The college announced eight tenure-track faculty appointments this week.
"All were first choices, which is a very good record" Dean of the College Clayton Koppes said. "They all come from outstanding graduate schools."
The hires include faculty in Chinese, Spanish, history, environmental studies, mathematics, sociology, art and East Asian studies.
David Boe, acting dean of the Conservatory, said there are four tenure-track searches underway in the Conservatory, but they are not ready to be announced. He said searches in three departments - viola, trombone and music education - are expected to be successful. A fourth, in music theory, will be resumed in the fall.
The appointments in the college are:
All the faculty are tenure track, meaning that they eventually will be eligible to receive tenure. Instructors are professors who have not completed their dissertations; after they complete them they will automatically be named assistant professors.
Several department chairs, as well as Koppes, noted that the hires are a step toward fulfilling a goal of a diverse faculty and curriculum. Of the eight appointments, three are Asian American or Asian Pacific islander, and one is a native of China.
Michael Fischer, chair of the history department, said the two appointments in that department will diversify both the faculty and the curriculum. "We're very pleased to have them," he said. Fischer described the two hires' theses; Chin wrote on Turkish guest workers in Germany, and Jung wrote about Chinese workers in the sugar trade in Louisiana.
Chair of Sociology Bill Norris said the appointment of McDaniel to a tenure track position will diversify that department as well. "We have a general interest in diversity issues in the department," he said, adding that McDaniel will strengthen that interest.
Norris said McDaniel researches the way the ethnic studies were created, put into the curriculum and have been institutionalized in academia. "It is very interesting, and potentially very controversial," he said.
Michael Henle, chair of mathematics, is happy to welcome a new statistician, Andrews, to that department. Andrews is fulfilling a family tradition of teaching math at Oberlin. Andrews' father, George Andrews, taught math here from 1962 to 97.
"Chris is a very strong appointment," Henle said. "He has an M.S.F. post-doc, which is very difficult to get." Henle said Andrews has teaching experience as well, having taught for the last year at Layfayette College in Pennsylvania.
While these eight searches succeeded in bringing a tenure-track faculty to Oberlin, three departments were not successful: politics, history and African American Studies. The searches in politics and history failed to yield a final placement, according to Koppes, due to the difficulty of attracting candidates who must also consider their spouse's career.
Fischer said the one final candidate in the history position - who would teach U.S. history - was offered three tenure track positions in addition to the one at Oberlin. "It's his loss of course," Fischer said. He added that another search would be started next year for the vacancy.
The African American Studies position was opened too late in the year to run an effective search, according to Koppes. That position, which will be in African-American literature, will be filled by a one-year replacement next year while a full national search is run.
In addition to these tenure track hires, there will be a number of one-year replacements, many of which have not yet been finalized.
Copyright © 1999, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 19, April 9, 1999
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