Staff Associate II (Artist in Residence)

The Department of Sociology at Columbia University invites applications for a Staff Associate II to work jointly with the Institute for a Justice Society and the Square One Project, for the period July 1, 2021 through December 31, 2023.
Over the course of two and a half years, the Staff Associate (II) will assist Professors Bernard E. Harcourt and Bruce Western and their team in research, writing, teaching, and will contribute to the development and implementation of an upper-division action-oriented multi-disciplinary curricular program in the humanities, arts, social sciences, public policy, and law, on “Racial Justice and Abolition Democracy.” They will work directly under the supervision of Professor Harcourt to further the intellectual and practical work at the Initiative for a Just Society (IJS) by incorporating an artistic dimension to the IJS’s research and work.

The Staff Associate (II) will focus on integrating the arts into the research and practical projects at the IJS and in the planning and programming of the racial justice and abolition democracy curriculum.

The Research Staff Associate (II):

• Works under the supervision of Professor Harcourt and in partnership with the team at the Square One Project, the project Advisory Board, and other project staff to assist in the development of courses and experiential learning opportunities related to the arts at Columbia and at partner institutions and to integrate them into a cohesive curriculum.

● Works under the supervision of Professor Harcourt to develop art projects, help plan artistic events, and integrate artistic components into the IJS’s work on abolition democracy, the criminal legal system, and new visions and models of responding to state violence or interpersonal harm. They will participate in monthly workshops at the IJS, engage in the intellectual preparation for the IJS’s public seminar series, work on a supervised research project on how the arts can contribute to social justice reform, and work on other arts education programming at the IJS.

● Fosters relationships with community members and activists working on racial justice and abolition democracy.

● May assist instructors in teaching the Racial Justice and Abolition Democracy curriculum.

- Experience in developing and conducting research incorporating the arts into racial justice projects
- Strong organizational and writing skills
- Preference for experience in working in an interdisciplinary environment
- Experience in working and communicating with community members and activists dealing with racial justice and abolition democracy issues
- Strong background in promoting social justice
- At least 2 years of professional work experience