Thread by @friede

Just so my non-academic friends are clear: no one, absolutely no one, wants to be the chair of an academic department. ESPECIALLY an English department.

Reasons you might do it anyway:

- you’re in a decent dept that takes turns (uncommonish)
- your school calculates retirement based on highest earning years & the temporary bump will mean something (slightly more common)
- the alternative is a nightmare (often)

Also, it’s kinda like electing a Pope: you really, really don’t want to elect anyone who jumps at the “opportunity” quickly & without hesitation.

Real chair elections: a long process of guilt-tripping the qualified folks until someone caves. If >1 suckers cave, there’s an election. If no one caves, the dean either authorizes an external search (rare) or appoints someone from another dept w/ experience (receivership, bad!)

Chairing is also often among the many service burdens that fall to midcareer women that can stall them out for YEARS. Because your whole life becomes emails, meetings, paperwork, & people mad at you.

BTW, my dept requires chairs be Full Professors, so I don’t qualify. Didn’t stop people from asking me during the last round of Chair Chicken. All my knowledge is from good mentors & having close friends & colleagues take on chair positions.

My official response: “you really don’t want me to do that. I don’t think you’ve thought through the implications.”

OK, one more reason why you might take it on: chairing is usually the first step/prerequisite to the work of administration. So if you want to be a Dean or Provost or President, you start with chairing. Honestly, it’s good when faculty are in those leadership seats.

For me, at the moment, I'm actively pursuing leadership/service that does the work/change I want to happen. Hence I direct @18thConnect, work with our Digital Scholarship Group, etc. No extra pay, but keeps me focused on my work & students & collectives.

This thread is going wild (for a nerd tweet) so please: #CiteBlackWomen, honor #RealCollege, rename @Stanford @StanfordLibs Fliegelman Collection, make real accountability for shitty people, read @triciamatthew’s Written/Unwritten, support equitable academic labor conditions.