09-20-2018
Today’s interviews to hire 2 ‘Full-time Lecturers’ for the Language Center went smoothely. I’d say the candidates all did a good job of demo-teaching some scenarios I came up with beforehand, but since this was a College-level jiaoping hui I wasn’t actually on the committee, just invited in a non-voting capacity. The other members, except Dr. C (my supposed mentor), had very little or nothing to say; a married couple from S. Dakota interviewed (separately) but probably won’t get hired. I’m guessing they’ll choose two of the guys because they seem confident but not so competent. (I feel guilty about this because the first prof. we hired to teach remedial English courses wasn’t being given preference).
Co-teaching a course called “Weird Fiction” with a German colleague, so for some reason (non-good) memories of my 2 years in Germany keep coming back to haunt me. Complicated but the class is interesting, albeit tiring to teach…Actually, after mom’s passing in August I feel reluctant and ill-prepared to deal with any work this semester; often just a sense of exasperated fatigue accompanied by tinitus in my head and ears. Good thing I’m getting xanax and can at least sleep now.
*Update 12-09-2018
Today my assistant told me the College of L.A. called to ask if we could “do anything to help” one of the applicants who apparently thought he had the job (their materials are actually still in outside evaluation stage), evidently because he just got married and bought a house. (What did he want? A signing bonus?) My assistant told her “no,” of course, but the CLA secretary who made the call to ask said “ah, but he’s #2 and if he doesn’t come the next in line is a foreigner!” WTF? Puts a new spin on institutional racism for me…