Dear all,
Assuming that most of you have recovered from Easter and from immoderate
consummation of chocolate and of eggs:
Some of you may wonder why I did not pursue my usual habit of forwarding
job advertisements from various electronic and other resources to this
list. It is not that I am too lazy or too busy with other things (although
both descriptions most times match), but the true and sad reason is that
there seem to be no academic job-openings for Italian advertised anywhere
in the world. The job-market for Italian was never really an exciting
market, but I don't think it was ever as depressing as in these days.
Sometimes I get the impression that Italian Studies exist only in my dreams
and, virtually, on this list (and this list, too, has done better in the
past to feed my illusions...). Is our area of teaching and research a shop
maintained by its present owners only to be closed soon, with no need for a
next generation, or to be sold out to up-coming competitors like 'ethnic
studies'? Or is it old-fashioned to expect that free academic positions are
advertised publicly? I am, of course, mostly concerned about my own future,
about the little of it which at the quasi-biblical age of almost fourty is
left, but while I may appear to be old and rusty iron, easy to be
dismissed, what about all the graduate and post-grad students in your
departments: young iron, forged only to be thrown away? Could anybody maybe
give a more comforting description of the situation, some personal
observations or hope inspiring statistical figures, whatever, if it is only
appropriate to put my heart and the hearts of my poor fellows in
unemployment to rest?
Otfried
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Otfried Lieberknecht, Schoeneberger Str. 11, D-12163 Berlin
phone & fax: ++49 30 8516675, E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Homepage for Dante Studies:
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Listowner Italian-Studies:
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/italian-studies/
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