Changes: Theory 2011

Revision as of 17:57, 21 October 2010

Not a good year...

True, but there are almost never theory jobs. They are usually also aligned with a period or with critical race or gender/sexuality studies. Last year, there were three flat-out theory jobs, and that's the most I've ever seen posted here in, say, the past four to five years.

I hear you -- I've been around for the same length of time. Still, the giants of the first "theory boom" are all nearing the age of retirement (i.e., Culler, Jameson, Spivak, Weber, etc. are all between 60 and 70). I guess that I'm hopeful that some of their positions will be filled by younger theorists. I know that theory doesn't have the place in the academy that it once did, but there still seems to be a tacit assumption that one ought to have a rough knowledge of the position of Foucault, Derrida, and co. to teach in the field.

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 Not a good year...
-True, but there are almost never theory jobs.  They are usually also aligned with a period or with critical race or gender/sexuality studies.  Last year, there were three flat-out theory jobs, and that's the most I've ever seen posted here in, say, the past four to five years.
+True, but there are almost never theory jobs. They are usually also aligned with a period or with critical race or gender/sexuality studies. Last year, there were three flat-out theory jobs, and that's the most I've ever seen posted here in, say, the past four to five years.
+I hear you -- I've been around for the same length of time. Still, the giants of the first "theory boom" are all nearing the age of retirement (i.e., Culler, Jameson, Spivak, Weber, etc. are all between 60 and 70). I guess that I'm hopeful that some of their positions will be filled by younger theorists. I know that theory doesn't have the place in the academy that it once did, but there still seems to be a tacit assumption that one ought to have a rough knowledge of the position of Foucault, Derrida, and co. to teach in the field.