Information about Int'l Congress of Slavists

[Henry Kucera]

>Posted on 23 Nov 1995 at 00:34:03 by George Fowler
>
>     Criterion (2) is "regular (not occasional) academic employment in an
>American college or university. This excludes part-timers and (temporarily)
>unemployed scholars, some of whom are very sharp (there but for the grace
>of God go I...) and, as Frank pointed out, retirees. Do we really want to
>exclude, for example, an esteemed and active scholar such as Horace Lunt?
>Or Catherine Chvany? And I am sure there are equally important retired
>scholars on the lit side, e.g., is Victor Terras retired?
>     I can think of two reasons for this policy: 1) give the younger
>scholars a better chance, by not allowing established scholars to
>monopolize the roster after retirement; 2) to make selection less painful
>by limiting in this way the pool of possible candidates. The first is
>standard reasoning; the second is a bit touchy--but I can't say it
>represents ill will; I'm sure the ACS is trying to make things work as well
>as possible.

Yes, Victor Terras is retired and since he does not read these postings he
perhaps does not even know where the Congress is (he now lives in CA).
Paradoxically, if this rule had really been in force for everybody (which,
of course, it never was) Roman Jakobson would not have been able to attend
any of those Congresses that took place after he had retired.

BTW, I have no personal axe to grind, I am not interested in going. But some of
my fellow emeriti well might be and you should treat them properly, folks.
Many of them still have a lot to say.


Henry Kucera (Emeritus)