Assistant Professor, Race and Health in the United States and/or African diaspora

Assistant Professor, Race and Health in the United States and/or African diaspora

The College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia is launching a new faculty hiring initiative devoted to Race, Justice and Equity, building on a broad range of recent commitments, including an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded project to hire 10 Tenure/Tenure Track faculty working on the Global South; an expansion and University endowment commitment to the Carter Woodson Institute and Department of African-American and African Studies; the establishment of the Dean’s Doctoral Fellowships to enhance our recruitment of underrepresented graduate students; and a parallel new project in collaboration with the Mellon Foundation to appoint 30 Race, Justice, and Equity Postdoctoral and Arts fellows across the University (20 in Arts & Sciences).

These commitments further our mission as a public university, dedicated to the promise of democratic life, and consistently engaged with the unfinished struggles for democracy, freedom, and justice with which our national and institutional histories are so deeply entangled. The present historical moment—and the deep histories that have produced it—call us to engage with renewed urgency the particular histories of inequality affecting Black communities in the United States and across the globe. Our hiring, research, teaching, and institutional practices and commitments must respond to that call.

As part of this newest initiative, UVA Arts & Sciences is launching a cluster of 10 new tenured/tenure track searches for faculty members working in Black studies in national and global contexts, with intersecting fields of interest across disciplinary domains. Appointments will span multiple fields: Music and Sound Studies, Black Political Thought and Philosophy; Sociology of Race; Black Feminist Theory; Studio and Digital Art; Race, Media and Technology; Black Diaspora and Latinx studies; Environmental Justice; Race and Health, Black Youth studies. We will launch five of these searches immediately and the next five in the Fall of 2021.

These new faculty members will join a community of colleagues at UVA already working in and across disciplines on the social, cultural, political, historical, and environmental questions that are central to African, African-American, and Diaspora communities across the US and around the world. The University of Virginia’s location and history necessitates that we sustain and expand research and teaching in these areas.

The Carter G. Woodson Institute and Department of African American and African Studies invites applications for an assistant professorship specializing in the study of race and health in the United States and/or African diaspora, with a start date in the fall of 2021. We seek candidates whose research and teaching focus on racial disparities in health care, health outcomes, and life expectancy, and/or address the historical, social, political, and economic experiences of persons of color within health and medicine. We invite applications from across the range of humanities and social science disciplines. Desirable research and teaching interests include (but are not limited to) the relation of race to:

• pandemics
• mental or physical health outcomes and life expectancy
• public health and police-associated violence
• interactions with medical care providers
• reproductive justice
• the social construction of medical knowledge and expertise
• medical ethics
• insurance coverage and health-care access
• the environment (water and sanitation)
• the criminalization of drug addiction and the War on Drugs
• marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies
• medical diagnoses/misdiagnoses

We seek candidates who show exceptional promise as scholars and demonstrate a commitment to excellence in teaching and service. We are especially interested in candidates with a background in community-engaged scholarship and teaching. We are also interested in candidates whose work can contribute to several interdisciplinary programs and initiatives in the medical humanities and data science at the university.

Candidates must have their PhD before starting the position.

TO APPLY:

***Please note ALL REQUESTED documents MUST be uploaded in the cv/resume box and you can combine documents into one PDF.***

***Applications that do not contain all the required documents will not receive full consideration.***

Apply online at https://uva.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UVAJobs: search for posting # R0020751, complete the application, and attach the following: ​

• Cover letter that discusses the candidate’s research agenda, teaching philosophy, as well as the candidate’s demonstrated past experience working on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and/or working with diverse populations
• Curriculum vitae
• A writing sample (e.g., a published article, book/dissertation chapter, or unpublished paper)
• Three letters of recommendation that the candidate must request be sent to Randy Swift (Business Manager, Woodson Institute) at rcs2e@virginia.edu.

We will begin to review applications on January 25, 2021, the position will remain open until filled. The appointment begins with the fall term of 2021, with an anticipated start date of August 25, 2021.

For questions about the application process, please contact Andrew Kahrl, Associate Professor at awk6n@virginia.edu. Questions regarding the application process should be directed to: Nicole Robinson, Faculty Search Advisor at nr7f@virginia.edu.

The University will perform background checks on all new faculty hires prior to making a final offer of employment.

UVA assists faculty spouses and partners seeking employment in the Charlottesville area. To learn more please visit https://dualcareer.virginia.edu. For more information about UVA and the Charlottesville community please see http://www.virginia.edu/life/charlottesville and https://embarkcva.com/.