The Road to Harvard

The Center for Talented Youth has hired me to teach in Nanjing again this summer.

I eagerly took the job before Missouri Southern hired me. At that point, we needed the money. I am still glad to be going, but between CTY and Missouri Southern, I have four syllabi to prepare – not to mention completing revision of my book manuscript. This summer, I will broaden my experience by teaching Contemporary Issues in Chinese Modernization. (Last summer, I taught China-US Relations.) Besides teaching, I will spend a couple of weeks visiting friends and doing a couple of final interviews for my book manuscript. Terry had planned to accompany me, but the airlines have raised their requirements for using Frequent Flier Miles, and she decided not to spend the money. (She will stay home and pack, for which I owe her.)
- Norty

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It’s Plan E for 2008-09!

After about ten first-round interviews, during my last day on campus at Washburn, I received – and accepted – a telephone offer for a one-year visiting professorship at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. The university needed someone who can teach both U.S. and Asian history. Based on other applications that netted interviews, it seems that this combination may be my niche. Besides getting “real” pay for teaching next year, I will have better-than-average chance in the competition for a tenure-track version of the same position for the following year. I will be teaching two sections of the first half of the US history survey, one section of Asian Civilization, and one section of the first third of Western Civilization. I am looking forward to them all, although I took on the early Western Civ course mainly to be as helpful as possible in meeting departmental needs.

The further good news is that Terry’s employer has agreed to let her work from home. We’ve rented a house in Joplin near the university, and we will move at the end of July. Joplin seems to be a good place to live. We’ve even found a great older neighborhood in which we would likely live if I get invited to stay. The only two problems are LOTS of regional passing-through traffic and too many tornados. – Norty

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