This webpage is a copy of an original pdf document that you can get upon request by emailing academic@tcnj.edu.
Table of Contents
- Alignment with Key Institutional Documents and Values
- Evaluating Scholarship Quality
- Procedures
- Minimum Standards
The attached disciplinary standards have been reviewed and approved by the Committee on Faculty Affairs, the Council of Deans, and the Provost.
To avoid creating a moving target for candidates for reappointment, the disciplinary standards in effect during a faculty member’s first year of employment will be used for reappointment and tenure applications. Candidates for promotion will use the disciplinary standards in effect in the year in which they apply for promotion.
African American Studies will next review its disciplinary standards in Academic Year 2031.
1. Alignment with Key Institutional Documents and Values
I. Purpose
This document articulates disciplinary standards for the evaluation of scholarly, creative or professional work of faculty in the African American Studies Department. In particular, it serves the following functions: 1) as a guide for faculty in the planning, execution, and promotion of their scholarly, professional, and creative endeavors; 2) as an aid for the AAS Promotion and Reappointment Committee’s (PRC) task of evaluating faculty progress towards reappointment, tenure, and promotion; 3) as a vehicle for establishing transparent, consistent, and equitable standards for reappointment, tenure, and promotion; and 4) as a means of ensuring a healthy and supportive environment for faculty as they work to fulfill AAS, School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), and TCNJ’s goals and missions.
II. Foundations
In its Mission Statement, The College of New Jersey distinguishes itself as a “community of learners, dedicated to free inquiry and open exchange, to excellence in teaching, creativity, scholarship, and citizenship, and to the transformative power of education.” The African American Studies Department has developed a series of discipline-specific goals and objectives that honor TCNJ’s mission and HSS’s endeavor “to prepare students for lifelong learning and responsible democratic citizenship.” As a program that offers undergraduate courses exclusively, AAS fulfills The College’s identity as a primarily undergraduate institution with targeted graduate programs. The African American Studies curriculum promotes the skills essential for leadership in many fields: the ability to read thoughtfully, write persuasively, and think critically and compassionately about questions of power and difference.
Because the African American Studies Department is comprised of faculty with diverse disciplines and sub-specialties from across The College, and because AAS faculty share either appointments or affiliations with other departments and programs, TCNJ must consider the breadth of faculty assignments and disciplinary differences in the application of scholarly standards. Faculty diversity is essential to the department’s conception of intellectual community, and as stewards of TCNJ’s diversity, the program strives to uphold principles of fairness and flexibility in evaluating faculty contributions to the goals and missions of the department, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), and The College.
III. Range of Scholarly Activities
TCNJ’s Promotions and Reappointment document recognizes a broad range of scholarly and creative activities as the foundation of its teacher-scholar model. The document notes that non-traditional production can embody “a serious and continuing commitment to scholarship” that “complements and enriches teaching of the first order.” The Promotions and Reappointment document highlights five areas as scholarly production or its equivalent-Scholarship of Production, Scholarship of Integration, Scholarship of Application, Scholarship of Pedagogy, and Artistic Expression. Because of its interdisciplinary core, the African American Studies faculty engage in scholarly and professional activity in diverse and complex ways. The following categories of work and production, ordered by the prestige of the venue within the respective fields, illustrate acceptable scholarly and professional output:
Category One:
Single-authored peer reviewed book (as reflected in a signed contract with a scholarly publisher).
Category Two: Significant peer-reviewed or juried contributions to scholarship. Examples.
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- Works of creative writing, professional writing, and journalism (published in highly selective venues recognized for their rigor and professionalism within the field).1
- Scholarly articles, book chapters.
- Scholarly book (co-authored, or edited/co-edited collection, as reflected in a signed contract with a publisher).
- The design and execution of exhibits and/or performances.
- The development of multimedia resources.
- Textbook writing and performance writing.
1 This can include juried works, invited or accepted works, or works selected for prestigious awards. It is incumbent upon the candidate to explain how the works meet the standards of rigor within their particular field(s).
Category Three: Significant scholarly contributions (predominantly non-peer and non-juried reviewed). Examples.
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- Successful completion of academic grants.
- Expert testimony or consulting work with local, national and/or international business, government, and community partners.
- Encyclopedia entries and other works of limited synthesis and aggregation of secondary sources.
- Faculty development of peer-reviewed curricula disseminated beyond TCNJ.
- Review writing (book review, performance review, review of art).
- The presentation of papers at academic conferences, professional meetings, and other academic events.
2. Evaluating Scholarship Quality
Shared Standards
The College has delineated four overarching standards for evaluating faculty work: quality, scope of recognition, consistency of production, and impact on the field. African American Studies embraces these standards as the foundation of its discipline-specific standards and the requirements of the faculty’s adjoining discipline(s).
1. Quality
As the 2022 Promotions and Reappointment Document notes, it is generally expected that scholarly, creative, and professional work “will be submitted to an appropriate jury of peers for rigorous evaluation. The quality of work is defined by its significance in one’s field of inquiry and necessarily requires such peer review to validate the work’s significance.”
The African American Studies Department values peer-reviewed work in the forms of journal articles (both print and electronic), academic press books, juried exhibits and conference presentations. The AAS Department recognizes, however, that high-quality work may appear in forms not subject to traditional academic peer review. To clarify the correlation with traditional, peer-reviewed work, the AAS Department has placed non-peer reviewed work and activity in a separate category. These include, but are not limited to, invited publications and presentations, commercial publications, community-based research, digital media, artistic productions (e.g. performances, recordings, and installations). In assessing the quality of grant proposals the African American Studies PRC may consider panel reviews of competitive grant applications, as well as independent evaluators’ reports, as evidence of the scholarly merit of such proposals. However, the AAS department recognizes that there are peer reviewed and competitive applications that are not funded in the traditional grant (money) formula.
In each of these instances, the candidate is responsible for explaining the significance of the works in question and how it relates to the respective items within the listed categories. This should include information on the review and selection processes, as well as evidence of the relevance and authority of the venues in which the works appear.
2. Scope of Recognition
Individuals may demonstrate the scope of recognition of their work through evidence such as reviews, citations, republication in anthologies, reissuing of editions, translations, circulation figures, book sales, and online metrics indicative of a work’s credibility, authority and reach. Invitations to speak or present at important venues within the field may also be considered, but it will fall under the domain of category two (non-peer reviewed work or activity) unless the candidate can prove otherwise. Invitations to offer expert testimony before governmental bodies or similar important regional, national or international policy-making bodies may also be considered under the same condition.
Awards for scholarship, holding office in a professional organization or serving as an editor of a professional journal are considered evidence of the faculty member’s reputation and standing in the field, but are not considered scholarly outcomes in and of themselves.
3. Consistency of Production
Faculty in African American Studies are expected to establish an ongoing and carefully planned program of scholarship or production; they are expected to maintain an ongoing program of scholarly, creative, and/or professional activities and to disseminate the results of these activities. A clearly articulated and mapped out plan for future scholarly/creative/ professional activity will be a crucial element of all personnel reviews. Exceptional service (such as department chairs or program director) will be taken into account when considering a reduction of scholarly activity.
4. Impact
African American Studies faculty may choose a variety of outlets for dissemination of scholarly, creative and professional work, as articulated in their stated goals. TCNJ privileges peer-reviewed publications and venues as the outlet for scholarly or professional activity, and consistent with that goal, AAS measures impact by reach and impact of the venue. We prioritize publications that are grounded in interdisciplinary and intersectional venues. Examples may include, but are not limited to, publication in peer-reviewed journals, scholarly and trade books, exhibitions, performances, and the creation of digital artifacts.
The Department deems digitally published or disseminated scholarship or creative works as fully equal to more traditional forms of scholarship and creative work. They are assessed in accordance with the same criteria (peer review, impact, etc.) as any other kind of work.
5. Collaborative Work
For multiple-authored works, the proportion or nature of the candidate’s contribution should be specified. Publications for which the candidate is the primary author or an equal collaborator will count the same as for sole authorship, while publications for which the candidate has contributed less than half of the research and writing will be proportionally credited. The same criteria will apply regardless of whether the candidates’ collaborators are colleagues or students.
Faculty may be engaged in research collaborations with other faculty, students, or external partners such as non-profit enterprises, government agencies or private industry. In submitting such work for consideration for tenure or promotion, it is important that faculty members document their specific contributions to the research in question, explaining the impact of their contributions on the overall project and to that field of research. Examples of such contributions include participation in the design and execution of a research project, analysis of results, writing, editing and or presenting papers either singly or jointly. Additionally, articles that incorporate the work with student researchers must credit students’ contributions to the development and execution of that work. While it can be difficult to quantify accurately the specific contributions made by an individual to a project, especially over time, the candidate is responsible for helping the PRC properly contextualize their involvement in a collaborative project.
6. Individual Differences:
The collective expertise of the African American Studies faculty represents the best resource for assessing the overall quality, scope, consistency, and impact of faculty scholarship in the PRC.
The significance of scholarly activities is highlighted in the TCNJ Promotions and Reappointment document, in particular the importance of research, creative endeavors, professional and intellectual development, and professional service (when they involve the creation of knowledge and demonstrate a significant disciplinary impact). Recognizing that there are multiple models of quality scholarship in the field of African American Studies, the department expects individual variations in the combination and/or composition of scholarly and creative work, as well as the outlets available for dissemination by selected faculty.
The framework described in this document is intended to fit various types of scholarly programs and goals: no one set of evaluative criteria will apply equally to all individuals. Faculty should articulate their research program plan (including short- and long-term goals and objectives, specific outlets for communicating scholarship, and the contexts in which their program is intended to have an impact) to the PRC.
3. Procedures
Scholarship in African American Studies covers a broad spectrum of intellectual activities.
The variety of activities encompassed by African American Studies and the diversity of its hiring makes it important that the department clearly articulate its scholarly or professional expectations for new faculty members as they join the TCNJ community. While standards of production will remain consistent for all AAS faculty, expectations for the kind of scholarly or professional output may vary because the department hires faculty across a variety of disciplines.
At the beginning of each academic year, the PRC will meet individually with newly hired faculty members to talk about research standards and expectations. These conversations must be a natural outgrowth of the hiring process. The PRC must use the first-year and subsequent reviews to revisit and clarify these expectations. A record of these conversations must appear in the follow-up letters that accompany these reviews.
4. Minimum Standards
All core members of the AAS faculty are expected to maintain an ongoing and carefully planned program of scholarly, professional or creative activity. In periodic reviews with the PRC, the candidate is expected to update and clarify the trajectory of his or her work as it progresses. While scholarship may vary given the interdisciplinary nature of African American Studies, faculty must meet minimum standards to be recommended for reappointment, tenure and/or promotion.
The following are the minimum standards faculty members must meet for reappointment, tenure and promotion:
Reappointment:
Candidates for reappointment prior to tenure in AAS must show progress in three items from the categories listed in the Range of Scholarly Activity (see pages 3 and 4) since coming to TCNJ, these include journal or book submissions, acceptance letters, conference presentations, and publications, etc.
Tenure and/or Promotion to Associate Professor:
Candidates for tenure and/or promotion to the rank of Associate Professor in AAS must complete in the Range of Scholarly Activity since coming to TCNJ:
- A minimum of one item from Category One and three items from Category Three
OR
- A minimum of three items from Category Two and three items from Category Three
Professor:
Candidates for promotion to the rank of Professor are expected to demonstrate a sustained record engagement in scholarship, professional activity or creative work in the categories listed in the Range of Scholarly Activity beyond that demonstrated at the time of promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. Candidate’s scholarly and/or professional work must also follow the categories listed in the Range of Scholarly Activity. For some disciplines the single-authored book is the highest measure of scholarly achievement; however, in some fields other accomplishments offer equivalents to the single-authored book. For some candidates, that will include a scholarly book or a series of articles in peer-reviewed journals or chapters in edited volumes deemed to be equivalent to a book; for other candidates, that could mean a digital ethnography, considered equivalent to a book, accessed by scholars and the general public; or a series of podcasts, also considered to be equivalent to a book, reviewed by scholars and deemed important and innovative for its contribution to an important discussion in African-American Studies.
Candidates for promotion to the rank of Professor in AAS must complete in the Range of Scholarly Activity since tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.
- A minimum of one item from Category One and three items from Category Three
OR
- A minimum of two items from Category Two and three items from Category Three
Candidates for Professor will have achieved national, and possibly international, recognition in their field, which may be documented by reviews and citations, invitations to prestigious conferences, leadership in disciplinary organizations, professional evaluation by peers, and receipt of grants or fellowships. Other scholarly activities or exceptional service (such as department chairs or program director) will be taken into account when considering a reduction of scholarly activity.