NCPH 2016 workshop: Putting theory into practice: Making your case for promotion and tenure

14 March 2016 – editors

Pearls Before Swine comic courtesy of Stephan Pastis

Are you a public historian on the tenure track? Do you sit on a tenure and promotion committee, or are you asked to write letters in support of T&P candidates? Do you find yourself working to explain the scholarly nature of public history scholarship to a broader academic audience? Or have you yourself experienced a conflict over public history scholarship?

If any of the above sounds familiar, please join us at #NCPH2016 for the workshop “Putting Theory into Practice: Making Your Case for Promotion and Tenure.” This half-day workshop will help participants utilize the 2010 report “Tenure, Promotion, and the Publicly Engaged Academic Historian” to prepare an effective application for tenure and/or promotion based on publicly engaged scholarship.  In the course of the workshop, participants will also discuss strategies to help colleagues and administrators understand and evaluate the scholarly products of public historians.

The workshop will be led by Gregory Smoak, director of the American West Center at the University of Utah and one of the authors of the 2010 report. Smoak will be joined by a team of historians who bridge the worlds of academic and public history and who have negotiated issues of tenure and promotion. Topics will include the nature and definitions of publicly engaged scholarship, educating your colleagues about your work, peer review of public history projects, and finding external allies for letters of support and as external reviewers.  Participants will gain access to a rich set of resources, including actual letters and memos that successfully made the case for tenure and promotion based on public history scholarship. For the complete description of the workshop, see the annual meeting program, page 20.

The workshop takes place on Mar 16, 2016 from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. Registration is $30, and you can register on site. Hope to see you there.

~ Facilitators: Melissa Bingmann, West Virginia University; Larry Cebula, Eastern Washington University; Michelle Hamilton, Western University–Canada; Modupe Labode, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis; Allison Marsh, University of South Carolina; Gregory Smoak, University of Utah