University of Toronto – Mississauga, Department of English & Drama and Department of Visual Studies
November 2nd, 2017
The Department of English and Drama and the Department of Visual Studies at the University of Toronto, Mississauga campus invite applications for a jointly-appointed, full-time, tenure-stream position at the rank of Assistant Professor in the field of Indigenous Digital Arts and Performance. The start date for this position is July 1, 2018.
The Departments welcome applications from emerging researchers or artist-researchers working in and across the fields of Indigenous digital arts and visual culture—including but not limited to digital media art, video games, activism, and design—and digital performance, including but not limited to digitally enhanced performance, virtual performance, and performance inflected by, or engaging with, digital culture. The focus of applicants’ work should be on the experiences of and engagement with Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Applicants must have earned a PhD in Art History, Performance Studies, Theatre Studies, Visual Culture, or another relevant field by July 1, 2018 or shortly thereafter. Alternatively, they must have earned an MFA or equivalent graduate degree and have a strong record of creative professional practice. The successful applicant will have a demonstrated record of excellence in teaching and in research and/or an active and recognised digital arts and performance practice. The successful candidate’s record of research and/or practice, teaching, and service should demonstrate an understanding of Indigenous knowledges, methodologies, epistemologies, pedagogies, and community relations.
The successful candidate’s primary undergraduate Department will depend on their field of expertise, but the candidate will play an important role in undergraduate teaching in both Departments. The candidate will also hold an appointment at the most relevant graduate unit at the University of Toronto, depending on the candidate’s specialisation. The candidate will be expected to teach at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and to engage in teaching practices informed by Indigenous pedagogies. Evidence of excellence in teaching will be demonstrated through teaching accomplishments, letters of reference, and the teaching dossier including a teaching statement and teaching evaluations submitted with the application.
The candidate will also be expected to establish and maintain a strong research and/or research-creation program/creative professional practice that engages with Indigenous experience in Canada, drawing on decolonising and other indigenous perspectives and that is informed by involvement with Indigenous communities, organisations, and institutions. Excellence in research is demonstrated by the quality of the writing sample, publications in top-ranked and field-relevant academic journals, presentations at major conferences, awards and accolades, evidence of an innovative research program, and strong endorsements by referees of high standing. Excellence in research-creation or creative professional practice is demonstrated by the quality of the portfolio; record of exhibitions, performances, and/or projects; awards and grants; evidence of an innovative program of research; and strong endorsements by referees of high standing.
The Department of English and Drama and the Department of Visual Studies are both multi-disciplinary units. The Department of English and Drama offers programs in English, Theatre and Drama Studies, and Canadian Studies. The Department of Visual Studies offers programs in Art History, Art and Art History, Visual Culture, Visual Culture and Communication, and Cinema Studies, and a certificate in Curatorial Studies. The successful candidate will bring a strong program of creative, interdisciplinary, digital media-based research that enhances and builds on the strengths of the Departments in contemporary art, visual culture, and theatre and performance studies. They will be able to draw on the resources of UTM’s hub for the Jackman Humanities Institute’s Digital Humanities Network and to participate in a cross disciplinary project to establish a Centre for Indigenous Studies at UTM. At the graduate level, the candidate will have opportunities to work with students and faculty from across the tri-campus university working in Indigenous Studies and Digital Arts and Performance, e.g. in the Graduate Departments of Art and English; the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance; and the Visual Studies graduate unit at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.
This successful candidate may be nominated for a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair. Nominees should be within ten years of receiving their highest degree. Applicants who are more than 10 years from having earned their highest degree (and where career breaks exist, such as maternity, parental or extended sick leave, clinical training, etc.) may have their eligibility for a Tier 2 chair assessed through the program’s Tier 2 justification process. For further information on these federally endowed chairs, open to all nationalities, including eligibility criteria, please consult the Canada Research Chairs website. For more information about the CRC nomination process at the University of Toronto, contact Judith Chadwick, Assistant Vice-President, Research Services – crc@utoronto.ca.
Salary for this position will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
UTM is part of the tri-campus University of Toronto, a research-intensive institution with an interdisciplinary commitment and a multicultural student body speaking a wide range of languages. The sacred land on which the University of Toronto and UTM operate has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. It is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and, most recently, the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island.
The University is committed to responding to—among other mandates—the Calls to Action of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Government of Ontario’s Indigenous Education Strategy.
All qualified applicants are invited to apply by emailing materials to dvschair.utm@utoronto.ca. Applications should include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, teaching dossier (including a statement of teaching philosophy, sample syllabi, and teaching evaluations), a statement outlining current and future research interests, and a substantial writing sample and/or audiovisual documentation of recent work. Applicants should also ask three referees to send letters directly to the departments via e-mail to edassist.utm@utoronto.ca by the closing date, December 2, 2017. In addition to their reference letters, candidates may, if they wish, include one or more letters from Indigenous elders, leaders, or organisations describing their collaborative work or involvement with Indigenous communities. If you have any questions about this position, please contact Debra Burrowes at dvschair.utm@utoronto.ca or Merrylee Greenan at edassist.utm@utoronto.ca.
For more information about the Department of Visual Studies, please visit https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dvs/. For more information about the Department of English, please visit http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/english-drama/home.
The University recognizes that scholars have varying career paths and that career interruptions due to personal circumstances can be part of an excellent academic record. Search committee members have been instructed to give careful consideration to, and be sensitive to the impact of, career interruptions in their assessments
The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.
Reposted: November 2, 2017
Closes: December 2, 2017
