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[monte_rio]

I'd just like to chime in here in connection with above14th's question/rant.

I had a campus interview earlier this year for which I was informed three days ahead of time that I would need to do a 30 min teaching demo on a fairly specific historical development in my field. The topic was likewise out of my area of specialization. Now, the topic was not inherently a problem, but the time frame was. I had other things I needed to do that week (in this case, an interview on campus at an institution elsewhere in the country!). Anyhow, somehow I pulled it off, but I was a serious stressball that week.
 
I don't mean to hijack this thread, so I'd like to return to above14th's query: is springing a topic on a candidate at the last minute something that happens much? I'd never experienced or heard of such a thing, until my situation and that of the OP.

[enfanterrible]

I'd just like to chime in here in connection with above14th's question/rant.

I had a campus interview earlier this year for which I was informed three days ahead of time that I would need to do a 30 min teaching demo on a fairly specific historical development in my field. The topic was likewise out of my area of specialization. Now, the topic was not inherently a problem, but the time frame was. I had other things I needed to do that week (in this case, an interview on campus at an institution elsewhere in the country!). Anyhow, somehow I pulled it off, but I was a serious stressball that week.
 
I don't mean to hijack this thread, so I'd like to return to above14th's query: is springing a topic on a candidate at the last minute something that happens much? I'd never experienced or heard of such a thing, until my situation and that of the OP.

Yes -- here in the US and in the UK, based on my experience. Had an interview with a UK institution recently: invitation to the interview (which fortunately was done remotely) came on a Monday and interview was on a Friday. Was required talk on an assigned topic. For another search in the US, after passing the first round, I was asked that by the 2nd round of interviews I would have to send in a teaching portfolio (syllabi, etc.), teaching philosophy, a paper on an assigned topic (something like "discuss research implications for X for curriculum development of X -- read: give us research ideas for free, since we are not doing library research), AND a video of myself teaching. It took me hours to edit the video, compress it so that it could be sent by email in time before the second interview. And thank God i could rely on some tech support help by students in the e-learning center. I told them they should have waited another bit, so that the semester would be over and I would have no classes to teach. Well, I didn't say it like that but I wanted (I wanted to say other things as well... such as the comment about doing research for them). So yes, such are times. I must say the second search I have described is a very unusual one: they went for a 3rd round of interviews,  followed by campus visits. I have never heard of anything like that, especially for a lousy job such as that one. But, it is at an Ivy League university!

[fiona]

I hope the combatants are done with squabbling over where and how Dante and Petrarca should be classified.

I've read them both, I've taught them both, and I can tell you that there are maybe a couple of hundred people in the whole world who care at all about that kind of classification. It's a very, very small group.

The OP seems to be angry and preoccupied with issues that aren't relevant to a CC job. Maybe s/he just isn't suited for a CC job, where you have to be flexible and put the students' needs ahead of your own scholarly insistences.

If that's really how the OP feels, then s/he might as well withdraw from the search, rather than hitting head against a wall.

The Fiona

[enfanterrible]

Yes, I would agree with the Fiona that the issue of classification of Dante as Medieval or Renaissance poet is irrelevant to the task that the OP has been assigned. Upon re-reading the OP's first post more carefully, I see that there is a rather specific topic -- gender in the Inferno.

If I was assigned this task (and I have, recently, been assigned specific topics for teaching demos) and I knew nothing of this specific topic, I would do the following:

- using a specialized database, I would search for scholarly articles on this topic, using those exact 2 keywords: gender, and Inferno
- I would see if there are one or two articles that do some actual text-analysis (as opposed to mere theorizing)
- I would check the text passages referred to in those articles and use them as starting point of my lesson

15 mins isn't that much time for a CC lesson. By the time you've read a short excerpt (like, 20 lines, max), done some text analysis with the students, you will have time to discuss one or two points about gender. And that's it. It's done.

So it's not a huge task, but it will feel huge if you have no investment in the job -- that's for sure.

I wonder if search committees, in assigning rather specific topics like that, and with relatively little time, are trying to see the extent to which a candidate can put up with unexpected tasks, emergencies, and the like, without being totally thrown off. I wonder if they are trying to get at personality traits too, that is, 'what would this candidate do if we were to assign him a new class, or move his/her class one week before classes start?' 

[aandsdean]

Oh, hell, just talk about Paolo and Francesca and the "one little kiss."  There's two hours' worth of material in that alone.

[sugaree]

I'd just like to chime in here in connection with above14th's question/rant.

I had a campus interview earlier this year for which I was informed three days ahead of time that I would need to do a 30 min teaching demo on a fairly specific historical development in my field. The topic was likewise out of my area of specialization. Now, the topic was not inherently a problem, but the time frame was. I had other things I needed to do that week (in this case, an interview on campus at an institution elsewhere in the country!). Anyhow, somehow I pulled it off, but I was a serious stressball that week.
 
I don't mean to hijack this thread, so I'd like to return to above14th's query: is springing a topic on a candidate at the last minute something that happens much? I'd never experienced or heard of such a thing, until my situation and that of the OP.

I think yes. I'm in history and have had teaching demo topics "assigned" to me in practically every interview I've had. Sometimes, they are directly in my field (as in, teach this day's topic in the syllabus of a typical American history survey), or sometimes they are far less so (World History is required for all students, so teach Topic X - completely unrelated to my own field). I think once I was given entirely free reign to teach whatever. Sometimes there is more lead time than 3 days or a week, but not always.

The OP's reaction strikes me as odd. I wasn't happy once about trying to prepare a lecture on Chinese Imperialism (I'm a modern US historian) for a teaching demo but I never once thought it was "cynical" of the SC to ask for it. Plus, I think gender and the Inferno sounds like a great topic to have fun with for 15 minutes. But then, some job seekers are always determined to find the colossal injustice in everything they do. These are always the most pleasant candidates, no?

[ptarmigan]

It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to prepare a 15-minute lecture at a community college (i.e., lower division) level on that topic in a few days.  Don't grad students regularly read (and write or prepare responses on) that much material that quickly?  Maybe this is just that thing where you underestimate other people's fields, but it doesn't sound like something that would be so very difficult.

[fiona]

Oh, hell, just talk about Paolo and Francesca and the "one little kiss."  There's two hours' worth of material in that alone.

This is a great idea, really. The way they circle but can't touch is a great image for romantic yearning. When I first saw "Dirty Dancing," the way Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey circle each other made me think of Paolo and Francesca. (Most of my students know that movie, though I think it was made before a lot of them were born.)

This is a 15-min. lecture I'd love to hear.

The Fiona

[polly_mer]

It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to prepare a 15-minute lecture at a community college (i.e., lower division) level on that topic in a few days.  Don't grad students regularly read (and write or prepare responses on) that much material that quickly?  Maybe this is just that thing where you underestimate other people's fields, but it doesn't sound like something that would be so very difficult.

That was my take as well.  I've never read Dante's Inferno, although I have read plenty of books that use it as a backdrop or draw on the material.  But, given a week to prep, I betcha I could have a 15 minute lecture on gender in Dante's Inferno suitable for a general audience.  Isn't that an assignment comparable to what we expect our undergraduate students to do?

[kaysixteen]

It would be interesting to know the title of the job in question/ job description.  I understand the generalist nature of the position, etc., and the general CC desire for 'fairness' in hiring procedures, but, unless all the applicants have a far-removed-from-Dante background, and the job itself would likely not ever require instruction in Dante, the choice of topics really isn't far, asking a guy to prepare a lecture (on extremely short notice) about a topic he knows nothing about.  What exactly can properly be gleaned from such an exercise, even if none of the other candidates for the job has any more of a Dante background than the OP does?

[jonesey]

Just play this for 15 minutes.  That should do the trick.