27th April 2010, 10:18 PM
From BWA .. and heartily supported by BAJR
We'd like you to take part in a campaign to support internationally-known and well-respected archaeometallurgist Gill Juleff, who has been (rather ruthlessly) demoted to a 0.3 teaching post by the University of Exeter.
Dr Juleff is well-known for her excavation work on wind-powered smelting in Sri Lanka, Roman iron smelting in south-west England, and crucible steel production in southern India.
The reason given for Juleff's demotion was that she had failed to achieve her research targets for 2009. These were (1) to raise ?40,000 in external research funds - she actually raised ?83,000; and (2) to publish two articles rated 3* on the RAE scale - she had two articles accepted in World Archaeology and Historical Metallurgy, both now in print.
The decision to demote her rests on the rating of the Historical Metallurgy
article, which 2 of 3 external reviewers rated as 1* (local interest only) - the third reviewer rated it 3*. On this basis she was demoted.
Although the identity of the reviewers is unknown, it has been suggested that none of the three demonstrated any substantial knowledge of the fields of either archaeometallurgy or of South Asian archaeology.
Professor David Killick, who is spearheading the protest against Exeter's decision, suggests both papers to be of "extraordinary quality and very wide international relevance" and finds it hard to understand why the University should choose to effectively end a distinguished career in research over two ill-informed reviews of only two of her articles.
BWA HQ is happy to support Dr Juleff. For us, this is part of the process that sees a gendering of promotion, one that leaves academic archaeology still hovering around the 10% mark re. female professors.
Please show your support for Dr Juleff by writing a quick e-mail to Prof. Steven Smith (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter) protesting that one of our very few senior female role models has been demoted on such shaky grounds: vice-chancellor@exeter.ac.uk
We'd like you to take part in a campaign to support internationally-known and well-respected archaeometallurgist Gill Juleff, who has been (rather ruthlessly) demoted to a 0.3 teaching post by the University of Exeter.
Dr Juleff is well-known for her excavation work on wind-powered smelting in Sri Lanka, Roman iron smelting in south-west England, and crucible steel production in southern India.
The reason given for Juleff's demotion was that she had failed to achieve her research targets for 2009. These were (1) to raise ?40,000 in external research funds - she actually raised ?83,000; and (2) to publish two articles rated 3* on the RAE scale - she had two articles accepted in World Archaeology and Historical Metallurgy, both now in print.
The decision to demote her rests on the rating of the Historical Metallurgy
article, which 2 of 3 external reviewers rated as 1* (local interest only) - the third reviewer rated it 3*. On this basis she was demoted.
Although the identity of the reviewers is unknown, it has been suggested that none of the three demonstrated any substantial knowledge of the fields of either archaeometallurgy or of South Asian archaeology.
Professor David Killick, who is spearheading the protest against Exeter's decision, suggests both papers to be of "extraordinary quality and very wide international relevance" and finds it hard to understand why the University should choose to effectively end a distinguished career in research over two ill-informed reviews of only two of her articles.
BWA HQ is happy to support Dr Juleff. For us, this is part of the process that sees a gendering of promotion, one that leaves academic archaeology still hovering around the 10% mark re. female professors.
Please show your support for Dr Juleff by writing a quick e-mail to Prof. Steven Smith (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter) protesting that one of our very few senior female role models has been demoted on such shaky grounds: vice-chancellor@exeter.ac.uk
