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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't know anything about Amherst, but at a lot of schools there has been a tilt toward teaching (non tenure track) faculty members.

The tenure track faculty have the same pedigrees and publication expectations as before (often higher tenure standards, in fact) but they are a smaller portion of the faculty as a whole.[/quote]
These are tenure track faculty being discussed with really low publication records[/quote]

Having publications doesn't make one a better instructor. Do you want good teachers or just impressive research? It's hard to do both. [/quote]
The top LACs have always had both. So have the top universities. You shouldn't be a bad researcher as a Professor, unless you're at a community college. Amherst is a research-teaching expected load. You will get a 2/2 and be expected to release books, have a publication record, and work with students. [/quote]

If you want published books for a new faculty member, you're looking for someone who's adjuncted or postdoced for years after their PhD, not a new grad...because even for humanities and social studies scholars with minimal revisions to their dissertations, it takes a couple years to get to print! OTOH some colleges prefer to hire shiny new grads or "prestige postdocs" (e.g. Princeton, Michigan societies) who have a ton of potential and haven't disgraced themselves with non-TT jobs yet. Often a book contract is enough. Also, journal timelines in these fields can be awful compared to physical sciences - I submitted an article based on my MA research that didn't come out until three years later. Horrible for the CV.

I don't think it's fair to say someone who got their PhD two years ago is a "bad researcher" because they have a couple articles but their book isn't out yet, and I also think it's mean spirited to pick on individuals in an anonymous forum. And I'm not even in academia anymore, so I have no stake, I just don't like the direction of this thread. [/quote]
Hard Agree. I've never seen a humanities faculty member who just emerged from a PhD program already with a released book. There's occasionally a person whose beginning the hellish cycle of publishing, but that is very rare, and usually they aren't gunning for Duke Press, for example. This person has Harvard tenure expectations for an assistant professor position, and it is outrageous.[/quote]

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