English Dept. To Lose Three Junior Faculty

Continuing what has now become an annual flight of junior Faculty members, three assistant professors in the English Department--including gender studies expert Ann Pellegrini '86--have announced their intention to leave Harvard at the end of this academic year.

The resignations of Pellegrini, Joshua "Jed" D. Esty and Jonah Siegel, all assistant professors of English and American literature and language bring the number of junior Faculty members who have left the department since 1997 to 10.

Lawrence Buell, department chair, said each professor is leaving for tenure-track positions at other schools. Junior faculty in Harvard's English Department usually sign eight-year contracts and are rarely considered for tenure--a fact of academic life in Cambridge that many say prompts early departures.

A leader in the field of queer theory, Pellegrini has been largely responsible for Harvard's academic expansion into the field of gay and lesbian studies since she arrived on campus in the fall of 1997.

Pellegrini currently teaches English 197, "Introduction to Lesbian and Gay Studies," and taught Women's Studies' 101, "Introduction to Women's Studies" this fall. Pellegrini also serves as acting director of undergraduate studies for the Committee on Degrees in Women's Studies.

Less than halfway through her contract, Pellegrini will assume an associate professorship in the women's studies department at Barnard College, said Buell, who is also Marquand professor of English.

Before she came to Harvard, Pellegrini served for three years as a visiting professor at Barnard, where she was recognized for her excellence in teaching by the college's Faculty Advisory Committee on Appointments, Tenure and Promotion.

Pellegrini was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Esty, a specialist in modern British, Irish and post-colonial literatures, said yesterday he has accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Illinois.

He said his wife has also accepted an assistant professorship in the university's French department, a factor that played into his decision to leave Harvard. Three years into his contract, Esty is currently on leave and serving as a visiting fellow at the Center for Humanities at Wesleyan University.

Siegel, who is also on leave for the year, will become an assistant professor of English at Rutgers University.

According to Siegel, the move to New Jersey's flagship public university was motivated by a realization that tenure is virtually impossible to receive at Harvard as well as a desire to be closer to his wife, who works in New York City.

According to Buell, the resignations offer a clear indication that the University's policies on the awarding of tenure make it difficult for departments to retain talented but non-tenured instructors from becoming too invested in the university Faculty.

While the department's selectivity in recent hiring practices has made Harvard junior Faculty members relatively more "desirable" in the market for scholars, Buell said the University's police also work to discourage talented but non tenured instructors from becoming too invested in the University.

"It'll be losing seasoned, valuable junior Faculty and that impacts the whole life of the department," Buell said. "Barnard has been wooing to get [Pellegrini] back, almost even before they lost her."

Siegel agreed with Buell, adding that Harvard's tenure program is plagued by "structural programs" which virtually doom the hope of tenure for junior Faculty in the field of English.

Because tenure candidates are evaluated based on their national and international preeminence, Siegel said it is especially difficult for a faculty member five years out of a Ph.D. program to have amassed the requisite body of work.

"Most people know that it's not a safe bet to think you'll be tenured at Har- vard," he said.

Siegel said some candidates even avoid taking ajob with Harvard in the first place, choosinginstead to take jobs with schools where tenure canbe a reality form the start.

"If you're going to get that job six yearslater, why not start now?" he said.

According to Jeffery A. Masten, an associateprofessor of English and comparative literature atNorthwestern University who was denied tenure atHarvard last December, the departure of three ofhis former colleagues reflects a fact he knowsonly too well--that the possibility of tenure isoften a long shot, even for the most talented ofjunior Faculty.

Masten, formerly Cowles associate professor inthe humanities, was denied tenure despiteoverwhelming support from the Faculty.

"Junior faculty members are obviously leavingmuch sooner in their careers than they did when Istarted at Harvard in 1991," Masten wrote in ane-mail message." I think that's clearly because,with regard to tenure, everyone knows there arejust too many obstacles--in the department and inthe University."

But in the meantime, Buell said his departmenthas already hired five new junior Faculty membersand will do what it can to better maintain thosejunior Faculty already in the department.

While Buell said he did not choose new juniorFaculty members specifically to plug in the holescreated by the departure of Pellegrini, Esty andSiegel, he said two of the incoming assistantprofessors have expressed interest in teachingcourses in gender studies.

"By a combination of trying to be proactivelyhelpful from the start...you can help make themlook as strong as possible as candidates foradvancement for positions on the inside" andoutside of Harvard, he said

Siegel said some candidates even avoid taking ajob with Harvard in the first place, choosinginstead to take jobs with schools where tenure canbe a reality form the start.

"If you're going to get that job six yearslater, why not start now?" he said.

According to Jeffery A. Masten, an associateprofessor of English and comparative literature atNorthwestern University who was denied tenure atHarvard last December, the departure of three ofhis former colleagues reflects a fact he knowsonly too well--that the possibility of tenure isoften a long shot, even for the most talented ofjunior Faculty.

Masten, formerly Cowles associate professor inthe humanities, was denied tenure despiteoverwhelming support from the Faculty.

"Junior faculty members are obviously leavingmuch sooner in their careers than they did when Istarted at Harvard in 1991," Masten wrote in ane-mail message." I think that's clearly because,with regard to tenure, everyone knows there arejust too many obstacles--in the department and inthe University."

But in the meantime, Buell said his departmenthas already hired five new junior Faculty membersand will do what it can to better maintain thosejunior Faculty already in the department.

While Buell said he did not choose new juniorFaculty members specifically to plug in the holescreated by the departure of Pellegrini, Esty andSiegel, he said two of the incoming assistantprofessors have expressed interest in teachingcourses in gender studies.

"By a combination of trying to be proactivelyhelpful from the start...you can help make themlook as strong as possible as candidates foradvancement for positions on the inside" andoutside of Harvard, he said