Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 18:31:36 -0400
From: H-DIPLO <hdiplo@YorkU.CA>
Subject: The hiring of diplomatic historians in colleges and universities
[Keylor]

From: "William R. Keylor" <wrkeylor@bu.edu>

Dear colleagues:

Recently, the following message was posted by a history department
chair on the AHA's electronic mailing list for history department chairs,
to which I subsribe:

"We have hired three tenure-track faculty in the last three years,
and the job descriptions reflected the difficulties we have as a small
department (8 full-time, 1 adjunct) in meeting our obligations to general
education and the major. We were forced to specify broad time periods and
traditional specialities because in every case we were replacing retiring
faculty whose fields were institutionalized in the requirements for the
major and the university's general education program. Even if we wished
to seek out a person with a speciality more reflective of the "new
history", I'm not sure we could convince the administration of the need.
Our solution has been to advertise traditionally, but seek out candidates
who have demonstrated in their research and graduate education a
familiarity with the changes that have occurred in the discipline. Hence,
we might advertise for a U.S. historian to teach traditional surveys and
major courses, but when we review the files we look for someone who has
employed a new methodology or perspective."

In his exchange with Jim Banner concerning the new Historical
Society, which was recently posted on H-Diplo, Marc Trachtenberg lamented
that

"there is the fundamental question of whether people, especially younger
scholars, who do not do trendy work [in history] are being screwed. . . I
see the best younger scholars having a very hard time getting jobs; I see
positions in traditional fields drying up and appointments being made in
trendier areas. . . .It would have been the easiest thing in the world for
someone like me, with a tenured position, to just sit back and do my own
work and say that the future would take care of itself. But when I saw
over and over again how people were being screwed--when I saw the kinds of
forces that were out there and were ruining people's careers--I thought it
would be the height of irresponsibility to take that attitude. . . .
[W]e're acting in good faith and out of an honest concern for the future
of the profession."

On the off chance that Marc may have been thinking of graduate
students or recent Ph.ds in diplomatic history as one of the disadvantaged
groups to which he alludes, I would like to see if anyone is interested in
starting a discussion on H-Diplo concerning this matter. An earlier
thread, in which Sally Marks played an important part, addressed the
question of whether diplomatic historians were being treated fairly in the
annual awarding of the Beer Prize, which is supposed to recognize
outstanding works on "European international history." There was also a
lively exchange about the question of whether diplomatic history was
getting a fair shake in the selection of panels by the Program Committees
for the AHA annual meeting. As important as the awarding of prizes and the
acceptance of panels at the national meeting are, the hiring of recent
Ph.Ds is also a matter that should be of great concern to all of us.
I will be participating on a panel at the AHA meeting in January
on "The Job Market in History and the Production of Ph.Ds." In the course
of preparing for this discussion, one of the issues I have been pondering
is the one raised by Marc Trachtenberg and touched on by the department
chair cited above: Do history departments, even those which do not have a
large graduate program but do need to meet the needs of general education
in their undergraduate courses, feel compelled to hire young faculty who
"have demonstrated in their research and graduate education a familiarity
with the changes that have occurred in the discipline" and employ "a new
methodology or perspective." If so, where does diplomatic history fit in
this definition?
Reponses would be welcome from members of departments who have
been involved in searchs as well as from recent Ph.ds who have applied for
academic positions.

William R. Keylor
Department of History
Boston University
226 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
Phone: (617) 353-2550
Fax: (617) 353-2556
email: wrkeylor@bu.edu