Feeling my Canadian Roots

Much to my horror and (I admit) excitement, quite a few tenure-track academic job listings have already been posted online. This is a bit early for the job market search, but it seems like this process is beginning earlier and earlier each year. I've been diligently searching out these advertisements and I've even begun compiling a small folder with potential Women's Studies positions that I plan to apply for. Given the interdisciplinary nature of my research I'm eligible to pursue Women/Gender Studies, American Studies, and Feminist/Queer Theory jobs. Unfortunately, these kinds of jobs are often few and far between. Nonetheless, I'm trying to remain optimistic.

The official MLA job list, also known as the JIL, won't be up for at least another month so there's still a lot of information yet to come. (Relax, Sparks, relax...) However, I must say that the best job listings I've seen thus far have all been in Women's Studies and mostly located in Canada.

As a Canadian citizen, I already have a distinct advantage in applying for these kinds of jobs. Most Canadian universities give priority to applicants who are citizens. They only consider external options if they don't have luck with internal applications. And let me just say, several of these jobs are really "cherry" tenure-track positions that already have me doing enthusiastic mental cartwheels at the prospect of nabbing a job so well-suited to my research interests.

Of course, I'm anticipating that these jobs are also going to be hugely competitive. I need to be realistic. I only have a 50/50 chance of getting to the first round of interviews. So right now I'm just crossing my fingers that I might get the opportunity to make it that far. Then I feel certain I can win them over with my glowing personality! :)

Contemplating a possible return back to the Arctic tundra has made me a bit nostalgic. I feel like I've been a bit out of the loop as far as what's been happening in the Great White North of late. Thus, I decided to tune in to the CBC 3 Radio online in order to get hip to the most recent Canadian indie music offerings--I need to have my finger on the music pulse before I even start investigating elsewhere.

Not that I've been oblivious to what's been happening in terms of Canadian music. Like most indie grrlz, I've been enjoying The Dears, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, etc. But once I tuned into the fabulous CBC 3 I found there's quite a bit I haven't heard about. I've really been grooving to this station while working on my dissertation. I strongly encourage everyone to check it out at: http://radio3.cbc.ca/

Also, I've updated my the list of music I've been listening to lately. Take a gander at the sidebar if you're interested.