Masten Denied Tenure in English

President Neil L. Rudenstine last week denied tenure to Jeffrey A. Masten, the only junior faculty member in the last seven years to be recommended for promotion by the Department of English and American Literature.

Leo Damrosch, Bernbaum Professor of Literature and chair of the English department, confirmed that Masten, Cowles Associate Professor in the Humanities, received a "very strong departmental recommendation."

"Here was somebody that everybody admired and he'd made a very impressive contribution as a teacher and as a scholar and he's very well recognized in the field," Damrosch said.

In fact, many of Masten's colleagues said they expected him to receive tenure and finally change Harvard's image as an institution that fails to recognize the talents of its junior faculty.

Rudenstine did not return a phone call last night. Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles did not respond to an e-mail message from The Crimson yesterday.

Some of the most prominent Renaissance scholars in the country yesterday called Masten a "rising star" and said it was a "great loss" to Harvard that he has accepted an offer of tenure at Northwestern University.

"Jeffrey's one of the most exciting young scholars working today in the Renaissance," said David Scott Kastan, professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and general editor of the Arden Shakespeare series. "He's already important and will continue to grow in importance."

Masten's undergraduate course offerings included English 125: "Renaissance Drama," English 126: "Shakespeare, and Company," and English 189: "The Drama of Homosexuality."

Stephen J. Greenblatt, one of the foremost Renaissance scholars, who this year accepted a full-time professorship at Harvard, said he supported Masten's appointment and regrets the decision by the University.

He praised Masten's scholarship, which combines "the history of sexuality and the history of textuality in the 17th century."

"There's a policy question...at Harvard in which some very talented people do not get tenure," he said. "This is a disagreeable phenomenon."

Last night, Masten said he was "very happy to have had strong support from the chair and from my Renaissance colleagues."

Many professors at Harvard and other universities said Masten's case would damage Harvard's already-struggling effort to attract the best young professors and would destroy the morale of junior faculty in the English department, who had high hopes that he would receive tenure here.

Phillip Brian Harper, who left Harvard in 1995 to become a tenured associate professor of English at New York University, said that although junior faculty at Harvard have the advantage of the University's material resources and prestige, they are "profoundly devalued."

"When I was there I felt as though everyone at that institution participated in the devaluating of junior faculty," he said. "I cannot emphasize enough how intellectually debilitating, how morally debilitating it is to be a junior faculty at an institution where you are almost guaranteed that you are not going to be allowed to stay."

Masten said he regrets that Harvard, "through a failure to tenure from within, simply let evaporate the intellectual vibrancy represented by a list that includes Phil Harper, Meredith McGill, Wendy Motooka and Lynn Wardley. It's a distinguished diaspora."

Damrosch acknowledged that the department has lost "a number of wonderful people in recent years."

He said the fact that Masten is only 33 years old and that Harvard cannot afford to take any risks in granting tenure because its English department is so small may have been factors in the decision to deny him tenure.

Many junior faculty looked to Masten, who came to Harvard in 1991 immediately after receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, as an example of someone who could be tenured from inside the department, according to Ann Pellegrini '86 and William R. Handley, both assistant professors of English.

"Here was a perfect opportunity to use Jeff as a worthy example and say, 'See we do give tenure,'" Handley said.

In one case, senior faculty members in the English department told a young scholar who was weighing a job offer here to watch Masten, because he was thought likely to receive tenure, a gesture which would show that the University was improving its track record of tenuring from the inside.

Last year, Harvard made job offers to four young scholars, but only one, Pellegrini, accepted.

Pheng Y. Cheah, a graduate student at Cornell University, was one of the candidates who went elsewhere. He will begin an assistant professorship at Northwestern in January.

Pheng said that some senior faculty members, including Damrosch, told him the University was in the process of changing its policy and that "Jeffrey Masten was likely to get tenure."

During a lunch last year with three junior faculty members, Pheng said, they painted a bleak picture of what it was like to be junior faculty at Harvard.

"It was telling that when I...gave my job talk at Northwestern, most of the senior faculty in the department were at my talk," he said. "When I visited Harvard, however...apart from the members of the hiring committee, only three or four of the senior faculty members were there."

He added that almost every faculty member at Cornell told him he had "made the right decision" not to accept Harvard's offer.

Betsy J. Erkkila, chair of the English department at Northwestern, said Masten "was being identified as the person who was going to change the system."

Calling Northwestern's English department "intellectually vibrant," Masten said he is happy to be teaching there.

He said he hopes, however, that Harvard will improve its system by making the position of associate professor tenured in order to give junior faculty "a rational expectation of tenure, a fighting chance."

He also said he wonders what signal the decision will send to untenured junior faculty who are doing scholarship and teaching in queer studies, since one of his primary fields of inquiry is the history of sexuality.

Pellegrini, who teaches English 197: "Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies," echoed his concern.

"This could, to some, appear as a caution against particular forms of analysis," she said

Masten said he regrets that Harvard, "through a failure to tenure from within, simply let evaporate the intellectual vibrancy represented by a list that includes Phil Harper, Meredith McGill, Wendy Motooka and Lynn Wardley. It's a distinguished diaspora."

Damrosch acknowledged that the department has lost "a number of wonderful people in recent years."

He said the fact that Masten is only 33 years old and that Harvard cannot afford to take any risks in granting tenure because its English department is so small may have been factors in the decision to deny him tenure.

Many junior faculty looked to Masten, who came to Harvard in 1991 immediately after receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, as an example of someone who could be tenured from inside the department, according to Ann Pellegrini '86 and William R. Handley, both assistant professors of English.

"Here was a perfect opportunity to use Jeff as a worthy example and say, 'See we do give tenure,'" Handley said.

In one case, senior faculty members in the English department told a young scholar who was weighing a job offer here to watch Masten, because he was thought likely to receive tenure, a gesture which would show that the University was improving its track record of tenuring from the inside.

Last year, Harvard made job offers to four young scholars, but only one, Pellegrini, accepted.

Pheng Y. Cheah, a graduate student at Cornell University, was one of the candidates who went elsewhere. He will begin an assistant professorship at Northwestern in January.

Pheng said that some senior faculty members, including Damrosch, told him the University was in the process of changing its policy and that "Jeffrey Masten was likely to get tenure."

During a lunch last year with three junior faculty members, Pheng said, they painted a bleak picture of what it was like to be junior faculty at Harvard.

"It was telling that when I...gave my job talk at Northwestern, most of the senior faculty in the department were at my talk," he said. "When I visited Harvard, however...apart from the members of the hiring committee, only three or four of the senior faculty members were there."

He added that almost every faculty member at Cornell told him he had "made the right decision" not to accept Harvard's offer.

Betsy J. Erkkila, chair of the English department at Northwestern, said Masten "was being identified as the person who was going to change the system."

Calling Northwestern's English department "intellectually vibrant," Masten said he is happy to be teaching there.

He said he hopes, however, that Harvard will improve its system by making the position of associate professor tenured in order to give junior faculty "a rational expectation of tenure, a fighting chance."

He also said he wonders what signal the decision will send to untenured junior faculty who are doing scholarship and teaching in queer studies, since one of his primary fields of inquiry is the history of sexuality.

Pellegrini, who teaches English 197: "Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies," echoed his concern.

"This could, to some, appear as a caution against particular forms of analysis," she said