I'm not long for Knoxville, just a month or two, because I've accepted a new faculty position as an assistant professor in the Media Studies Department at Virginia's RadfordUniversity.  That's why there's now a plaid background on my home page (along with a message much like this one). Radford has a Scottish theme, and so do I. Its teams are the Highlanders and its newspaper is The Tartan. My full name starts with "Robert Bruce" in honor of both an ancient hero and my grandmother, who was a Montgomery from Glasgow. I love coincidences, and Radford is in Montgomery County... so I hunted up one of the Montgomery clan tartans for my home page. The many shades of green also fit my Irish heritage. (I decided this version the clan colors was a bit too colorful.)
Back at UT, the students have been great and the dean, director, faculty and staff of the College of Communication & Information and School of Journalism & Electronic Media have been very supportive. My early advice ("use Django; hire Johnny") even helped shape the school's impressive Tennessee Journalist news site. But there simply has been no
tenure-track opening in my areas of interest and alleged expertise for three years, and none on the horizon. (On the other hand, if you know
someone with a Ph.D. who wants to teach sportswriting as well as more serious public affairs reporting, give them a call.)
I've enjoyed my stay in Knoxville, thanks in great part to a warm welcome from the artist formerly known as South Knox Bubba, the college's technical wizard, and many online friends, as well as offline neighbors and fine musicians. But the professorship at Radford offers more varied teaching and research opportunities than I'd have by renewing my lectureship at UT. (OK, there's a substantial pay increase involved too, which reminds me of my favorite SKB essay about Tennessee mythology.)
I must have something else to say about all of this... and some editing to do...maybe later.
1:52:37 PM 
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