I also like it when universities advertise for a "tenure track position in American history" but then require the candidate to have "demonstrated expertise" in, and the ability to teach, non-western history.
Seriously, do they think we've been in grad school for 20 years? I'm not going to develop expertise in both American and non-western history in the time it takes me to get a Ph.D. Remember, there's that little dissertation thingy I was busy writing, so I didn't have time to learn the entire history of the world.
Kudos to those of you who did.
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I don't know that I've encountered a single American historian that has experience teaching non-western. Actually, the only Canadian historian I know that could say that is actually specialised in Japanese history, but has kept up a minor in Canadian history. It never seems to work the other way.
Are there really that many scholars out there that suit these ridiculously narrow specifications? This continues to remind me of small-town teacher ads from back home: "We're looking for someone who can teach high school chemistry, math, lunchtime band and choir, woodworking and English." Meaning "our former teaching did all of these, and we're looking for an exact clone of him."
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