Clarissa's Blog

“What a pity your book came out now!” a colleague exclaimed.

“How so??” I asked.

“You’d fulfilled and exceeded your tenure requirements without the book anyway,” the colleague explained. “If the book came out later, you’d be able to use it for your next promotion, to Full Professor.”

The irony of the situation is that the reason I do get published is precisely that I don’t see things this way. Getting published is not something I do to get tenure and promotion. To the contrary, tenure and promotion are only useful inasmuch as they will allow me to publish more.