History Dept. Searches Underway by Ariella Cohen Last Sunday night, Professor of History Shirley Lin gave a lecture, opening a three-part series of talks given by the contenders for the College’s professor of Asian American history position. Mimicking a class lecture, but with faculty members taking more notes than students, these forums offer both students and faculty an opportunity to observe and judge candidates for open faculty positions. In the upcoming semester, candidates for this position, as well as one in African history, will be selected through this process. Added to the department as a permanent position three years ago, the Asian American history position is now being temporarily filled by visiting professor Jaideep Singh. The College predicts the tenure track position will be filled by fall. “We usually are successful in getting 70 to 80 percent of our first choice candidates,” Dean of Arts and Sciences and Chair of Faculty Council Clayton Koppes said. In February, the African history candidates will present lectures to the campus. Last year the faculty committee that approves new professorships, programs and departments, EPPC, approved the African history position. “This fall the search began. We expect the position to be filled by the [upcoming] fall,” Department Chair and Professor of History Steve Volk said. While a faculty council makes the final decision as to which candidate best suits the College, the recommendation of the department, student surveys, filled out after the candidate’s talk, and the views of the student-composed department major committee are weighed into the decision. This student involvement is rare in university hiring practices but Oberlin has included this step in the hiring process for several decades. “I think that the evaluations are very important in the decision. We will take very seriously the department majors comments that we get for the appointment. We are open to hearing all views,” Assistant Professor of History Pablo Mitchell said. “Ultimately, students are not the ones in the position of power when it comes to decision-making…I certainly have been disappointed with some of the choices administrators and faculty have made in the past five years…The students and faculty sometimes have different reasons for wanting a certain candidate in or out of the pool. I think the faculty hears the student voices, but it’s a difficult balance. What I’ve learned is that it isn’t always the candidate that ‘comes across’ best in the lecture hall that gets the job. I think they consider scholarship potential and relevant research as well,” senior and history department major representative Mandy Tuong said. Both Asian American and African history are areas of study proposed to be included in the perspective College program Comparative American Studies. “The history department wanted to fill these positions but if there is a CAS the positions will fit into it. But we passed them on their own merit,” Volk said. “I know that we have some faculty members in the history department who are also on the CAS committee... I know that all three of the student representatives have voiced concerns over this issue in hopes that the faculty and deciding committees will, indeed, take CAS into consideration,” Tuong said. While the proposal for this program was slated to go to EPPC for approval earlier this month it has not yet appeared on the committee’s agenda. The interdisciplinary program will focus on the trajectories of various groups within the frame of U.S. history and society. Modifying single-group ethnic studies departments, CAS has required much discussion and planning within both student and faculty committees. The program has been in the making for several years. Throughout Lin’s lecture on Japanese American sororities, she paralleled the experiences of different ethnic groups, including that of African Americans, citing sources and theories familiar from an array of ethnically oriented history and sociology classes. In the question and answer period following the lecture several students commented on this comparative approach and student members of the CAS committee invited Lin to meet with them about the program. “These department positions are very political. There is a lot of student demand for them and the faculty encourages students from those groups to interview the candidates. They are not just filling a teaching position they is also a lot of social and cultural momentum,” sophomore history department major representative Alexis Milesovic said. “I think it’s crucial that we get more positions like the Asian American history one. We had a pretty good turnout for the first speaker for that job and I only hope that it increases for the other ones,” junior and CAS committe member Viviana Westbrook said. Another candidate for the position will speak Monday at 4:30 p.m. in King 337. His talk is titled “Constructing Asian American Identity: Black Power, Anti-Vietnam War Protest and Asian American Radicalism.”

December 6 February 2002

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