Job Announcement - Assistant Professor (TT), Medieval Peninsular or Spanish American Colonial Studies

UPDATE: Bumped because not much has been posted here lately. This can be the placeholder for a while, I guess. If anyone has any questions about the position, feel free to get in touch. Otherwise, please spread the word far & wide.

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Assistant Professor of Medieval/ Colonial Spanish
Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) invites applications for an Assistant Professor of Spanish, specialization in Medieval Peninsular or Spanish American Colonial Studies, for a tenure-track position to begin August 2009 pending budgetary approval.

Please see http://www.fll.vt.edu for a description of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the Spanish Program.

Required: PhD requirements completed by August 10, 2009. Virginia Tech is a Research I institution; therefore, the successful candidate must show evidence of or potential for excellence in research/scholarship. In addition, demonstrated excellence in teaching is required. The candidate must have the ability to teach courses in literature, culture, and language at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Native or near-native fluency in Spanish and English is required.

Preferred secondary field of expertise: Colonial Studies, Medieval Studies, literary theory, or cultural studies.

Candidates must apply online at http://jobs.vt.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=189488 and attach a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, and a writing sample. In addition, graduate transcripts and three letters of recommendation must be mailed to: Dr. Jessica Folkart, Chair, Spanish Search Committee, Dept. of Foreign Langs. & Lits., 331 Major Williams Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0225. Review of applications will begin on November 17, 2008.

Virginia Tech is an EEO/AA Employer.

Toot! Toot!

We interrupt any attempts at being serious for some serious own-horn-tooting.

My co-edited collection of essays, The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages: Power, Faith, and Crusade, is now out (or will be very, very soon). I'm really tremendously proud of it and not just because it's the first English-language book specifically on the Charlemagne legend in the Middle Ages. It's also got essays of really extraordinary quality from both established scholars and real up-and-comers: Paul Dutton, Jay Rubenstein, Tom Noble, Dan Callahan, Elizabeth Pastan, Wendy Hoofnagle, Anne Latowsky, and Jace Stuckey (my co-editor). Take a look and buy it (please) if you're so inclined.

• Direct from Palgrave Macillan
• On Amazon.com (cheaper)
• On Barnes & Noble.com (cheapest, but certainly not cheap)

Different Visions: A New Online, Open Access Journal of Medieval Studies

This is just tremendous. A while ago, there was a long discussion about the possibility of such an undertaking over at In the Medieval Middle. Now I learn, via the Early Medieval Form listserv, that a new, online, peer-reviewed, open access journal of Medieval Studies has its first issue online.

Welcome Different Visions.

And darn it if that 1st issue doesn't have some tremendous contributors. This is fantastic. Link this everywhere. Shout it from the rooftops! Forward it to your listservs!

Modern Elections and 9th Century Politics

The medieval blogosphere is awash with medievalism and US Presidential elections. I earlier posted on Barack Obama's (probably fictional) invocation of Joachim of Fiore, as well as John McCain's peculiar and troubling use of the "Judeo-Christian" deployed vs. Islam (and now see Timh's perceptive comment there on Romney's speech at the RNC convention).

Now, Magistra now has an interesting post about Sarah Palin, media interest in her family -- stoked by the McCain campaign, and the long roots of this type of thing in the history of politics. Go read it. It's good.