As of July, I’ll be a Full Professor of History here at Laurentian University.
I had applied last July 1st, even though I was barely back on my feet after a spring sacrificed to illness and malaise. I was ill but not so ill that I couldn’t wrangle the binder full of paperwork together for the promotion application. With four publications slated to appear in the next several months, I hoped that the application would be acceptable.
It was a gamble. I definitely haven’t had the most conventional publishing career of any academic historian. But I enjoyed the support of many colleagues here and elsewhere, for which I’m grateful. I also realized that, even if I was turned down, how bad could it be? Staying as a associate professor until I could try again? Not a hardship.
So there’ll be new business cards (if those are even still a thing) this summer and, more importantly, the opportunity to do more service, research and teaching secure that the only thing I have to prove to others is what’s there in my work.
