Will Teach for Food

Reacting to news that “more than 120” professors at Tehran University have “collectively resigned in protest to the killings of students by suppressive forces,” Thoreau responds in a way quite familiar to many of us:

The important question for any postdoc (or any untenured professor at a school in a budget crisis, *cough*) is, with 120 faculty jobs empty, are they conducting searches?  How many letters of reference will they want?  To whom should application letters be addressed?  I am…I mean, my friend is flexible on start-up package and salary.

Having once been among 500 applicants for jobs at places as far-flung as University of the Wittwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, I feel his pain.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.