The C.V. Doctor: C.V. For a New Ph.D. in the Humanities

Unlike many job candidates, there's a good chance that this young Ph.D. will be able to apply for positions within several kinds of departments or even disciplines. Given his productivity, it will be possible to tailor the vita to a specific position by creating categories that showcase the candidate's strengths relative to that job. Doing so will definitely strengthen the presentation. The candidate has an impressive breadth of experience. The challenge is to present it so that it doesn't appear "unfocused" in a particular application.

-- Mary Morris Heiberger and Julia Miller Vick

Examples:

• C.V. for a new Ph.D. in the humanities
• C.V. for a new Ph.D. in applied sciences
• C.V. for an administrator

Education¹

• Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, May 1999.
• Oral qualifying examination areas included American civilization, American literature, history of journalism, and political philosophy.
• Dissertation: Unoriginal Sins: Copyright and American Culture. Dissertation directed by Professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin.²
• Other research areas include Asian-American studies, immigration, race and ethnicity, American music, African-American studies, legal studies, media studies.³
• BA in history at the University of Texas. Minors included philosophy and government.⁴

Author, Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and how it Threatens Creativity. Forthcoming in 2001 from New York University Press.

Author, Napster Nation: The Battle over the Emerging Global Pay-per-View System. Proposal in progress.

Editor, The Great Republic's Peanut Stand: Mark Twain's Writings on Copyright. Proposal in progress.

Co-editor, with Jonathan Burston, The Global Media Reader. Proposal in Progress.

Articles⁶

"MP3: It's Only Rock & Roll and The Kids are Alright," The Nation, July 24, 2000. http://www.thenation.com:80/issue/000724/0724vaidhyanathan.shtml

"Inside a 'Model Minority': the Complicated Identity of South Asians," The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2000. http://chronicle.com/free/v46/i42/42b00401.htm

Review of Wes Gehring, Personality Comedians as Genre (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997) for Studies in American Humor, 1999.

Review of Gena Dagel Caponi, ed., Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin', and Slam Dunking: A Reader in African American Expressive Culture (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999) for African American Review, forthcoming.

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Review of Robert O'Meally, ed., The Jazz Cadence of American Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998) for African American Review, forthcoming.

"Now's the Time: Explaining the Richard Pryor Phenomenon," article in David E.E. Sloane, ed., New Directions in American Humor, the University of Alabama Press, 1998.

"Copyright," essay in Magill's Legal Guide, Salem Press, 1999.

"Asian-American Movement," historical essay in the Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism, supplement, Salem Press, 1998.

Review of Richard Pryor, Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences (New York: Pantheon, 1996), in Studies in American Humor, 1998.

"Asian-American Newspapers," historical essay in The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights, M.E. Sharpe, 1997.

"Jazz and African American Literature," essay in the Oxford Companion to African American Literature, Oxford University Press, 1997.

"Copyright Law," historical descriptive essay in Ready Reference: Censorship, Salem Press, 1997.

"Huckleberry Finn, Adventures of," historical descriptive essay in Ready Reference: Censorship, Salem Press, 1997.

"Human Genome Project," essay in Ready Reference: Censorship, Salem Press, 1997.

"Rap Music," essay in Ready Reference: Censorship, Salem Press, 1997.

Presentations⁸

"The Attack of the Pay-per-view Monster: How and Why to Fight the Emerging Infotainment Regime," to the annual meeting of the New York State Communication Association, Kiamesha Lake, New York, September, 2000.

Panelist, Napster and MP3 digital music distribution, H2K Conference, New York City, July 2000. http://www.h2k.net

Testimony before the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress on the anticircumvention prohibitions of the Digital Millennial Copyright Act, Palo Alto, California. May 2000. Transcript and audio file available at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/1201/hearings/

Twenty-six additional presentations are listed.

Academic Editorial Experience

Editor, Jazz and American Culture: An On-Line, Interdisciplinary Journal, 1995-1997. On the World Wide Web from the University of Texas. URL: http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/ams/Jazz/Jazz.html

Editorial and research assistant, The Oxford Mark Twain collection, edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Web page editor, American Studies Program, University of Texas, 1995-1997. URL: http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/ams/

Courses Taught⁹

"Impacts of Technology: The Digital Moment." Fall 2000. Faculty Fellow, New York University. Graduate and upper-division seminar.

"Integrating Liberal Arts: Cosmopolitanism, Multiculturalism, Feminism." Fall 2000. Faculty Fellow, New York University. Upper-division seminar.

"Mass Media, Global Communication, and the Future." Spring, Summer 2000. Faculty Fellow, New York University. Upper-division lecture course.

Eight additional courses are listed.

Professional Experience¹⁰

1993-1997: Freelance writer, editor and researcher. Clients include the Associated Press, the Austin Business Journal, political columnist Molly Ivins, various authors and academics. Austin, Texas.

1992: Editorial assistant and reporter for the state capital bureau of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Austin, Texas.

1989-1991: News reporter for the city desk of the Austin American-Statesman. Austin, Texas.

1988-1989: Editorial assistant and reporter for the state capital bureau of The Dallas Morning News. Austin, Texas.

Honors and Awards

Merit Award, Department of Culture and Communication, New York University, May 2000.

Quarry Farm Fellow and Scholar in Residence, Center for Mark Twain Studies, Elmira College, Elmira, New York. Summer 1997.

Professional Development Award, University of Texas. 1994, 1995 and 1996.

Academic Organizations

Student Committee representative, American Studies Association, 1995-1997
Delegate Assembly representative, Modern Language Association, 1996-1998
Member, American Literature Association
Member, American Studies Association of Texas
Member, American Humor Studies Association
Member, Mark Twain Circle
Member, Association for Asian American Studies
Member, American Historical Association

1.) Omit extra words and punctuation. The selective use of bold type, here and in some other sections, will make key information easier to find. Avoid using bullets on main headings; use them instead to make subitems stand out. For example: "Ph.D. in American Studies, University of Texas at Austin," could be in bold. Below it, a bulleted section could list details about the oral examination and dissertation.

2.) The dissertation director is appropriately named here. While including other members of the committee is optional, doing so is valuable if they have high name recognition in a candidate's field.

3.) The research areas listed are so broad as to seem implausible. Perhaps the candidate means "Coursework" or "Teaching Competencies"? Research interests can be listed in a separate section. They should be focused enough to reflect expertise that it's believable one person would have. On the other hand, "Teaching Competencies," also often a separate section, are typically phrased more broadly.

4.) Since both the bachelor's and doctoral degrees are from the same institution, it would be possible to list the university first and put information about each degree under that listing.

5.) Having a book in press is great. Listing two proposals may seem a bit speculative, particularly on the front page, which is where the eye falls first. Consider listing only the one most likely to be accepted soonest. Change the title of this section to simply "Books."

6.) Our major suggestion to this candidate is to separate publications and presentations in scholarly forums from those in other venues. Since we're not in the candidate's field, we can't entirely make this determination. However, The Nation, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, for example, while both wonderful and serious publications, are not scholarly ones. Hiring committees give a great deal more weight to publications and presentations where the acceptance process is based on peer review. It's important for candidates to show, through the way they list publications, that they understand this. We'd suggest that nonscholarly publications be listed only selectively, under a heading such as "Selected Additional Publications."

7.) As the vita is currently constructed, the reader has to get to the fifth page to find the important information that the candidate has spent the past year at N.Y.U. and has significant teaching experience. Since publications conventionally come at the end of a vita, committees are sure to look for them there. We'd suggest moving up the N.Y.U. information and the teaching experience to follow either "Education" or "Books."

8.) This candidate has given a huge number of presentations, mainly in scholarly forums. This is a real strength, but it's hard for the reader to quickly take in this list. It might be a good idea to group presentations topically, following reverse chronological order in each section and putting the most relevant section(s) first. There's also always leeway in devising the topical headings to convey expertise in the areas identified in a job ad. Presentations in a category largely irrelevant to a particular position can be pared down under a heading such as "Selected Additional Presentations."

9.) The "Courses Taught" section should be reorganized in terms of institutional affiliation. The institution and position and dates could be noted first, followed by information about which courses were taught. For example: "New York University, Faculty Fellow, Fall 2000; Courses taught: Impacts of Technology: the Digital Movement, graduate and upper-division seminar." And so on.

10.) The "Professional Experience" category is interesting and of an appropriate length. Even though the experience is substantial, the candidate has wisely omitted large amounts of detail, as they won't interest the typical faculty hiring committee. For some applications, for example, to a school of journalism, the section might be retitled to say "Professional Journalism Experience."