I know it's still toward the beginning of the summer, but I was advised a while ago (in graduate school) that it's good to prepare one's dossier for the fall job market far in advance, so that your dossier is polished and you can devote your time and evergy to the things that actually need attention once the market begins (i.e. tailoring cover letters, etc.).
To that end, I thought it might be a good idea to begin a summer Dossier Group along the same lines as our Working Paper Group. The basic idea is to share our dossier materials with the community for constructive feedback so that those who participate can improve their dossiers. I also imagine that it might be a good experience for those who are not on the job market yet. Simply reading others' materials and taking part in a productive critical discussion of them would seem to me to be a great exercise for future job-marketeers to participate in.
Anyway, the rules and guidelines for the group are roughly the same as in the Working Paper Group. The first step is for someone (a Cocoon contributor) to write a post linking to a portion of their dossier. In contrast to the Working Paper Group, where papers are typically uploaded to our password-protected dropbox, it seems to me that in the Dossier Group the poster can decide to either go that route or simply link to dossier materials they have already posted publicly (for instance, on their webpage). As is the case for the Working Paper Group, if the person posting decides to go the dropbox route (they do not want to share their materials publicly), only registered Cocoon contributors who request the dropbox login info can participate. In all other cases (where the dossier materials are linked to publicly), anyone is welcome to comment productively on the material subject to the following rules:
- You must have access to — and presumably have read! — the dossier materials in order to comment.
- Comments should aim to be helpful in nature. The purpose of this group is to help our friends here at the Cocoon improve their dossiers, not to merely criticize them.
- Be a good dude/dude-ette. Do everything you can to make this a positive experience for all involved.
Sound okay to everyone? With that said, I encourage anyone who is already a contributor (or who wishes to become one!) to write posts linking to their materials for discussion.
I suppose I will kick things off. Here is my updated teaching portfolio. I'm sure it needs work, and I would be very appreciative for any constructive feedback anyone has to offer. Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read and comment on it!
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