Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

Located in Lewiston, Maine, Bates is internationally recognized as a leading liberal arts college. We are proud to offer a highly personalized education that centers on deep and sustained interactions among students, faculty, and community. We are engaging the forces — intellectual trends, demographic changes, and technology — that are transforming higher education and the world into which our students graduate.

Bates College’s Program in Environmental Studies invites applications for a full-time, tenure track position in environmental arts or humanities, to begin August 1, 2025. We seek an outstanding scholar/artist with strong commitments to excellent undergraduate teaching and mentorship in a liberal arts context.

Bates’ Program in Environmental Studies is a vibrant, multi-disciplinary community. We seek a scholar in cultural studies, literature, or the visual arts who is attentive to hierarchies of power and privilege and can offer cross-cultural and/or transnational perspectives on environmental traditions. Fields and research approaches are open, but could include: critical race theory, ecocriticism and nature writing, ecofeminism/feminist environmentalism, energy humanities, blue humanities, Indigenous and post-/de-/anti-colonial environmentalisms, posthumanism and animal studies, and queer ecologies.

The position carries a standard five-course annual teaching load. The duties of the position include the three main areas of faculty work: teaching, professional achievement, and governance and engagement. The standards of excellence for faculty at Bates are articulated in Article II of the faculty handbook , and include a commitment to inclusive and evidence-based pedagogy, impactful professional work, and contributions to the broader Bates community. The successful applicant will offer courses in their area of expertise. Faculty also teach in the general education curriculum, provide academic advising, and mentor student theses. Successful candidates will be expected to develop a signature and independent scholarly or artistic program. Faculty also take part in our system of shared governance.

Bates students come from a diversity of educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, and we are committed to each student’s success. Thus, candidates may choose to provide evidence of their skills and experience supporting a diverse student body either in a separate, additional document or integrated into the teaching and research statements. We encourage applications from individuals from historically marginalized groups and from those who may have followed non-traditional pathways to higher education due to societal, economic, or academic circumstances. Applicants may choose to describe the breadth of their teaching repertoire, for example, how they have worked with, or plan to work with, historically underrepresented, first-generation, and marginalized student populations.

Bates College is a residential liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine—a diverse and growing community roughly 45 minutes from the state’s largest city, 2 ½ hour north of Boston, and 4 ½ hours south of Montreal. Faculty scholarship and creative work at Bates are robustly supported by start-up packages, internal grants, and a well-staffed external grants office. Community-engaged learning and study abroad are both broadly encouraged and supported; pedagogical development and innovation is further buttressed by a new Center of Inclusive Teaching and Learning .

Educational access and racial justice are central to Bates’ history and mission and our faculty-led initiatives reflect this commitment .

A terminal degree is required.

Review of applications will begin on October 1, 2024 . Applications should include:

1. a cover letter (including a brief overview of scholarly work and a list of potential courses)

2. a curriculum vitae

3. a statement of teaching philosophy (2 pages) that describes how the applicant meets Bates’ standards of excellence in terms of inclusive and evidence-based pedagogy

4. a research statement (2 pages), that speaks to the current and future promise of a candidate’s professional work

5. a sample of their written scholarly work

The search committee will request letters of recommendation from three referees for short-listed candidates. G raduate transcripts will be required of the successful candidate, and employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check and verification of degree.

Bates College is committed to equal opportunity and to providing an educational and work environment free from discrimination. The college prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, and other legally protected statuses in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its education policies and programs, or in the recruitment of its faculty and staff. Bates College adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations. All college faculty, staff, students, contractors, visitors, and volunteers are responsible for understanding and complying with the Non-Discrimination Policy.

Inquiries concerning the college’s policies, compliance with applicable laws, statutes, and regulations (such as Title VII, Title IX, and ADA/Section 504), and complaints may be directed to the Title IX Officer, Gwen Lexow at 207-786-6445 or titleix@bates.edu.