One of the big difficulties in transitioning from graduate school into the professorial ranks is, obviously enough, managing scholarship and scholarly productivity. Publish or perish. Even at “teaching institutions” such as my own, the expectations for scholarly production are–as I believe they should be–high. Teaching and service are the day-to-day expectations, and somewhere along the way assistant professors in every discipline are expected to produce scholarship.
Most of the advice I have received about starting a tenure-track job has been along the lines of “don’t expect to get anything [scholarship] done your first year.” And, “just figure the place out, then start cranking over the summer.”
Well, my type-A personality simply can’t abide. I want to get cranking now, especially because a lot of article ideas that I had fermenting in the swamp that is my brain went unattended for too long while I was finishing my dissertation. Those ideas need to climb out of the swamp and into the world, even if they turn out to be hideous beast creatures. [Revision is the cure for the beast creatures that crawl out of my brain, lots of revision.] So, these first two weeks of the semester, I’ve been writing a lot. And I’m very happy about that.
But I know that such enthusiasm and dedication can lag. A new friend/colleague, Mary Byrnes, and I agreed upon an ambitious wager in an effort to force ourselves to be productive this year. Mary is in her second year of her appointment here at Western Carolina University. I drew up a contract outlining the parameters of the wager, which I have posted, partly to force us both to hold to the bet. Liver Mush is the motivating force within the wager.
You can rest assured that the results of the wager will be posted here on 3 x 3 in Cullowhee around Memorial Day 2011.
