In the fall, Mendes, who also has a Master’s degree in statistics, plans to teach an advanced research methods course that will help seniors learn how to analyze data for their theses.
THROUGH THE RANKS
This year, the faculty hiring process reflected increased attention to assistant and associate professors, and Kirby wrote that this increased support for junior faculty members will continue next year.
The attention was reflected in the fact that three of the professors starting senior positions in the fall were promoted from within their departments in addition to the five junior faculty members promoted last year.
Kirby said new policies were partly behind the shift.
“This year the new appointments procedures came into effect, which meant even greater scrutiny and support than in the past in the hiring of assistant professors,” Kirby wrote in an e-mail.
In October, Kirby announced that all junior faculty members will now receive written assessments from their departments at the beginning of their third year. These assessments give junior faculty members a better indication of their prospects for receiving tenure at a major research university.
In addition, the “blind” letters that Harvard sends to solicit information about a list of potential hires now explicitly mark any Harvard junior professor under consideration. To increase a junior faculty member’s prospects, the letters may including some of his or her work for review.
Thirty new junior faculty members will be starting positions on July 1.
This hiring is part of Kirby’s plan to expand the size of the Faculty of 656 professors to 700 professors or more.
“A greater percentage of searches will be at the assistant and associate professor level, and we will encourage departments to provide opportunities for mentoring and career development, and other forms of support so that our new colleagues may become strong candidates for tenure,” Kirby wrote in an e-mail.
In addition to expressing his support for junior faculty, Kirby said that he is dedicated to keeping his focus on hiring.
“This as every year we emphasize the importance of identifying and recruiting a diverse faculty,” he wrote. “We aim every year to hire the most outstanding faculty at every rank, and to ensure that searches are broad and thorough.”
—Staff writer Sara E. Polsky can be reached at polsky@fas.harvard.edu.