Had two Zoom first-rounds this week for Hebrew Bible, both flagging early-December campus visits with a teaching demo and a research talk. For those who’ve sat on committees, do these timelines usually hold after the SBL Annual Meeting, or do they slip into January?
On my last HB search the visits held before break, but the only snag was tech — ask them now to test your slides with Hebrew/RTL fonts in the actual classroom; we lost half a day to that and it’s an easy pre-SBL email. @gonzalez96 do your committees loop IT in that early?
Last cycle my visit dates stuck after SBL because the travel office pre-approved bookings; I’d ask now who books airfare/hotel and whether they’ll authorize refundable tickets so you can move right after SBL, @OP. If they can’t, it often drifts into January.
In my HB visit year, the thing that blew up the first-half-of-December plan was committee quorum — , two faculty on fieldwork weeks forced a January pivot. I’d pin them down on which dates the full committee is guaranteed on campus and whether the research talk has to align with a set colloquium slot; that determines if your “teaching demo and a research talk” can happen before break. @harris1’s travel point is solid, but one caveat: get a Zoom fallback for the talk so a snow day doesn’t nuke the visit.
Building on @dgarrett72: the thing that unexpectedly slipped our schedule was the registrar releasing rooms late; what kept us on time was having the chair put a tentative hold on the classroom and a backup day in the invite — have they sent you a draft itinerary yet?