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

The Humanities Collegiate Division and the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) at the University of Chicago are accepting applications for a Senior Instructional Professor (open rank) who will bring artistic vision and experience to design in curriculum and production. The Director will teach between two and four courses per academic year (the course load will be determined annually in consultation with the Chair). Other duties include participating in the selection of the TAPS-sponsored productions, and designing or appointing designers for them; supervising the program’s 7 professional production and design staff, evaluating and supervising unionized lecturers teaching design-related courses in TAPS, advising undergraduate and graduate student on the design of their performance projects, consulting with the approximately 20 active student theater and performance groups, developing curriculum, and overseeing the training and mentorship of students in design and production. This is a full-time position with a three-year renewable term, to start September 1, 2023.

The Director of Design will join a program with a rich tradition of student-led performing arts; an energetic community of majors, minors, and co-curricular performers; and a diverse performance curriculum including a growing dance program and a multi-disciplinary PhD program committed to performance-based experimentation and inquiry. In addition to teaching existing courses like “Introduction to Production,” “How Design Thinks,” and the Arts Core course “Introduction to Design,” the Director will envision a suite of design courses on TAPS’s seminar-studio model. The Director will participate in the appointment of instructors for those courses and supervise their teaching. The Director will be responsible for the design of the Program’s Professional Shows (up to 3 per year), which bring leaders in the performing arts to campus to collaborate with student performers. When appropriate, they will create applied learning experiences that will interface with those productions.

An MFA is required; a PhD is preferred. Applicants must have professional experience in arts and arts administration; they must have teaching experience at the university or post-secondary level. Experience in arts leadership is preferred.

Applicants should submit their applications through the University of Chicago’s Interfolio website, http://apply.interfolio.com/122637, and upload a current curriculum vitae; a teaching statement and sample syllabus; 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, inclusive of previous administrative and teaching experience, and that offers a cohesive vision for the TAPS culture of performance at the University of Chicago, a leading research university located on the South Side of Chicago and embedded in our neighborhood’s rich history of arts creation and presentation.

Applications are due April 17, 2023. Only complete applications will be reviewed. The position is contingent upon budgetary approval.

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

All University departments and institutes are charged with building a faculty from a diversity of backgrounds and with diverse viewpoints; with cultivating an inclusive community that values freedom of expression; and with welcoming and supporting all their members.

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 773-834-3988 or email equalopportunity@uchicago.edu with their request.