Asian Studies

Guidelines for Tenure and Promotion

Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary program devoted to the study of the diverse cultures of Asia. The program focuses primarily on East and South Asia, and the spread of Asian diasporas throughout other parts of the world. The Asian Studies program committee comprises faculty primarily housed in departments in languages, the Humanities, and Social Sciences. The multidisciplinary, trans-regional nature of Asian Studies requires a degree of flexibility in the Program’s guidelines for tenure and promotion, though the Committee remains committed to adhering to the College’s high standards in teaching and scholarship.

Teaching

The candidate for tenure should demonstrate a teaching record of substance, rigor, and pedagogical innovation. Evidence on teaching should be demonstrated with course syllabi and class assignments, student letters, reports on class visits written by members of the candidate’s Faculty Tenure Committee, and course evaluations. Senior faculty understand that teaching about diverse human practices, ideas, values, etc., often poses a range of challenges in Hamilton’s classrooms and thus candidates are encouraged not to focus on popularity among students as a measure of good teaching.

The candidate’s course offerings will normally include significant content on Asia and count toward the Asian Studies concentration. The candidate will also serve as advisor to senior projects (Asian Studies 550) in cases where a senior concentrator wishes to pursue a project that falls within the candidate’s expertise. Not all courses taught by the candidate need to focus on Asia. Candidates for tenure in Asian Studies may also offer courses in the discipline of his or her PhD in consultation with the Program Director. All courses taught by the candidate will be evaluated for tenure and promotion.

The candidate should consult with the Program Director when preparing his or her personal statement and other course materials, such as syllabi, to be submitted to external reviewers. Given the multidisciplinary composition of the Asian Studies program, the Program Director and members of the Faculty Tenure Committee will initiate a conversation on more specific criteria for teaching prior to the candidate’s three-year review. 

Scholarship

Hamilton College expects its faculty to be productive scholars of high quality and is committed to the notion that scholarship and teaching are mutually reinforcing. Scholarship is important both for the advancement of knowledge and as a critical means to advance teaching in the classroom. Publications, other formal presentations, and proposals to outside foundations serve to ensure that faculty members have a continuing involvement with their professional peers, and that their work has been subjected to the criticism and insights of those best able to evaluate it.

The candidate for tenure in the Asian Studies Program should have either a complete manuscript of a scholarly book accepted for publication by an academic or scholarly press or several articles published in peer-reviewed disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or area studies journals or other equivalent venues for peer-reviewed multimodal or digital scholarship. Other important evidence of scholarship includes published work in peer-reviewed edited volumes, published translations, major fellowships or external research grants, and editing of collected essays. Evidence of scholarship may also be supplemented with unpublished manuscripts for books, articles, or translations, external invited talks, conference papers, or reviews in scholarly journals.

The Program Director and the candidate will discuss the latter’s scholarly goals at the time of each annual review based on the views of the Faculty Tenure Committee. These goals should take into account the disciplinary standards of the candidate’s field of specialization. In addition to clarifying the candidate’s scholarly goals, these discussions will address the candidate’s ongoing research agenda to ensure that his or her trajectory is moving beyond the dissertation.

Service

Hamilton faculty expect that its tenured members are engaged in shared governance of the College and their academic program, including supervision of senior projects where appropriate. The candidate for tenure must contribute to advising students after his or her first year, participate in Program meetings and academic initiatives, and, where appropriate, serve on other College committees. Service before tenure should place a new faculty member on a trajectory to assume leadership responsibilities upon tenure.

Approved by COA December 5, 2018