The Academic Search Committee Encounters the Competent

Every once in a while, as I stumble around the web, I encounter something that truly amuses and is worth passing along. Go to this site and enjoy reading how today's typical academic search committee would evaluate such literary luminaries as Chekhov, Dante, Socrates, Orwell, and others. To whet your appetite for the rest, here's the evaluation of Jane Austen:

Name of applicant: Austen, Jane

At times a charming candidate, but too coy to fit into our department of women's studies. A bit too pleased with herself, say the senior members of the committee, and clever but already outdated, think the younger ones, who tried to engage her, but received pithy witticisms rather than engaged debate. She displayed a queer aversion to critical terminology, and sketched the layout of the hotel conference room and lobby as she fielded our questions. Occasionally amusing, with a tact that may not help her to be valued as a serious scholar, she seemed uninformed by contemporary models. Her research on the paradigms of marriage and status among the landed gentry proved disappointing in person. When asked how she would integrate an understanding of alterity into her work, she remarked that it concerned other than her immediate interests.

...gotta love it.