I recently received an e-mail from my department, informing me that there’s a new position as assistant professor of anthropology to fill.
The list of candidates ran as follows. Already I have a pretty good idea who will be appointed.
The Culture and Communication Department will be bringing in three candidates for the faculty position of Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
Please join us for their research presentations.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Brent Luvaas will be on campus on January 30, 2009
His research presentation will be from 3:00-4:00 in Room 114. The title of his presentation is “Globalization Goes DIY: The Politics of Place in Indonesian Indie Music”
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Janet Alexanian will be on campus on February 5, 2009.
Her research seminar will be from 3:00-4:00 in Room 114. The title of her presentation is “Contested Visions: Cultural Politics and Anxiety in Post-Revolutionary Iran”
Monday, February 16, 2009
Stephanie Sadre-Orafai will be on campus on February 16, 2009.
Her research seminar will be from 2:30-3:30 in Room 114. The title of her presentation is “Casting as Practice, Casting as Metaphor: Rethinking Media and Multiculturalism in the New York Fashion Industry”
Unfortunately, I’ve already decided I won’t be attending any of these sessions, as a professor (of sociology–damn!) who’s rather dear to me teaches a class at all the prescribed times.
Naturally, I’d love to meet these people and feel them out for teaching talent, but I think that this Dr. Luvaas has the position in the bag. Applying for a position at a university with an already booming Music Industry major and a rapidly expanding Media Studies division in Communication and giving a presentation on globalization, politics, social space, and indie music, and located in a classically hip anthropological place, is smart.
And before you say that it might just be mere coincidence that his topic so uniquely suits our university’s tastes, I submit to you that the chap has a rather broad swath of ethnomusicality credit to his name. Also, it appears that his dissertation was chaired by Sherry Ortner, which would definitely spruce up the pedigree around here. (Ortner, though quite a figure herself, studied with Geertz at the U of C.)
The department here already has a solid assortment of females as assistant professors (they outnumber males, actually), so I can’t even see a female hire out of motivation for political correctness or diversity mandates keeping him away.
Sorry I won’t be around to take classes with the guy.