How to Chair a Department - Paperback

by Kevin Dettmar (Author)

A practical, accessible handbook for chairing a department.

Over the course of a typical academic career, most faculty will serve at least one term as chair of a department. It's a leadership and service role that's at the very heart of faculty satisfaction and student success, yet few receive any training on how to do the job. How to Chair a Department is a practical, accessible handbook for new and prospective chairs, providing both principles and practices for effective departmental leadership. Based on his dozen years of chairing departments, Kevin Dettmar provides invaluable advice on:

- hiring tenure-track and visiting faculty
- mentoring faculty colleagues at every stage of their careers
- working with staff and other departmental administrators
- managing department resources and budgets
- meeting the needs of students
- dealing with stress and conflict
- connecting the department to the larger university or college as a whole
- overseeing the department's curricula
- maintaining a scholarly or creative profile
- preparing for career moves after chairing a department

How to Chair a Department demystifies this important faculty position and argues that the role of chair, though sometimes seen as a burden, can prove to be a genuine opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Author Biography

Kevin Dettmar (Claremont, CA) is the W. M. Keck Professor of English and director of The Humanities Studio at Pomona College. He is the author of The Illicit Joyce of Postmodernism: Reading Against the Grain and Gang of Four's "Entertainment!" in Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series and is a contributor to the New Yorker and the Atlantic.