Statement on Scholarly Expectations
Department of Religion and Philosophy
Faculty members seeking tenure and/or promotion should demonstrate that they are
active, productive, thoughtful scholars. While it is highly recommended that a faculty
member be engaged in one or more ongoing scholarly projects, a series of discrete
projects could also suffice.
The faculty member can demonstrate his/her scholarly acumen in a variety of ways. The
following items, listed in descending order of importance, count as scholarship for both
promotion and tenure:
 Writing a book (published in a serious publishing house, rather than a vanity
press)
 Editing a book (published in a serious publishing house, rather than a vanity
press)
 Writing an article (published in a scholarly journal)
 Writing a chapter of a book (published in a serious publishing house)
 Publishing a work of fiction that addresses substantive Religious or Philosophical
themes. (New faculty members interested in writing fiction are strongly
encouraged to publish more traditional forms of scholarship before writing
fiction).
 Translating a religious or philosophical text into English
 Translating a work of scholarship into English
 Presenting a paper at a national conference
 Receiving an NIH or Fulbright grant
 Presenting a paper at a regional conference
 Writing a book review (published in a scholarly journal)
 Chairing a session at a national meeting
 Chairing a session at a regional meeting
 Serving as a chair for a group/section at the national meetings
 Serving as a chair for a group/section at the regional meetings
 Serving on the steering committee for a group/section at the national meetings
 Serving on the steering committee for a group/section at the regional meetings
 Working as an editor for a journal or scholarly publishing house
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 and should be
included in a tenure or promotion package.
While conference papers, book reviews, and chairing sessions are acceptable forms of
scholarship, a modest amount of publications (i.e. a book contract or several articles) is
necessary for tenure and promotion. One could fulfill the requirements by having many
conference papers and at least 2 published articles; or by having many published articles
and no conference papers; or by having a book or book contract and no articles.
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 amount of overlap between
demonstrating scholarly activity and demonstrating professional development. Faculty
members can demonstrate professional development in a number of ways.
Faculty members can demonstrate their professional development by performing one or
more of the tasks from the following list:
 Attend conferences (i.e. present a paper at one session and attend other sessions)
 Write scholarly book reviews
 Maintain professional relationships with fellow religious/philosophical scholars
 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)
 Being active in on-line scholarly discussion lists