A group of faculty members will meet on April 8 to discuss the formation of a search committee to hire a full-time, tenure-track Asian American Studies professor for the fall semester of 2003. The development, which follows last month's Arts and Sciences authorization of the hire, marks a significant step for those lobbying to improve Tufts' Asian American Studies curriculum.
Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Ernst will preside over the meeting. Ernst will not likely be intimately involved in the search but will have to approve the committee's ultimate decision.
American Studies Chair Frances Chew and Acting English Chair John Fyler, integral players in drafting the proposal for the position, will attend next Monday's meeting. The new position - which falls under both departments - was granted under the Faculty Diversity Initiative, a program that brings in two hires each year to diversify the curriculum.
Fyler has participated in similar searches in the past, and said he foresees a typical selection process for this committee.
"It's a little more complicated for this joint appointment because we have to carefully lay out specific ground rules, designated and approved by each department," Fyler said. "It shouldn't be too much of a problem, though, because we all get along."
Candidates will be solicited at an annual Modern Language Association (MLA) convention. Prior to the convention, the English Department will place advertisements in the MLA newsletter/handbook.
The initial application process requires each candidate to submit recommendations and writing samples. After the preliminary meetings have been conducted at the convention, the pool will be narrowed to eight to ten candidates. Faculty members will then conduct 30-minute interviews with each applicant, after which two or three candidates will be identified. They will then visit the campus and possible deliver an informal talk. Department members then vote on the final decision, pending the approval of Ernst's office.
This lengthy process was initiated during the fall semester, when Fyler and Chew composed a proposal for a tenure track professor of Asian American Studies.
In the past, Professors Elizabeth Ammons, Modhumita Roy, and Virginia Brereton, and administrator Jean Wu have been an the forefront of the initiative to strengthen the Asian American Studies curriculum. Their attention helped thrust the proposal into the spotlight.
The proposal was chosen from several others for the Faculty Diversity Initiative. The University publicly announced the choice during a visit by University of California at Berkeley Professor Ron Takaki, who lectured at Tufts last month.
Takaki, who was instrumental in creating an American Studies requirement at Berkeley, announced the new position to students and faculty in attendance at the end of his speech.
Some have said the position is a considerable accomplishment following the several months of intense lobbying from faculty and fervent students wishing to improve the depth of Tufts' Asian American Studies options.
Last summer, the Asian American Curricular Transformation Project, comprised of 15 faculty members and one student, met to work on modifying the existing American Studies curriculum to incorporate more Asian American content. The absence of Asian American, Latino, and Native American programs was cited in the 1997 Task Force Report on Race, implemented by President Emeritus John DiBiaggio.
Currently, the College of Liberal Arts offers only two classes in Asian American studies, including an literature course taught by Ruth Hsiao for the past 20 years which has
inspired many students to vouch for the expansive curriculum.
