Classics

Classics Department

All five of the guidelines for scholarly and artistic engagement are important to the Classics department. We agree that "Active and effective participation in one's field through publications" is of first importance among five valuable guidelines. Ordinarily publications in refereed journals and conference papers (as in the second guideline) are central to the careers of members of the Classics department. We can also imagine that performances might be central to the career of a member of the Classics department, for example, one involved in ancient Drama.

The department expects that candidates up for review at the principal points of evaluation in one's Kenyon career, which are second reappointment, appointment without limit and promotion to full professor, will have articles either published, or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Work done before employment at Kenyon will be taken into account. We recognize that some journals in Classics are notoriously slow in publishing accepted papers.

We believe that turning one's doctoral dissertation into a book is not likely to be a good research strategy in Classics until after several articles have seen print, principally because writing a book may take much longer than the member expects, often for reasons beyond the member's control. In some cases, the department member may prefer not to publish the dissertation at all, but to pursue other scholarly interests. The careers of Kenyon classicists are more likely to be devoted to the publication of articles rather than books, although we encourage members to write books, and we value those that have been produced by department members.

We encourage members of the department to attend professional meetings and present their work in conference papers. Such papers, as well as the other criteria for evaluation -- working with students on research projects, exchanging information with peers, and acquiring new skills -- are all important to the careers of classicists at Kenyon. Work in these areas will strengthen the member's case at the three principal points of evaluation listed above, and may be central to the evaluation process at other times of evaluation, such as an individual Performance Review. We believe it important to adapt this policy to particular cases. But articles written for peer-reviewed journals are of major importance for evaluation, as are books. While classicists acquire reputation outside the campus both by writing and by speaking, they are more likely to be recognized in the scholarly Classical world if they have published.