Statement on Scholarly Expectations
Department of English
Faculty members seeking Tenure and/or Promotion should demonstrate that they are
active, productive, thoughtful scholars in appropriate fields. While a faculty member
may be engaged in one or more ongoing scholarly projects, a series of discrete projects
could also fulfill the expectations for scholarship.
The faculty member can demonstrate his/her scholarly acumen in a variety of ways. The
following items, listed more or less in descending order of importance, count as
scholarship for both Tenure and Promotion:
 A published book (published in a recognized publishing house, rather than a
vanity press)
 An edited collection (published in a recognized publishing house, rather than a
vanity press)
 A critical article (published in a peer-reviewed—including online—scholarly
journal)
 A book chapter (published by a recognized publishing house)
 Editing a journal for a scholarly publishing house
 A work of fiction or poetry (in a peer-reviewed—including online—publication )
 A translation of a literary or critical work into English
 Grant Acquisition
 Presentation of a paper at a conference
 A book review (published in a scholarly—including online—journal)
 Organize a session at a conference
 Participation on the steering committee for a group/section/association
 Chair a session at a conference
Confirmed future publications (i.e. by letters of acceptance from a publishing house, an
editor or a journal; a book contract) are acceptable forms of publication for Tenure and
Promotion to Associate Professor and should be included in an application portfolio.
It is the faculty member’s responsibility to adequately document these activities through
the annual self-assessment (see Faculty Handbook, VII. A and B Evaluation of Faculty).
The English Department is responsible for a written annual pre-tenure review that
addresses the candidate’s progress toward meeting scholarship requirements. At a
minimum one could fulfill the requirements for Tenure regarding scholarship with at
least three conference papers and 2 published articles. A higher level of activity, such as
additional publications and conferences, a book or book contract, would be expected for
Promotion to Associate and, higher still, to Full Professor.
Professional Development
Faculty members seeking tenure/promotion should be active members of appropriate
professional societies. Because most forms of scholarship take place within these
professional societies, there will be considerable overlap between demonstrating
scholarly activity and demonstrating professional development.
Faculty members can demonstrate their professional development by involvement in one
or more of the following:
 Attend conferences (i.e. present a paper at one session and attend other sessions)
 Write scholarly book reviews
 Maintain professional relationships with fellow scholars in the field
 Work on joint scholarly projects
 Be active in planning sections at scholarly meetings (as chair of a section, chair of
a session, or a member of the steering committee)
 Monitoring online scholarly discussion lists
 Involvement in community arts activities
 Curriculum and/or program development