The View From Kalamazoo

Hmm. Yeah, but could I do with an M.A. – not a Ph.D.?
I miss teaching. A lot. I have friends who suggest I look at the local community colleges. How about this route? More on that here. Since This Place is my LaBrea Tar Pit, it seems … would a Ph.D. from here not offend them as much as more-than-one-degree-from-the-same-school immediately turns-off the academy?

Ah, yes. The sort of questions one asks a mentor. If I had one here. The boss is a Good Guy, but a lit person (I’m not) and in the UK for another month, anyway. It’s weird asking ‘what now?’ questions with someone who doesn’t particularly want to see me leave the job he counts on me to do – oh I’m certain he’d be straight with me, but it’s damn uncomfortable. Solid, saintly committee member now in NM is far too busy with his faculty and administrative positions there so I hesitate to bother the man even through he’d never tell me to shove off and go bother someone else. Two others left? I fear I get a lot of what they think I want to hear. I am (inconveniently after the fact) uncertain as to their interest in me or in answering my concerns, and some strange comments-veiled-as-questions leave me leaning toward not having them write for me again (the last thing I need is a wild card, much less two), should I set myself up for failure run the gauntlet apply anew. (I can’t rest on my hope that KY will be able to find funds..there needs to be a plan B. plans B-K would be even better) I have an outside reader who has offered to write. That would still make three – and I should be able to get another outside reader/recommender as well. Opinions on this strategy? Anyone?

“It wasn’t him, Charley, it was you. … You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me. … I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it. It was you, Charley.”

On schmoozing.

I’m OK at schmoozing. I’m no slick, polished, salesman-style pro at the shake-and-smile routine, but I can be pleasant and social when need be. If around people I don’t know well I tend toward silent observation unless I work at it. Congress is easy (if tiring), since most interactions are brief questions/needs/complaints and I can be lovely and witty and charming for 30-second intervals just fine – it’s the longer periods I struggle with. My friends know me as chatty and enthusiastic (or sarcastic, depending on the situation), but those are people I’m comfortable with. My usual style is the offhand deadpan as I’m leaving the room – this does not translate well into schmoozability.

Moot point, since I’m certainly light years away from the tenure review committee scenario. At least I hope no faculty I’ve ever met with at a school was left with a ‘What a stand-offish sourpuss!’ after meeting with me…I don’t think so, at least. Probably something even more embarrassing, I’d imagine, since I get a bad case of brain shut-down when my nerves are up and jangling. (This is why I appreciate that conference papers are written down and not off-the-cuff. I don’t have to be functional until questions so long as I can read English off of the page.)

[Should I be encouraged that emeritus faculty here, who requested and has read The Thesis From Hell (my partner in library tango – we often recalled the same books from each other, not knowing who had it. Heh), made a point to ask how my plans were shaping up and where I’d be this fall? And, after I had made the brief, unhappy story known suggested I should keep on with it? It must be some sort of curse that people at a variety of institutions who have no control over what committees do with my file love me, but committees apparently don’t.]