A number of people have emailed me recently with harrowing tales of that fundamentally absurd and unjust form of trial by ordeal known as the "academic job market." Much as I'd love to quote some of this stuff, I will not do so without explicit permission. Since I didn't have a clear policy on citation when these people emailed me their stories, I've decided to err on the side of caution rather than risk making them feel uncomfortable. I really appreciate the emails, and don't want anyone to regret having taken the time and trouble to write to me.
But I've decided to set a new policy, which reads as follows:
"Unless you indicate otherwise, I will assume that I can cite and post quotations from your email, referring to you by whatever name, pseudonym or initials you choose. If you inform me that you do not want me to make reference to your email on this blog, I will not do so."
This policy is effective immediately but does not apply to any email I have already received. Again, if you have already emailed me, I'm going to assume that you don't want me to cite or quote from your message -- unless you email me with the go-ahead, in which case I may cite your tale as yet another case study in the adjunctification and deprofessionalization of academic teaching.
Posted by Invisible Adjunct at April 22, 2003 06:08 PMIf I were you I'd add "... and I will invent a pseudonym for you and your institution if you do not provide one."
Otherwise, just *too* much chance of hurting somebody.
Good on you, though. This stuff desperately needs to come *out* of private email. My grad school email file...
Posted by: Dorothea Salo at April 22, 2003 06:24 PM