<p>Sconsindude, </p>
<p>If I were to read the CV of every single member of the English Department at UWEC, I would still have no way to judge the reputation of the department, or the quality of those scholars’ publications. </p>
<p>I don’t know if the department chair’s PhD from The University of South North Dakota at Hoople is a signal that she studied with the premier Jack London scholar in the US, or if she simply couldn’t get into a better program. In other words, I don’t know whose mentors were bigwigs and whose were hacks. Similarly, I have no idea whether “The Mark Twain Quarterly,” in which the department’s 19th c. Americanist regularly publishes, is a prestigious journal or just an irregularly-issued cluster of papers most suitable for bathroom use.</p>
<p>I can look at any department or any CV in my own field and provide an informed opinion about that department’s quality, or that person’s qualifications. I cannot do this outside my field.</p>