First Year Wrap-Up: Research
As at many other large state flagship universities, the research is a large component of my job duties, although for tenure it is not as onerous as it could be, to be sure. The minimum requirement for tenure is four major articles, not necessarily a book. The thing is, that just a benchmark, and the four articles I published before taking this job don't count. The actual requirement for tenure is "a preponderance of 'good's and 'excellent's" on my annual evaluations. What this means is that even if I did have a book, I wouldn't necessarily earn tenure, especially if I published it early and never published anything again. Ultimately, it's a system that rewards consistent small-scope research and not larger projects, so that taking a year off to work on getting the book out the door isn't quite feasible. Fortunately, my sense is that a couple of conferences or a minor publication like a book review will earn a "Good," so overall, it's a humane and workable system.
So yes, it's whatever what used to be an R1 is now, and I have a nice teaching load (3/2) and a manageable research load. So I'm not sweating the research, on the one hand. On the one hand, since I had taught a 4-credit 2/2 at GW, I knew the 3/2 here wasn't going to leave me hours and hours of time to read and write to my heart's content.
So I more or less have the same amount of writing time as I've always had.
OK. I got the diss. written that way, so I began the year confident enough that I'd be able to meet my goals, and here's what I've gotten done this academic year.
*An article on narrative beginnings in drama for a book collection
*A conference paper of entirely new material that is the beginning for a new chapter for the book.
*A conference paper of material from the diss that was pretty thoroughly revised for the conference, and for the book chapter it is likely to become.
*A conference paper of material from the diss that was barely changed, and will likely appear as is in the book.
*Some preparatory material (cfp, draft proposal, etc.) for the anti-disciplinarity project.
*An abstract submitted on an already-completed article on parodic spectatorship for a book collection (I should hear about that soon).
*A workshop for another piece on parody in revise-and-resubmit limbo that is simply waiting for me to return to it and send it back.
So all in all, I haven't been a total slacker. Here's what I've got slated for the summer, and I think that this is a writng plan just on the optimistic side of realistic.
May: Work on both parody articles to get them both ready to send out to wherever they might get sent out to.
June: Stuff for the anti-disciplinarity project--draft materials for the intro and for an article that I'll write if it's needed: I'll be presenting the latter as work-in-progress at a seminar with the series editors and some others this July.
July: Revisit the Sarah Kane paper to expand it to a chapter, and write a book review I've been asked to do.
August: Finish the Sarah Kane stuff, and prep for the beginning of the semester. We'll likely be getting submissions for the anti-disciplinarity project in August as well, and I'd like to go into the school year thinking about revising my book introduction and working up a proposal.
OK, even as I type it, I realize that it's on the optimisitc side of optimistic, but I'm shooting for it.
How is any of this different now that I'm on the tenure track? I'm actually a bit more relaxed about it, because tenure seems a significantly less daunting process than actually securing a job. At least I'm not competing with 100 others for the one tenured slot. Also, for whatever reaason, I'm being asked to do stuff--present at conferences, write book reviews--which has never happened before. The fact that I don't feel like an interloper knocking at people's door for opportunities to peddle my intellectual wares makes a huge difference. I don't know if it's the position I now hold or the fact that the publications I do have have gotten around a little bit. I also don't know whether the position has anything to do with whether stuff is being accepted or not; I suspect in one case that is has, in others I doubt it.
Overall, I like to do the research, and I get excited by new ideas--my own and the ones I'm reading. I am happy about this position because I feel like it asks me to do that on a timetable that is completely within my capacity to read, write and publish. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this continues for the foreseeable future.