#AcademicTwitter #MLA2022 PSA and CW for English Department job seekers. This is a story in which I have gotten permission from the PH.D. student to share, though I am not going to mention specific names. It involves an English Dept. search for an ethnic studies candidate at 1/
a PWI and R1 institution in the Pacific Northwest. This Ph.D. candidate got an interview with the school and received an email on Dec. 7th from the department's admin. assistant to set up this interview and then a direct email on Dec. 10th from the chair of the search. 2/
Both these emails never reached the candidate because they were marked as spam. Now, this is the content warning for academic job seekers, because I am sorry that this will make you feel anxious to probably obsessively check your spam folder. The candidate did not see this 3/
until last week and immediately emailed. The dept. search committee refused to address this communication snafu and will not be interviewing the candidate. So here are some questions I have: 4/
In a time of pandemic, literally, when committees do not know what's going on with candidates at home (with a high likelihood of pandemic things affecting people) why did they think that two emails is all they are going to do to reach job candidates for interviews. 5/
They all submitted cvs. with contact info. beyond an email. Why did not anyone call the candidate to check in to see if they have received these emails if they had not heard anything. As I have recently been on a search committee, yes, committees can call people. 6/
In addition, email is not the guarantee that messages have been received by people. My own example: 2 months ago, I got an urgent email from a journal asking why I haven't commented on a copy editor's queries who had sent questions 2x to my email. 7/
The journal editor flagged this as urgent since she needed the copyedits within 24 hours. I did not receive these emails. I responded and we worked out a way for me to get it to the next stage in publication. She thought the emails may have gone to spam. They were not there. 8/
They, in fact, never reached me because the security filters on my institutional email flagged them as suspicious. So I never received these emails. So, this is the PSA. SEARCH COMMITTEES, use all the ways you need to contact and communicate with your candidates and FOLLOW-UP 9/
If they have not responded. In an academic environment with a scarcity of jobs, with all that has happened to try to dismantle the humanities, the universities, and COVID-19, the ongoing fight for racial justice, etc. DO NOT BE THIS SEARCH COMMITTEE have the due diligence to 10/
to make sure you are communicating w/ people. This was, and never was, the PH.D. student's fault in any way. Things, including communication snafus, can happen. This should not even have been an issue if someone had just followed up by picking up a phone. Fin.
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