So I’m not one to humble brag.
Really. I’m not. The one time I’ve actively done it was to model to students what humble-bragging looks like and it made me feel a little icky.
So I guess this will be a not-humble-brag.
Today was my first day as a full-fledged Assistant Professor. Now I know to some, that’s a “so?” moment, as those who had good luck on the job market as we came out of graduate school have been on the tenure track for a few years.
But it’s special for me for three reasons:
- It was hard work to get here, and oh boy could I tell stories about the roadblocks and potholes along the way. But for me, this is THE moment. I know it’s just the start of a much longer process of getting tenure, but this was the point in my career I was afraid wouldn’t happen. I’m confident enough in myself that I know I can get tenure. I have time, and that’s all I need: time and opportunity.
- I’m not what I was coming out of graduate school. Coming out of graduate school I was the super-weirdo games and culture guy trying to find a job in rhetoric. Don’t get me wrong. I love rhetoric as a field of study. But I think I can say without sounding bitter that rhetoric, and English departments in particular, doesn’t take all that kindly to technology (it’s doing better, but it’s not there), is very stand-offish in general toward games and game studies (again, there are pockets of wonderful, but overall games are looked down on), and while cultural rhetoric is a thing, there are few people who study race and culture who give full respect to a rhetorician who wants to use other rhetoricians (and not literature theorists) to do their work. So I was this strange guy, building these infographics that looked like spider webs to justify my existence. That’s over now. I’m an Assistant Professor of Games in a College of Creative Arts working in a multi-disciplinary interactive media studies program. I’m in a place where my being a quirky unique hybrid scholar is a plus and not a minus. I still can’t completely grasp that I don’t have to explain my right to exist as a scholar anymore. It’s a new feeling. It’s nice. I recommend it to anyone else who is a hybrid scholar.
- I love my job and my colleagues. I know a number of academics. And while you might not think so to see me blog, I’m sort of the “safe” person, the place people come with their secret complaints and their needs for support, or just because they need to vent (and I’ve done my fair share of that back). So I know how rare it is for an academic to love his boss and his coworkers. But I do. It’s not lip service. Anyone who knows me knows that while I’m not mean about it and try not to put anyone down, I was very unhappy with a number of the people I worked with in my last appointment and in the appointment before it. And I don’t say that out of malice. They weren’t bad people (okay, some of them were– I won’t lie), but many of them reduced me to a thing, a representation of things they didn’t like. And that offended me deeply. It sort of soured me on the job. So my new colleagues basically saved me from giving up. It’s amazing what a difference being respected makes.
Also… I finally make a living wage. After five years as a Visiting Assistant, that’s a big deal.
And so today, all the work to get here became real, as my boss reminded me “hey, you need to change your email sig,” with a smile.
So here’s my new email sig, and sometime this weekend I’ll be designing my new business card:
—
Dr. Phill Alexander
Assistant Professor of Games, College of Creative Arts
Co-Director of Miami Varsity Esports
Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies
Miami University
alexanp3@miamioh.edu | phillalexander.com | @phillalexander
As Rocky once said, eyes swollen shut, “Yo, Adrian! I did it!”
Tomorrow back to being sarcastic and politically critical. For tonight, humble-brags-are-us.