Getting a Job

Abstract

At MESA 2005 in Washington, DC, the MESA Graduate Student Organization (GSO) organized a panel entitled "The Job Market 101" to explore the procedures and pressures of the academic job search process. The panel included Rochelle Davis (Assistant Professor of Culture and Society in the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University), Tamir Moustafa (Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison), Shira Robinson (Assistant Professor of History at the University of Iowa), and John McNeill (Cinco Hermanos Chair of Environmental and International Affairs in the Department of History at Georgetown University and that department's Director of Graduate Studies). I chaired the panel and agreed to prepare this report. Along with the contributions of the panelists, the participation of graduate students and others in the audience made this panel successful.1 Three of the four panelists were recent doctoral graduates who shared their experiences with successfully acquiring an academic job in different disciplines of Middle East Studies. The fourth panelist, John McNeill, offered the perspective of a senior scholar outside the field of Middle East Studies who has served on over thirty hiring committees over the course of his career in departments of history, area studies, political science, anthropology, and literature. Furthermore, the panel sought to represent the specific and distinct concerns of numerous disciplines within the field of Middle East Studies. It is the hope of the GSO that the following practical advice culled from the personal experiences of junior and senior faculty members on different aspects of the job search process will serve as an instructive guide for all those engaged in this often daunting and most important step in one's career. One of the first issues covered by the panel was how and where to find postings for academic jobs and post-doctoral fellowships. The panel strongly recommended starting the job search early, as it requires a great deal of time. Most jobs are now advertised through various listservs, university career centers, the MESA website, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and through the websites and publications of other professional organizations.2 The panel agreed that listings of post-doctoral fellowship opportunities are more difficult to find but that there are many available. Most Middle East Studies centers sponsor some sort of post-doctoral fellowship as do organizations such as the Mellon Foundation and others. In terms of the materials required for the job application by various departments or