Tenure-track Position in Women’s and Gender Studies

Tenure-track Position in Women’s and Gender Studies

Berea College, home of the new bell hooks center, invites applicants for an Assistant Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies to begin in August 2022. Applicants must have a PhD in hand, preferably in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies or a complementary interdisciplinary field. The candidate will teach six classes each year, including the department’s introductory survey course—Decolonizing Feminism—as well as a queer and trans studies course, and a feminist and queer dis/ability studies course. The candidate is also expected to teach two classes each year in the General Education program.

Teaching and research expertise in the following areas are preferred: women-of-color feminism(s), anti-racist and anti-colonial feminism(s), sexuality studies, and disability studies. We especially welcome training and expertise in Native approaches to feminism, including Indigenous re/visions of (white) feminism’s institutionalization of queer and trans studies; as well as expertise in the intersection of Indigeneity and dis/ability, broadly construed.

Berea College, the first interracial and co-educational college in the South, remains committed to grappling with race and gender equity through its Eight Great Commitments. It’s motto and mission—to make of one blood “all peoples of the earth”—reflects these values. As such, we seek candidates who are committed to excellence in teaching in a liberal arts environment in which all members of the campus community—students, administrators, faculty, and staff, regardless of race and/or gender differences—seek to learn from and about each other. We also seek candidates whose professional research reflects these values, and whose mentorship of students are informed by these values.

Applicants should submit: (1) a letter of application; (2) an up-to-date curriculum vitae; (3) graduate transcripts; (4) a teaching portfolio, including teaching evaluations from two recent courses, a statement of teaching philosophy, and (preferably) sample syllabi; (5) a one-page research statement; (6) a 15-20 page writing sample; (7) a one-page diversity statement describing how the applicant’s scholarship and teaching will contribute to Berea College’s Great Commitments (found at https://www.berea.edu/the-great-commitments/); and (8) three letters of recommendation to: https://tinyurl.com/y9aw57w5. Review of applications will begin October 15, 2021 and continue until the position is filled.

Founded in 1855, Berea College achieved national distinction as the first coeducational and interracial college in the South. Berea has a longstanding commitment to interracial education and is one of the most racially diverse private liberal arts colleges in the United States. With an emphasis on service to Appalachia and beyond, Berea enrolls 1,600 students from 43 states and U.S. territories and more than 70 countries. Berea College only admits students who are unable to afford tuition and provides all of them a no-tuition promise, valued at more than $178,000 over four years. Berea’s students excel in the College’s supportive yet demanding academic environment, and many are the first in their families to graduate college. As one of nine federally recognized Work Colleges, all Berea students hold a position in which they work 10-12 hours weekly. In 2021, Berea College once again topped the list of “Best Value Colleges” in the nation in The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education (THE) College Rankings. Berea’s no-tuition model contributed to its No. 1 best-value ranking. Forbes cited a 2021 study of nearly 400 colleges in the United States, in which Berea College ranks second in terms of affordability and academic quality. And in 2021 The Princeton Review cited Berea College as “one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduates to earn their college degree.” The publication also recognized Berea as a Best Value College, based on academic rigor, affordability and graduates’ career outcomes; a Best Green College; and a Tuition-Free School.

Located where the Bluegrass Region meets the Cumberland Mountains, the town of Berea (pop. 16,000) lies forty miles south of Lexington and is approximately two hours from Cincinnati, Louisville, and Knoxville. More information about Berea College is available at www.berea.edu.

Berea College, in light of its mission in the tradition of impartial love and social equality, welcomes all people of the earth to learn and work here.