Tenure Track Faculty Position in Theatre Performance [Research-Creation]

The School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University invites applications for a tenure-track position in Theatre Performance, at the Assistant Professor level, starting July 15, 2022.

We seek an interdisciplinary artist-scholar with demonstrated expertise in performance research-creation. Applicants must have significant creative-critical output and experience teaching from one or more of the following areas:

• Practice-Based Research;
• Expanded Dramaturgy;
• Creative-Critical/Performative Writing;
• Experimental Performance Ethnography;
• Multi-modal output;
• Archive-Based Practices.
  

Faculty must be able to devise and teach courses that both complement and expand our emergent program, and produce experimental curriculum for students to develop creative research skills at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Additionally, the successful candidate will develop studio-seminar courses in our program to provide students with the artistic, historical, and theoretical contexts of contemporary performance, including live art, devised/postdramatic theatre, social practice, post-studio practice, art intervention, digital/multimedia, extended reality, immersive/site specific, expansive choreographic practices, and design-led creation.

We encourage applications from individuals who identify as members of communities underrepresented in the broad field of contemporary performance.

SCA Theatre-Performance

At the School for the Contemporary Arts, (SCA) we study performance as a worldmaking art practice; as a frame for encountering the past, present, and future; and as open questions we ask through rigorous studio experimentation: What can performance do? Why make performance now? What new forms can performance take within a contemporary context? What is the future of live performance? At SCA, we empower students to collaborate across disciplines, become versatile artists, and expand the field of live performance. In the Performance BFA track, students explore a broad range of genres and forms, including devised theatre, live art, and social practice. Our program deviates from traditional theatre training by experimenting with contemporary processes of performance, unconventional narrative styles, expanded dramaturgy, experimental forms, new media and creative research. We examine how the fundamentals of performance—time, space, body, text, movement—help us stage our burning political questions, enact necessary social interventions, and advance the broad aesthetic fields of contemporary art.

We seek a colleague to expand the pedagogic aim and scope of our program by supporting performance practices and research beyond traditional theatre training. Our emergent studio and hybrid studio-seminar courses serve six core-curricular groupings in the newly conceived Performance program: Live Acts (a wide range of studio courses on live forms and genres); Body (studio courses on embodiment and movement); Social (exploring collaboration and participation; integrating social practice and activist artmarking): Environment (from site specificity to staged ecologies); Digital / New Media (from live to pre-recorded; extended reality to interactive installation); and Creative Research (courses that train students in experimental methods of research, from expanded dramaturgy to practice based research).

Candidate Qualifications

• A vibrant and continuing performance research-creation practice with significant creative output in one or more of the following areas: live art, devised/postdramatic theatre, social practice, post-studio practice, art intervention, digital/multimedia, extended reality, immersive/site specific, expansive choreographic practice, and/or design-led creation.
• An artist-scholar practice which includes multi-modal research and creative-critical writing, experience connecting theory to practice across a range of topics connected to expanded, mediated, non-traditional theatre and performance practices; commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Ability to clearly articulate the theoretical and historical contexts of their area of creative research.
• Experience working effectively, flexibly, collaboratively, and ethically with diverse communities of artists, educators and students across the university and local groups.
• Capacity for excellence in teaching and mentorship across areas of research, context, process, and technique.
• Established interest and capability in self-sufficient, hands-on making as well as the ability to guide and unify full-scale productions with modest resources.
• MA, MFA, or PhD in a field or discipline of relevance.

Candidate Assets

• Interest and capability in working with an anti-racist and decolonial framework to develop coursework; commitment to challenging Western training conventions and hierarchies of knowledge; and ability to incorporate sustainable practices and values in observance of building anti-racist production models.
• History of collaborations or exchange in producing original contemporary performance.
• Experience with development and presentation of original work internationally.
• Interest in collaboratively building new curricula and contributing to the articulation of the future of the area.
• Experience in supporting and mentoring post-grad students.
• Interest in contributing to and/or leading initiatives that serve the mandate of SCA and the university within local and international communities.
• Experience in the not-for-profit sector, grant writing, and/or arts administration.

Position Responsibilities

• Teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students within and across programs at SCA. The normal teaching load for a research faculty member is four courses (or their equivalent) annually.
• Hands-on supervision of creative student projects outside of class time; student mentorship.
• Maintaining and developing robust artistic and creative research practices.
• Under SFU policy, research responsibilities require faculty to maintain a program of active artistic practice at local, national, and international levels outside of the university. Research at the School for The Contemporary Arts within SFU is defined as the generation of knowledge and innovation through artistic expression, experimentation, and/or scholarship.
• Contribute to the advancement and growth of the School; assist in student recruitment.
• The School is committed to an open, collegial, and inclusive style of governance. The position will contribute to this shared governance and advancement of SCA mission through service and committee participation. Under SFU policy, service also refers to “the annual contributions that faculty make to university governance, to their profession, to the development of their discipline nationally, internationally or locally, and to the furthering of good relations between the university and the local community.”

About the School for the Contemporary Arts

At Simon Fraser University, we live and work on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

The SCA, situated in downtown Vancouver, offers a unique curriculum in which studio classes are integrated with the historical and theoretical study of the arts. This is rooted in attention to critical contemporary issues as well as our commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration both within the classroom and beyond. The SCA offers BFAs in Dance; Film; Music and Sound; Theatre-Performance; Production and Design; Visual Art; a BA in Art, Performance and Cinema Studies as well as an interdisciplinary MFA, and a MA and PhD in Contemporary Arts.

Application Instructions

Candidates are asked to submit:

• a cover letter of application outlining creative and scholarly background, with indication of citizenship and/or residency status (1-2 pages);
• a current curriculum vitae;
• statement of teaching and mentorship philosophy that includes your commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in the classroom and beyond (2 pages);
• a sample of creative-critical writing (excerpts accepted; 10 pages maximum);
• a statement of creative research (1-2 pages);
• links to 3-5 samples of creative works. Samples may include specific video or photo documentation. Please provide URLs with brief descriptions of each submission;
• the names and email addresses for three confidential referees (letters of reference may be requested at a later date).

Submit all applications by email to Elspeth Pratt, Director, c/o Samantha Diamond, scasec@sfu.ca.

Review of applications will begin on December 15th, 2021 and continue until the position is filled. To ensure full consideration applications should be submitted by this date. Please note that materials submitted will not be returned.

Simon Fraser University’s strength is based on our shared commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the pursuit of decolonization, Indigenization, and reconciliation. Diversity is an underlying principle of our Strategic Vision, which pledges SFU to “foster a culture of inclusion and mutual respect, celebrating the diversity reflected among its students, faculty, staff, and our community.” Simon Fraser University is committed to employment equity and welcomes applications from qualified people of all genders, visible minorities, persons of aboriginal and/or Indigenous heritage, disabled people, and LGTBQ2S+ persons.

The position is subject to availability of funds and final approval by the SFU Board of Governors. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority. Under the authority of the University Act, personal information required by the University for academic appointment competitions will be collected. For further details see:

https://www.sfu.ca/vpacademic/faculty_openings/collection_notice.html

For more information about our School and our university, please visit: https://www.sfu.ca/sca