Michael,

I admire your courage, but in my professional career, I have  
consistently found alcohol studies to be as stigmatized as alcoholism  
itself.  And the same is true of addiction studies.  But some truly  
great people have made and continue to make real contributions:    
Robin Room comes to mind, as does George Vaillant, but quite a few  
others on this list also qualify.  My main suggestion is to maintain  
your ambiguity -- some people will listen to you or read you just to  
figure out whether or not you are one of "them."  And once you've got  
them listening, if you are a good teacher, you can teach. The main  
thing in job-hunting, I believe, is convincing people that you a truly  
good teacher.

ernie kurtz
----
Ernest Kurtz, Ph.D. (Harvard 1978)
Adjunct Assistant Research Scientist (than which rank there is no lower)
The University of Michigan School of Medicine



On Mar 3, 2009, at 10:36 AM, Michael Carolan wrote:

> As a new member of the forum (and, believe it or not, a former  
> student of Professor Wedge’s), I appreciate all the recommendations  
> of creative work in here. I wanted to share what a veteran professor  
> had to say about the field in a professional recommendation he wrote  
> for me recently after I developed addiction studies courses at UMass:
>
> “Addiction is an area of study not unlike African American studies  
> or Native American studies, and possibly all the more relevant not  
> least because it not yet an established area of study.”
>
> As I enter the severely shrunken academic job market, I am left  
> wondering why all I see are openings for minority, third world, gay  
> and lesbian studies but none for alcohol, mental illness, and/or  
> addiction? Am I missing something?
>
> With deep respect,
> Michael Carolan
> University of Massachusetts-Amherst
>
> From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society [mailto:[log in to unmask] 
> ] On Behalf Of David Fahey
> Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 1:19 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: literary drinking
>
> [Personal papers of George Wedge]
>
> Database:
> University of Kansas Libraries
> Main Author:
> Wedge, George F.
> Title:
> [Personal papers of George Wedge]
> Linked Resources:
> Finding aid
> Publisher:
> 1958-1993.
> Format:
> Archival/Manuscript Material
> Description:
> 12 linear ft.
>
>
> Indexes:
> Finding aid available on the Internet.
> General Notes:
> Wedge taught English at the University of Kansas from 1958-1993.  
> This collection consists of writings, manuscripts, research, and  
> correspondence.
>
> Margaret Wedge; gift; 2003.
>
>
>
>
> Location:
> Spencer Library (University Archives)
> Call Number:
> PP 408
> Status:
> Item details not available
>
> On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 11:11 AM, Crowley, John <[log in to unmask] 
> > wrote:
> There is, of course, no shortage of examples of alcoholic characters  
> and
> alcoholic behavior in twentieth-century American literature.  Just  
> look
> into the recent wave of memoirs.  One early success, Mary Karr's THE
> LIAR'S CLUB, is everywhere redolent of her father's whiskey breath.   
> The
> one I most admire and the one I've taught most often is DRINKING: A  
> LOVE
> STORY by the late Caroline Knapp (who died much too young, but not  
> from
> drinking after all).
>
> This topic reminds me of George Wedge (U of Kansas), one of the true
> founders of Alcohol and Addiction Studies within the "discipline" of
> English.  For many years he compiled a bibliography of drinking/ 
> drunken
> writers and their stories.  (I hope it's gone into the Kansas  
> library.)
> Unfortunately, George never published very much of what he knew; but  
> all
> of us owe him an intellectual debt.
>
> Toward the end of his life, George was thinking about the idea that AA
> had possibly distorted the early scholarship in the field (including,
> for instance, mine!): by subtly introducing an unduly righteous tone
> toward unregenerate alcoholic authors as well as the possibly rigid
> notion that sobriety goes with superior literary production, in  
> terms of
> quantity and quality too.  Perhaps a dubious idea; for some writers
> (e.g. Styron) report the virtual necessity of alcohol in their  
> literary
> inspiration.  Simply denial?  Just an excuse?  Maybe not?  That's the
> direction George would have taken.  Any fellow travelers?  (I once  
> tried
> out this approach in a short piece on James Whitcomb Riley, all of  
> whose
> best poetry was written under the influence and none of whose sober
> poetry has ever been considered worth a damn.)
>
> John W. Crowley, U of Alabama
>
>
>
> -- 
> David M. Fahey
> Professor of History
> Miami University
> Oxford, Ohio 45056
> USA