Duke University

[anon3]

If this wiki and board is like the previous one, the rules says we should not name names. Please refrain from doing so!

[anon4]

Except for when departments themselves "names names"?

[rsc2702]

I think they are doing it in batches. I just turned my stuff in on 9/24 and got an e-mail today asking for letters of recommendation. So, keep submitting until the deadline, it seems like they are still considering folks.

[damastes]

I find it hard to believe that Duke would go through the complete search process if they had a candidate in mind and were just going through the motions of justifying a hire. In the case of the person above, they are also not a quant person [if I am reading her C.V. correctly]. The department could also be hiring multiple new faculty, given the notable lack of assistant professors.

Lacking access to a dean or chair there, its hard to know exactly what's going on.

[anonie]

I'm sure Duke has not settled on anyone yet. This happens every year: a fresh crop of wonder-kinder that departments scramble to interview first. Some pan out and get hired, others don't. Business as usual...

[anon2]

i submitted a while ago and have not heard anything. who knows what their process is, but i am curious!

what are the areas of expertise/methodology among those of you who have been asked for letters of reference?

[anony]

demography, quantitative methods, medical sociology

[Guest]

urban poverty, gender, qualitative methods

[sk]

Inequality, economic soc, gender and the family, quant methods.

Are we all just getting asked for letters? Or are some people very clearly experiencing not getting asked (I just got the request this morning).

[anony]

Nope...if you are getting asked for letters it means you made the long list. I submitted my application a while ago and did not get asked, but never really expected to. Congrats. ;D

[grrr]

The question I have is whether or not those of us on the long list are getting dragged along for the hiring of Goffman or another superstar. Word from someone in the department is that she was offered $75k starting, plus a nice benefits package. Its bullnuts to go through all this work & it turn out to be cover hiring from their super-selective A-list.

[Robert Merton III]

Look at it this way: the sooner Harvard and Duke wrap up this pee pee contest the sooner other departments can get back to the business of hiring sociologists.

For what it is worth, the person in question may well be the best applicant for either job. However, there is no way to know that without interviewing other applicants first. So these departments are just coming off as snooty and elitist. Then again, that is what these two departments are known for, right?

I'd still do the long list stuff with full enthusiasm. Getting an interview could give you leverage for other schools. Haven't we all learned a little about the halo effect today?

[coocooforcaca]

it may well be bullnuts to go through all this work with a search, but who are we fooling, really? It is not exclusive to duke, harvard, or this mythical super sociologist being so coveted.

In fact, my main frustration with sociology, and with academia to a large extent, is the complete lack of reflexivity.

We spend years working on inequality, networks, legitimacy, the political and ad hoc creation of evaluation measures, and, most importantly, the post hoc rationalization and legitimization of random outcomes. And we apply that to all industries, from the supposedly rational markets to the success of tv series.

But we simply avoid talking about it when it comes to one of the most rigid, caste like, unequal labor markets in the industrialized world, which is the academic labor market.

Sorry if this seems like a threadjack, but with the desperation present here as people try to understand why they are or aren't moving forward in the duke search, I think it is extremely appropriate.

Especially since, given this year's job market, so many of us will end up being adjuncts and such, receiving a lot less pay for often more work, as we legitimize the outcomes ourselves, saying that "maybe if I teach one more year, maybe if I publish one more article I will make it in this alleged meritocracy."

And what is funny is that I bet that a large number of people will read this post and think "this person is complaining about the system, hu must be an inferior candidate," while not noticing the irony of it all.

We can talk about the world at length, but turn those magnifying lenses at ourselves and we become glenn beck-like in our defense of our academic home nation, and [insert name of self help book here]-like in our attempts to be liked.

Oh, and for those curious about my own qualifications and situation as a candidate: I am waiting for the results of a search at a city I want to live in before I accept a non-academic job at that same city. And you know what the main downside for the non-academic job market is for me right now? No summers off...

Now, the point of this rant is: can we cut this crap? can we keep this informational, as opposed to trying to figure how the gods among us are so deservedly better than us? We should know better.

[anon2]

oh get off your high horse.

if you aren't into rumors, dont read the RUMOR mill.

[imacucoo]

Yes, it is the rumor mill. But it is the rumor mill about the status of searches.


Not the rumor mill about unproven and unprovable speculation on why someone is moving on and might get an offer and not you.