Visiting Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow in Native and Indigenous Studies

Visiting Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow in Native and Indigenous Studies

Hamilton College invites applications for a two-year visiting faculty fellow in Native and Indigenous Studies with the possibility of a one-year extension, beginning July 1, 2024. We welcome applications from early career candidates who will have a PhD, MFA, or other terminal degree in hand by the start date of the appointment. Hamilton College places the highest value on undergraduate teaching; consequently, we seek teacher-scholars who can demonstrate a capacity in their supporting materials for excellent teaching and who have a commitment to working effectively with a student population that is broadly diverse with regard to gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, and religion. We encourage and welcome applications from members of groups traditionally underrepresented in the faculties of higher education institutions.

This position requires vision, initiative, and a desire to join a Hamilton community eager to incorporate Native and Indigenous issues throughout the curriculum and to build a Native and Indigenous Studies program. This initiative will draw curricular and thematic connections across departments, areas, and faculty and enhance the presence of Native and Indigenous Studies on campus, and provide more formal connections between faculty and the Wellin Museum of Art where several exhibits in the past 10 years have focused on the relationship of Indigenous Studies within a liberal arts education.  Equally important, the initiative also aspires to develop and strengthen the relationship between the College, the Oneida Indian Nation, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy through shared programing and community connections.

Through the various activities of this fellowship and with the creation of a Native and Indigenous Studies program, our hope is that Hamilton students will be able to: identify the relationship between colonial and decolonized approaches to knowledge creation and understanding; critically analyze materials and their contexts to draw connections between the past, present, and future; identify disciplinary practice and the creation of social, structural, and institutional hierarchies; and be able to conduct their own interdisciplinary research with a focus on Native and Indigenous lifeways.

Fellowship Terms

The salary range for this position will be $74,400-76,900 plus $5,000 per year for research expenses in addition to at least one conference trip. The College also provides health insurance benefits, relocation subsidy and college housing eligibility, and academic support including office space and a computer.

During the period of residence at Hamilton, in collaboration with each other, fellows will propose, develop, and each offer three courses per academic year. The visiting faculty fellows will also undertake initiative-related work, which includes:

(i) work with the initiative to create programming and bring speakers to campus,

(ii) help organize a symposium and campus-wide events,

(iii) participate in campus discussions to build a Native and Indigenous Studies program,

(iv) collaborate in foundation grant writing to support the initiative as appropriate

(v) work with other departments or the Wellin Museum of Art to create curricula or courses that support Native and Indigenous Studies

(vi) guest teach or guest lecture in courses as needed/requested

(vii) work on collaborative projects between the Oneida Indian Nation and the College when appropriate to their field of expertise

Qualifications

We seek candidates whose work engages with any one or more of the following thematic areas, particularly in ways centered in the American Northeast and/or the region’s hemispheric and global connections.

■ Cultural Expression and Performance: oral history, communication, and transmitting generational knowledge as performing or studio arts. Areas of emphasis could include literature, creative writing, visual studies, art history, dance, theater, studio art, and/or music, with a focus on communicating generational knowledge within and between Indigenous Peoples, and with external audiences.

■ Environmental Indigenous Studies: climate change, environmental ethics, political action, ethnobotany, climate justice, and tribal governance.

■ Identity and Indigenous Traditions: gender, sexuality, and feminism, ethics, critical sovereignty, and queer theory.

■ Indigeneity and Policy: Federal Law and Policy, land acknowledgement and representation, Indigenous histories and philosophies, and Institutional and Social Geography in the study of place.

■ Indigenous Health: traditional medicine, population-specific vulnerabilities (addiction, diabetes), healthcare discrepancies, mental health, spirituality, conceptualizations of the mind.

■ Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Placemaking and local knowledge, metaphysics, intersection of indigenous knowledge and scientific understandings, museums, heritage display, curatorial practice, and material culture studies.

■ Languages: Native North American language and communicative norms as well as global indigenous cultural and language revitalization efforts: Indigenous Language Revitalization, Indigenous Oral Traditions, Indigenous Cultural Revitalization Movements.

Application Instructions

Applications should be submitted http://apply.interfolio.com/137015 and should include:

■ a cover letter with a description of your research and teaching interests/experience;

■ a CV;

■ a one- to two-page statement describing your work in community engagement;

■ a 500-word statement explaining why this fellowship would be significant to your professional life; and

■ Names of three professional references (letters will be requested for finalists).

Review of applications will begin on January 20, 2024 and will remain open until the position is filled. As this is an expressly interdisciplinary initiative, we encourage interested candidates to identify at least two academic units from those listed below with which they might affiliate and/or offer courses.

Participating departments and programs:

●       American Studies

●       Digital Arts

●       Environmental Studies

●       Geosciences

●       Latin American Studies

●       Philosophy

●       Psychology

●       Religious Studies

●       Sociology

●       Theatre

●       Women’s and Gender Studies

Inquiries should be sent to the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Anthropology, Nathan Goodale ([email protected]) or NAIS Faculty Fellow and Visiting Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Brianna Burke ([email protected]).

Hamilton College is a residential liberal arts college located in central New York. The College has built its reputation on the teaching excellence and leading scholarship of its faculty, and on the academic distinction and intellectual curiosity of its approximately 2000 students who take advantage of Hamilton’s open curriculum (https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/open-curriculum). Accomplished faculty, highly capable and motivated students, and a student-faculty ratio of 9:1 provide an educational experience that emphasizes academic excellence, intellectual and cultural diversity, and respect for differences in the development of students as human beings. Hamilton’s commitment to diversity is embodied in its need-blind admission policy and meeting the full demonstrated financial need of every accepted student for their entire undergraduate program. Please visit the college website for more information (www.hamilton.edu). 

Hamilton College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer that is committed to building an inclusive and diverse learning community where members from all backgrounds can live, learn, and excel. We encourage candidates from underrepresented groups in higher education to apply. Applicants with dual-career considerations can find other Hamilton and nearby academic job listings at https://www.hercjobs.org/regions/higher-ed-careers-upstate-new-york/, as well as additional information at https://www.hamilton.edu/dof/faculty-development/resources-for-prospective-or-new-faculty/opportunities-for-spouses-or-partners (Opportunities for Spouses or Partners). Hamilton provides domestic partner benefits.