Friday, September 15, 2006
IR Rumor Mill: The Next Generation
Due to an overload of teaching duties, we're accepting applications for taking over the rumor mill. Suggestions for mergers with other rumor mills will be considered. Send applications to irrumormill@gmail.com; we encourage applications from people who are on the market who will be reading it incessantly anyway (or, possibly, someone with tenure who can run it more openly).
Duties include updating the job list, compiling the weekly-to-monthly table of summary rumors, policing comments that are off-topic (remember: the unit of analysis is the job), and making things look nice.
So - tell us what you'll do with the rumor mill. Be specific. Show off your HTML table skills. Group applications from institutions are always welcome.
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12 comments:
First, thank you for such a useful resource- I hope that you keep things such as the ongoing (and updated) list of fellowships and jobs in the field.
One thing I'd like to see: separate postings for substantative topics- many times the other postings tend to go off track or go off on tangents that have more to do with IR theory than with the job market per se. Of course, our ideas about the job market or the best scholars in the field (this is on the IR discussions blog, not yours), etc., are influenced by our own preferences, but maybe there should be (an) additional outlet(s) for dicussions solely dedicated to IR theory.
I had in in mind an electronic equivalent of a monthly conference, where we could perhaps discuss a paper that has been published in a prominent outlet or a recent book, and discuss it accordingly.
How does this fit into a "rumor mill"? Quite honestly, I don't have a good answer. I read this blog for entertainment purposes and because it gives me information about important trends- much the same reason I "do" IR theory. I feel that this might help to narrow the focus of certain debates.
P.S. I don't think that there is a need for additional "policing" of the blog- I haven't noticed anyone violating the logic of appropriateness (as I understand it) in terms of respecting others' comments, etc. Frankly, I think that the beauty of a forum such as this is that it allows for a (hackneyed phrase, but true) free-flowing discussion.
As great as this sounds, someone would essentially have to tell someone else that s/he will be running the rumor mill... not sure I'd want to do that while on the job market... small world, you know...
To 8:03pm- do you mind clarifying your comment? I don't understand what you are referring to- how does anything written above mean somebody else would be running the rumor mill? And what about the "small world" remark? I'm puzzled- do you think that its a bad idea to add the ideas from the previous posts?
Have we learned nothing in graduate school, people? What we have here is a classic collective action problem (ok, not quite, but close). Until somebody is willing to pay the costs of leadership, irrumormill will whither on the vine. And they say we don't do many experiments in the study of IR. . .
here's the great irony - you can volunteer to run it, and no one will know who you are to make you follow up.
As I've thought about this, I've decided the rumor mill should be buried.
Most of last year's posts seem to be little more than navel-gazing and sniping, including some borderline personal attacks (on posters and job candidates alike).
Plus, I'm troubled by the suggestion that having one's name associated with Department A could have chilling effect on Department B making an offer. It is nice in salary and benefit negotiations to be able to set up a bidding war -- but if A makes an offer 2, 3 days ahead of B, and B spots it on the blog, maybe B will go another way -- harming the job candidate's prospects.
I think the "chilling" scenario discussed above shouldn't be a reason to discontinue the mill:
1) I don't think it is likely: schools often make offers knowing that they will or may be outbid. Sometimes they even still land the candidate;
2) Most of this information is already available to Department Chairs and Search Committees. I've never been involved in a search where full information about other offers didn't exist.
Apparently http://americanandcomparativejobs2.blogspot.com/ has added an IR Jobs Link.
is there no deafening chorus of cries to be the next moderator? maybe the current moderator should ask for contributions towards an endowment that would provide a stipend for whomever is willing to take on the job each year. i'd be willing to give $50. (some of us have a pretty good idea who you are, ms. moderator, so there would be no escaping to switzerland.) or perhaps easier, there should be a small entrance fee for the information for each year ($10). i bet those on the market would pay it, and so would faculty with research budgets who want to be up on the latest. give the $3,000 to the moderator and maybe that will provide enough of an incentive for someone to take it on? (oh, setting up a credit card payment site is hard you say?) many of us do not want to read those other blog sites where horrible people post horrible things.
I would second 10:47
I have been trying to read the IR threat at http://americanandcomparativejobs2.blogspot.com/ and have found it to be a waste of my time.
As a candidate on the market, I would be interested in helping to supply a worthwhile forum but just cannot make the time with application deadlines so near. I'm sure there are others in my same situation. Don't give up hope on the IR Rumor Mill yet. Someone may step up.
Isn't the quality of a rumor mill simply a function of who posts on it?
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