Director of the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability (EXPIRED)

The Shepherd Program, founded in 1997 (with generous support from many donors including Tom and Nancy Shepherd) is a pioneering academic program providing undergraduate and law students with innovative interdisciplinary instruction on the subject of poverty. The Shepherd Program sponsors the most popular minor in the Washington and Lee curriculum and serves students majoring in a variety of fields with an integrated array of special courses, supervised internships and community service projects. The program aims to equip students with the knowledge, experience, and commitment necessary to address issues of domestic and international poverty, regardless of their major field of study or eventual career. This position offers unique opportunities for someone interested in providing educational and intellectual leadership on a critical social issue and in creative interdisciplinary teaching.

The new Director of the Shepherd Program must be an enthusiastic and accomplished classroom teacher capable of providing high quality interdisciplinary instruction and student mentorship for the program. The new Director must hold a PhD, or equivalent terminal degree, in a discipline taught at Washington and Lee and have sufficiently broad interests and training to examine and explain the subject of poverty from a variety of perspectives. The ideal candidate will have a substantive background in normative ethics and social philosophy, as well as the ability to apply empirical and public policy perspectives to the problem of poverty. We anticipate that the new Director will have the academic accomplishments that merit a tenured appointment in a department at Washington and Lee, though the Director’s duties will be largely independent of that department. Applications from candidates at an earlier stage of their academic career will also be considered. The Director will teach introductory and capstone courses in the poverty curriculum. Other courses dealing with poverty are taught by instructors across campus and at the law school. The Director will coordinate these teaching efforts, broaden multi-departmental course offerings in the undergraduate and law schools, and serve as academic adviser for students enrolled in the poverty and human capability minor.

In addition to teaching and advising, the Director will administer a four person staff responsible for a number of curricular and co-curricular endeavors, including a summer internship program, a post-graduate fellowship, a pre-orientation program of entering first-year students, community-based learning and research, a Campus Kitchen operation serving the community, alternative-break trips for service and education, and a Bonner Scholar Program for selected student leaders in civic engagement. The Shepherd Program has campus, alumni and community advisory boards and is a member of a new Consortium of colleges and universities that are cooperating to expand and enhance poverty studies at participating institutions. The current director and founder of the Shepherd Program will continue his work as director of the Consortium.

Projects and activities of the Shepherd Program are described in detail at: http://www.wlu.edu/x12034.xml Courses and requirements for the minor in poverty and human capability studies can be found at: http://catalog.wlu.edu/content.php?catoid=7&navoid=451

Applicants for the position of Director of the Shepherd Program should send a letter of interest, vitae and the names of at least three references who may be contacted later in the search. Questions about this position  should be addressed to Interim Provost Robert Strong at the email address below [email protected]. For full consideration, all application materials should be submitted before December 1, 2012 to https://jobs.wlu.edu/postings/1348.

Washington and Lee is an Equal Opportunity employer, committed to excellence through diversity.