Senior Instructional Professor (Open Rank) and Director of Dance Program, Committee on TAPS

The Humanities Collegiate Division and the Committee on Theater & Performance Studies (TAPS) at the University of Chicago are accepting applications for a Senior Instructional Professor (open rank) who will direct TAPS’s curriculum in Dance, teach up to five courses a year in that curriculum (course load dependent on the additional duties), and develop co-curricular offerings in Dance at the University of Chicago. This is a full-time position with a three-year renewable term, to start September 1, 2021.

The Director of Dance will be responsible for planning, staffing, and coordinating all dance courses, including the supervision and evaluation of unionized lecturers. Teaching is a mainstay of the position, and therefore we seek candidates who are highly effective teachers of movement-based and discussion-based classes. Possible course offerings can encompass but are not limited to specialized offerings in a variety of historical, contemporary, and emerging dance idioms, the history/theory of dance, the fundamentals of movement, and dance composition and choreography. The Director will also develop the profile and mission of the Dance Program in Theater and Performance Studies, and advance the Program’s broad-based commitment to performance practice as a mode of embodied research. The Director of Dance will support ongoing efforts at the Logan Center for the Arts and the University to work with local dance organizations. Finally, the Director will be responsible for supporting the co-curricular student dance activities at the University by serving as an advisor to student-run dance organizations, organizing non-credit-bearing master classes and workshops, and working directly with student dancers and choreographers on independent projects and career development. The course assignments and other duties of the Director of Dance will be determined annually by the Chair of the Committee on Theater & Performance Studies.

A bachelor's degree is required; an MFA or PhD is preferred, or evidence of commensurate work outside the academy. Applicants must have at least five years of professional experience in dance and/or choreography, as well as extensive teaching experience at the university or post-secondary level.

Applicants should submit their applications through the University of Chicago’s Interfolio website, apply.interfolio.com/86105  and upload a current curriculum vitae; the names and contact information [email, regular mail, and telephone] for three references whose letters of recommendation may be solicited, a cover letter of no more than three pages that addresses professional experience, previous teaching experience, a vision for developing a dance program at a research university, and approaches to pedagogy.  Short-listed candidates may be asked to provide a teaching video.

Applications are due by May 9, 2021. Only complete applications will be reviewed.

The position is contingent upon budgetary approval.

Please contact Vicki Walden (vwalden@uchicago.edu) with any questions.

The Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies is committed to fostering equity and inclusivity in our study and practice of the arts. We believe that reckoning with the pervasive biases of our cultural structures, including our aesthetic paradigms, is crucial to our Program’s work. We seek a Director of Dance who wishes to engage with and contribute to this mission.  

We seek a diverse pool of applicants who wish to join an academic community that places the highest value on rigorous inquiry and encourages diverse perspectives, experiences, groups of individuals, and ideas to inform and stimulate intellectual challenge, engagement, and exchange. The University’s Statements on Diversity are at https://provost.uchicago.edu/statements-diversity.

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/Disabled/Veterans Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, status as an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination.

Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-702-1032 or email equalopportunity@uchicago.edu with their request.