Good News! I just got tenure!

Updated Post

 I got some really good news last week - I was just granted tenure and promotion to associate professor at Ithaca College.

Last Thursday the Board of Trustees met and voted on the candidates for tenure, and on Thursday afternoon the dean called and let me know the good news. I just got the president's letter in the mail today.

It's been a long slog - I finished my Ph.D. in June 1995 and then went on to a series of short term appointments. My first job was actually in Ithaca, at Cornell, as a sabbatical replacement in the Near Eastern Studies department. I then went to Columbia for two years, having received a fellowship at the Heyman Center for the Humanites. That was a great experience; I really liked living in New York. The next year I went to Jerusalem for the year on a Lady Davis Fellowship, which was also great. Then, back to the U.S., and a year teaching at Vassar and then another year at Bucknell University in central Pennsylvania. I liked Bucknell but Lewisburg, PA is a really small town. Then the job at Ithaca College was advertised and I was hired on a three-year contract.

I started teaching at Ithaca College in the fall of 2001 (two weeks later were the 9/11 attacks, so it was a rough start). During my third year, a tenure-track position in Jewish studies was opened up. I applied for it and got it, and I'm in the sixth year of that contract. I'm very happy that I've finally gotten tenure.