto features a Q&A between Katy Lasdow and Dr. Emily Swafford, Manager of Academic Affairs for the American Historical Association in Washington, D.C.[1] Emily shares her experiences seeking out varied career options after graduate school. She also provides AHA resources for readers who wish to become more involved in the conversation about career diversity, whether as part of their own job searches, or within their graduate history departments.
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Reminder to join the conversation “Where Historians Work: A View from Early America”

February 8, 2017 By Katy Lasdow in Academia, Public History, Where Historians Work Tags: AHA, Alternate careers, Job Market, Opinion, Public History Leave a comment

Do you hold a PhD in early American history/literature/architectural history/art history/etc. or a related field, and have you chosen a career outside of the professoriate? The Junto wants to hear from you! There’s still time to participate in our conversation, “Where Historians Work: A View from Early America.”

Leave your stories in the comments of this post. Or, if you would prefer a less public forum, you may email The Junto (thejuntoblog@gmail.com) with the subject line “Career Diversity.” Please post comments or email by Friday, February 17. Continue reading →

Where Historians Work: A View from Early America

February 2, 2017 By Katy Lasdow in Academia, Public History Tags: advice, AHA, Alternate careers, Database, Job Market, Opinion, Public History, Technology 1 Comment

Recently the American Historical Association published Where Historians Work: An Interactive Database of History PhD Career Outcomes, “the only interactive, discipline-specific, and cross-institutional database of career outcomes for PhDs.” Using data collected from AHA directories and on the web, “Where Historians Work” presents a robust statistical overview of the varied employment sought by History PhDs from more than 30 degree-granting intuitions. For those historians who have long held positions outside of the academy, the database, part of the AHA’s broader Career Diversity for Historians initiative, is a welcome acknowledgement of what many have known anecdotally for years: History PhDs can—and do!—work in an array of fields.

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So You Want to Write a Job Letter

August 16, 2016 By Joseph M. Adelman in Academia Tags: job letter, Job Market, jobs 11 Comments

“How do you like them apples?” is probably not a good closing line for your letter.

With summer winding down and the fall semester upon us (or nearly so), that means it’s also time for those headed onto the job market to make sure their materials are in order as the first application deadlines approach. There’s lots of advice out there about how to do that (enough that I can’t begin to link to the many essays). But as I advanced from years on the job market into a position myself—including work on a department search—I’ve thought about what advice I would offer based on my perspective of the process. Rather than offer a bullet-point list of do’s and don’ts (though you can see those at the end), I’d like to provide some perspective on the audiences of the job letter. It’s a weird genre of writing, so it bears consideration as you put together your materials.

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The Week in Early American History

May 17, 2015 By Joseph M. Adelman in The Week in Early American History Tags: academic freedom, Archives, Asia, Baltimore, digital archives, France, George Washington, Haiti, Job Market, Phillis Wheatley, Politics, Reconstruction, Slavery, War of 1812 Leave a comment

TWEAH It’s commencement season around the United States, so we wish a hearty congratulations to all of our readers (and our students) graduating this month. Now, straight on to the links!

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The Week in Early American History

April 19, 2015 By Joseph M. Adelman in The Week in Early American History Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, conferences, dissertations, food history, George Washington, George Whitefield, historical memory, Job Market, Native Americans, OAH, popular culture, Slavery, television, Turn, twitter Leave a comment

This has been a momentous week for early Americanists, with the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln assassination to start the week and, especially for those of us in Massachusetts, the annual commemorations of Patriot’s Day this weekend. We have lots of great links for you below the fold!

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