I attended Sheila Dillon’s discussion, “Non-traditional Publications” for my first Visual Arts related event, and while the talk was very interesting it was drastically different than what I had imagined. I had thought Professor Dillon was perhaps lecturing on digital media or other emerging forms of publications. However the discussion was on tenure, and while I was very out of my element it was very interesting to learn about a topic I otherwise knew nothing about. A lot of terminology was new to me, but I did come away with a newfound knowledge and basic understanding of an unfamiliar topic.

Tenure is a guaranteed job contract faculty members receive after proving their skills in their field over a period of time (which can vary).  Professor Dillon described tenure as “intellectual freedom,” with the purpose of giving teachers liberty to pursue research on their own time, while also having more control over their teaching from administrative politics. Duke University expects professors with tenure to not only exercise good teaching and service to the university, but also to publish scholarship, “that is recognized by leading scholars at Duke and elsewhere” (quote from handout we received). Professor Dillon also discussed the process and expectations for Faculty Review, stating the headings and appropriate information required. While her talk touched upon the process, her handout went into further detail covering every aspect of the tenure candidates research, his or her ranking among peers, the nature of his or her scholarly activity, the candidate’s teaching skills, the qualifications for the peer reviewers, the candidate’s trajectory and future plans, and additional particulars. 

The discussion became somewhat perplexing to me, as a student very unfamiliar with the details of teaching and tenure, when Professor Dillon introduced the topic of non-traditional publications. Many different types of publications can be contributors to tenure, including books, refereed journal articles, reviews, catalogs, electronic communications, and original compositions among others. At this point the talk became very interactive and Professor Dillon responded to audience members’ personal questions regarding their own tenure. Professor Dillon’s personal background is in archaeology, but in her interactive discussion she answered questions from various fields including classics, visual studies, and communications. In another respect her discussion was different from how I had imagined it, because it moved from lecture style to a dialog between herself and the audience. It was almost a public forum for anyone’s personal questions about tenure and publications to be answered. The discussion gave me insight into how much time and effort actually go into tenure, and the true innovation required to contribute a truly original publication. Some of the most important advice Professor Dillon left the audience with was to take ownership of what you are doing and to separate your ego from the product you generate. While I haven’t thought about teaching as a career, it was interesting to glimpse the other side of Duke University from a teaching standpoint.