What a nightmare job search says about equity and the academy.

Sheila Sundar

In March of 2020, shortly after my final interview for a tenure-track position in creative nonfiction at Mississippi State University, I received a note of welcome from the department chair — an affable man named Dan, with whom I’d been in consistent contact throughout the process:

At a meeting today we voted to make you our top candidate. Now I will say that I need to run this through the dean’s office and discuss with them before making an official offer, but I hope that will be coming early next week. Again, this is a report on the faculty vote but the dean pretty much always allows us to go forward with our first pick. Still, the official offer email has to wait until I dot the i’s and cross the t’s.