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Erik B. Alexander
@erikalexander.bsky.social
Associate Professor of American history at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Father of 2 boys, dog person, University of Illinois sports fanatic.
79 followers59 following19 posts
Reposted by Erik B. Alexander
Jjamellebouie.net

one reason i’d like to see an unapologetically pro-union civil war epic is that i think modern audiences still have a hard time with the idea that people could have genuinely hated slavery even if they weren’t racial egalitarians

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Reposted by Erik B. Alexander
RSrachelshelden.bsky.social

🗃️ Y'all I appreciate the Lincoln quote but we have to stop telling the story this way. Lincoln was not just reacting to a heinous decision, he was telling a vital truth about how people of the era understood constitutionalism. Near universal acceptance of judicial supremacy is a 20th c phenomenon 1/

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EBerikalexander.bsky.social

Wow—I find that unbelievable! Very sorry that’s been your experience. I’ve never seen that any of the places I’ve been.

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EBerikalexander.bsky.social

That’s very frustrating! So, hypothetically, you might say “We need a TT prof to teach the modern world history survey with expertise for upper level course in East Asia or Latin America” and admin responds “Your search will be for a historian of medieval France.”

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EBerikalexander.bsky.social

(Also, I realize I mean to say searches, not hires.)

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EBerikalexander.bsky.social

And thank you for this!

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EBerikalexander.bsky.social

We may not get many hires approved, but when we do, it is at least the sub field we put forward and request. Admin does at least defer to departmental expertise about their fields and curricular needs (and not just for history). But there isn’t much hiring one way or the other!

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EBerikalexander.bsky.social

Perhaps I misunderstood your original post—I took it to say that you send a list of potential hires to admin and then they ignore it, and perhaps even choose a different sub field altogether? That seems totally unthinkable to me.

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EB
Erik B. Alexander
@erikalexander.bsky.social
Associate Professor of American history at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Father of 2 boys, dog person, University of Illinois sports fanatic.
79 followers59 following19 posts