Feeling out academic positions.

Just like happened 3-4 years ago, a very interesting temp position in the EU surfaced in my inbox a few months ago, so once I had my most recent conference proposal together -- it's on a related topic -- I sent a letter of inquiry about a fellowship at that project, which is just starting up (wouldn't it be fun to live and work in the EU?!).

And, the one (EU nationality) PI who I wrote seemed very interested, and now I have to put together a CV to send him.

As this was going on, a major major program in the US put out a tenure track announcement, and my recent research as an outsider to their discipline lastingly corrects some basic, basic sh*t in an area that's at the core of the announcement.

I'm half-thinking of sending them an app; I already have to put together a CV for the EU stuff, and I already have a writing sample, and this is just like 3 pages more I could dash off and listing some references, and paying the Interfolio fee.

The department seems like a disaster because of some highly-publicized unethical tenure stuff that went on with someone who's still there, and it's probably a wrong fit and I'd have worse quality of life and less time to read and write with a job like that -- the academy in the U.S., UK, and Australia has become such a mess! -- but I'm half-interested to see how they'd react to my application, given the superiority of the research; I imagine it'd be the best they'd receive, if they could see it, and if their resentment and/or sh*tty training doesn't cloud their judgment.

What's the worst that could happen -- no interview? -- and what's the best that could happen -- they want me and I try to negotiate tenure, a sweet salary, and no responsibilities, in order to accept the position, and if they say no, I say no?

Although you don't say it like that, my current position is that my major article that's in draft and undergoing peer review right now is so strong, that it alone already deserves swift and automatic granting of tenure at a top program, even prior to acceptance and publication. And that's not having grandiose ideations; that's actually a realistic evaluation of its merits vis-a-vis the field, which is so highly f*cked and so unbelievably sh*tty.

(As I have described the scholarship to others, it's "just levels upon levels of f*cked.")

Overall, though, I have a feeling that if I gain any traction with this line of achievement, it will be outside the U.S., and outside that specific discipline.

Like so many other sectors, though, it's severely declining opportunities and no guarantee of basics, no matter how well you do, as I've found out already over the past like 10-15 years in just multiple, multiple places, where they want you to grovel for sh*t and stay subordinate like that forever, or as they lie about merit and hustle and everything goes to the mediocre people who waltz in with the money and the connections.