DanielDrezner.com — maintained by University of Chicago assistant professor of political science, Daniel Drezner — is one of the first weblogs that I regularly reviewed and it remains one of my favorites. Over its three year existence, it has become one of the most popular academic blogs in the blogosphere.
Professor Drezner disclosed this past weekend that his application for tenure at the University of Chicago had been denied and that, as a result, he will be moving on from his position there. This New York Sun article (hat tip to Howard Bashman) is already speculating that Professor Drezner’s popular blog was one of the factors working against him in the notoriously stuffy academic world of considering tenure applications. Larry Ribstein — who is at the forefront of addressing academic issues relating to blogging — has more analysis here.
Regardless of whether Professor Drezner’s blogging had any effect on the rejection of his tenure application, my sense is that this is a temporary setback for him. He is an insightful commentator on politics generally, and on foreign affairs and political economy issues in particular, so he will not be without gainful employment opportunities for long. UChicago’s loss will be someone else’s gain.