Colleagues,

Since I left VMI, I have been teaching in semi-retirement at JMU, because the resident English Department medievalist, Dabney Bankert, whom some of you will know, has been department chair and unable to teach a full load of medieval literature courses. After Spring 2021, Dabney and I will both probably retire for good and all, so JMU is mounting a search for a medievalist in a tenure track position. The chair of the search committee, Mark Rankin, provides a description of the job and the application link below, but I want to add that, in my six years at JMU, it has been a great place to work. The department is collegial, and, even as a part timer, I've had the flexibility to modify courses and develop new ones (both medieval and modern) without having to worry about anyone being territorial. The administration is genuinely committed to undergraduate education, as well as facilitating faculty research, with generous funding opportunities for travel to conferences for both TT faculty and adjuncts. The department does have a small Master's program that gives you the chance to teach at a higher level and also to work with grad student assistants. There is also an interdisciplinary Medieval-Renaissance minor, and you really get to know those students as they take pretty much any class a medievalist offers. 

Class sizes are small, usually in the teens or twenties, and the department has enough faculty to keep it that way. The undergraduates, I've found, are bright, enthusiastic, and eager to please. The first course I taught at JMU, a medieval European survey, was full of kids who came to medieval lit because they were Tolkien fans or Game of Thrones fans (the books, as well as the HBO series), or gamers, and they were excited to be exposed to the real thing.  This has continued to be true in most of the medieval courses I've taught here. 

And I probably don't have to tell you that the Shenandoah Valley is a beautiful place to live, and between the university and Harrisonburg, there is plenty to do, to say nothing of the presence of the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse in nearby Staunton, my home. So if you are looking for a TT position or advising graduate students who are ready to go on the job market, please consider this opportunity to teach at a place where you can really make a difference in students' lives.

Alan Baragona

Cross-posted to Arthurnet, REED-L, and Chaucer