Two words: Now Hiring.
Like most every academic department in the country, the Department of English has seen its faculty numbers dwindle over the past few years. Pitt has weathered the storm better than many institutions—no mass layoffs here, thankfully—but there has been little hiring over the past few years to replace the faculty who have retired or left the department. When a department like ours can’t simply cut a proportional number of classes—we are responsible for teaching Seminar in Composition to the entire university, and thousands more students rely on us for the General Education requirements—this puts some strain on things. What’s more, when all of our majors, minors, and certificates are growing, things are stretched even thinner.
This year, we asked the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences for a large number of hires not only to address this situation but also to stabilize the many adjunct positions that we are relying upon to satisfy these core requirements that we deliver for the University. And—well, we got them. Eighteen of them! Which quickly became nineteen when another line came our way from the provost’s office.
You don’t often hear of any department—much less a humanities department—making 19 hires in one year. And sure, on its face, it’s a little crazy—and a lot of work. But it’s also entirely sensible. First, we’re an enormous department, with 87 full-time faculty—but we were 96 just three years ago, so we’re restoring some losses among both our research-focused and teaching-focused core. Second, we have 24 visiting faculty and over 80 part-time instructors, so there’s plenty of room to offer full-time lines to meet the ongoing needs of our department and its students. And third, we are growing in many directions, and we have plans for further growth with our new majors and certificate programs, so we need to hire in ways that will help us build for the future. The dean’s office saw and appreciated that in granting us this rare opportunity.
The hires range across all four programs and address every major, minor, and certificate in our department. First, we posted positions in Black and Black Diasporic Poetry in the Writing program, Global Cinema and Media Production in Film and Media Studies, Global Children’s Literature in our Lit program, and Black Rhetorics in the Composition program. Next came three more in Experiential Learning for the Literature program; Latinx Literature and Gender Studies, also for Literature; and Critical Studies (open field) for Film. By this point, most departments would be exhausted, and certainly, we have thanked more than a few members of our many search committees several times over already. They have earned it and will continue to earn more.
But we kept going, aiming to address some burning needs in the Composition program. We posted a Writing Center Outreach Coordinator position alongside a fleet of eleven hires to teach a wide array of classes that the Composition program now staffs for its Public and Professional Writing major, the Digital Narrative and Interactive Design major, and the new certificates in Disability Studies and in Public Communication of Science and Technology—alongside the traditional needs of teaching Seminar in Composition and its variations.
The response from job applicants has been appreciative and, sometimes, frenzied. Many are excited at the prospect of joining a department that is doing such a raft of hires at once, a giant rebuild in which the new hires will have the chance to be part of crafting the department’s evolving identity. A couple of folks out in the cyber-commentary world wondered if this initiative was too good to be true, even. Our departmental community has approached this process clear-eyed and ready to remake ourselves, to be transformed by those we hire. That community is composed of the hardworking teachers who work with our students every day, the researchers and creative practitioners who reshape our cultural environments and advance knowledge, the staff who make this place both welcoming and functional. Hiring is a long, complex process, but it’s the way we remake ourselves now in order to prepare for the future that this department will create.
And we’re very excited by that.