History

History Department Statement on Expectations for Scholarship

The History Department believes that its members' active participation in the scholarly undertakings of a national or international community of historians fortifies their abilities to be effective teachers in Kenyon classrooms. Therefore, in order to foster such active participation and to make the department's expectation as clear as possible, the department endorses the following statements.

1. Candidates who come forward for reviews for appointments without limit in History must demonstrate that they have successfully launched their scholarly careers. The strongest evidence for the success of this launching would be publication of a peer-reviewed monograph or its equivalent. But because the rigid scheduling of the tenure review may not allow enough time for the completion and publication of a book-length manuscript, the department will also treat substantial progress in the readying of a manuscript for publication, the publication of articles in refereed scholarly journals, or engagement in some equivalent way of bringing one's ideas before a wider scholarly community as evidence of the launching of a career.
   
   
2. Candidates who come forward for consideration for promotion to the rank of Professor of History must demonstrate that they have moved beyond the launching phase of their careers and have established themselves as recognized scholars. The publication of a second peer-reviewed monograph or its equivalent is the clearest demonstration that a career has been established. The department recognizes, however, that in some cases service to Kenyon or the History Department may retard the maturing of one's scholarly career, and so it is prepared to support a promotion even in the absence of a second monograph if the candidate can demonstrate that substantial progress toward that goal has been achieved. Moreover, because some scholarly careers follow non-traditional trajectories, the department remains receptive in principle to the introduction of alternative ways of demonstrating that a career has been established.

Because the purpose of making these expectations explicit is to foster teaching excellence, the department does not want them to become a substitute for or, worse yet, a barrier to cultivation of excellence in the classroom. Nor does the department want its members, in pursuing publication, to confuse mere quantity of output with quality of scholarship. Therefore, the department states that the meeting of these expectations cannot be a guarantee of a successful review. And the department acknowledges that occasions may arise in which the failure to fulfill these expectations ought not to result automatically in an unsuccessful review.