Goodbye WSU

Well, I've finished and filed my dissertation in December and went to my Doctoral Hooding at UCLA in June! Hoorah for me.

But of course, nothing good happens for me without a major kick in the teeth. Since the Art Department posted the advertisement for the tenure-track position that I was supposedly a shoo-in for, the members of the committee made my life into a living hell. Everything was just a formality until they decided that they would rather have a Contemporary art specialist instead of a modernist like me. I was given "suggestions" to beef up my application materials and constantly reminded that there was no guarentee that I would get the job. The chair even called me into his office and suggested that I open up my job search and that I should prepare myself and not be "surprised" in the end. Well, when the phone call from the chair came three weeks before the end of classes I was not surprised. Hurt and angry, yes, but not surprised. Lucky for me I had applications out there for other positions.

I finished out the year and my students were really dissappointed that I had to leave. I also cried ALOT.

The wierd thing is that the members of the department had a "farewell" party for me! As if we were friends, when in fact, my friendships with any of them pretty much ended the day they opened up the new position. It definitely ended when they gave the job to someone else. But, not to burn bridges, Todd and I went and made nice. Now the chair has invited Todd and I for coffee or drinks next week to say goodbye. I really don't want to go, but I will need letters of recommendation from him at least for next year. So I play the hypocrite again while my chest starts burning and I fight not to cry.

On the plus side, I have a 1-year appointment at Missouri State University, in Springfield Missouri, and there is a potential tenure-track position coming up at Drury college, in the same town. So who knows?