European feelings on "the native issue"

[Peter Houtzagers]

Dear Seelangers,

what strikes me as funny - or should I say irritating - about "the
native issue" is the American provincialism some of the reactions speaks of.
Take, for example, the following passage by Jason Pontius:

> I too would like to register my dismay at the specificity of Rutgers'
> recent job posting, for three specific reasons: (1) the limitation to
> "native" speakers excludes the great majority of American scholars from
> consideration
> .....

Can the world of Slavistics really be divided into native speakers of
Slavic languages and American slavists?

As on several other occasions (e.g. all these long job postings with
at the end the casual remark "US citizenship required")  I wonder:

(NO FLAME INTENDED)

is SEELANGS a world-wide discussion group or a domestic American chat
box?

Yours ('cause I really love you all)

Peter Houtzagers
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Dr. H. Peter Houtzagers
Slavic Dept., Groningen University, The Netherlands
h.p.houtzagers at let.rug.nl
tel. +31 50 363 6061/6067
fax +31 50 363 4900
http://www.let.rug.nl/~houtzage/
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