Assistant or Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture

Posting Details

Position Information

Title

Assistant or Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture

Department

Landscape Architecture

Division

Architecture & Design

Employment Type

Full-Time

Critical Review Track (similar to tenure track)

Yes

Position Description

The Department of Landscape Architecture in the Division of Architecture and Design invites applications for a full-time faculty appointment at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor, to begin in the Fall 2022.

Rhode Island School of Design recognizes diversity and inclusivity as fundamental to its learning community and integral to an art and design education. We welcome candidates whose experience in teaching, scholarship, professional practice, or service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence.

The Landscape Architecture Department seeks candidates who are accomplished designers, have a clear and compelling research agenda, and significant administrative experience. Candidates should be able to teach a range of foundational and advanced graduate level studios and seminars that relate to the core tracks of the graduate curriculum: ecology and hydrology, material technology and assembly, visualization, historical and global contexts, contemporary and critical theories, and community engagement. A successful candidate will have a clear understanding of how their work could strengthen the opportunities that arise from teaching landscape architecture at an art and design school, and be able to articulate possibilities for engaging interdisciplinary work across the school. Applicants whose work centers on underrepresented or marginalized cultures or traditions are encouraged to apply.

The Department is particularly interested in candidates with robust administrative experience who are able to articulate a vision for collaborative and inspired leadership within an academic department. Candidates should possess the ability and desire to work collaboratively as part of a creative team of faculty. Successful candidates will join faculty colleagues with diverse skills and experiences in stewarding the development and growth of the Department.

Required Qualifications

The department seeks candidates with a master’s degree or higher in landscape architecture. Candidates must demonstrate excellence in teaching graduate-level students. Good interpersonal skills, clarity, generosity, and creativity in both personal work and teaching are essential. Candidates must be able to support a culturally diverse group of students in the development of their design and leadership skills. Applicants for the Associate level position should have 5 or more years of experience teaching design studios and seminars.

All candidates are expected to have a clear research agenda or design practice that compliments the mission and focus of the landscape architecture department at RISD . This can be demonstrated through academic publications, organized symposia, curated exhibitions, installations, and/or significant built work.

Preferred Qualifications

The Department is particularly interested in applicants who would enter at the Associate or advanced Assistant level with robust administrative experience from either practice or academia. Ideal applicants would have experience leading outreach and recruitment efforts, managing faculty and students or employees, and engaging in the daily administrative tasks associated with overseeing a department or firm. Reflections on team-teaching or working well with others would be a useful addition to the application and/or letters of support. The department head position rotates every few years, and candidates should be prepared to step into the headship position.

Department /RISD Description

Rhode Island School of Design is an undergraduate and graduate college of art and design with approximately 2,400 graduate and undergraduate students. RISD supports faculty professional practice with sabbaticals, pre-critical review leave, conference funds, and professional development grants. RISD has a critical review process, which is very similar to the tenure process. For more information about RISD, please visit www.risd.edu.

Landscape Architecture Departmental Information:

• Degree Programs:
  • 3 Year MLA l
  • 2 Year MLA ll
  • RISD /University of Rhode Island Joint Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture and Marine Affairs
• Size: 85 Students
• Faculty: 7 Full Time, 20 Part Time

Departmental mission statement: At RISD, Landscape Architecture is understood as a discipline that operates at the interface between the cultural and natural worlds, addressing design issues inherent in a range of typologies and scales from specific sites to global systems. The MLA program prepares students to thoughtfully engage the increasingly complex issues associated with these environments through a unique program based on critical making and process oriented design that combines investigations and research in the traditional territories of landscape architecture – natural systems, ecology, and human environments – with intuitive and creative ways of thinking, seeing, and making. Our mission is to prepare innovative, ethical, and inspired designers who will lead in the realms of professional practice, intellectual discourse, education and policy making and who will challenge and expand the boundaries of landscape architecture.

Students and faculty in the landscape architecture department at RISD are surrounded by artists and designers that engage a wide range of media and critical art practices, and we believe that these adjacencies allow us to shape a unique pedagogical approach to landscape architecture. Our program bridges intuitive and analytical thinking, encourages hands-on research into material practices, and explores opportunities for cross-disciplinary experimentation. With a deep emphasis on the practices of critical making, our students use and hybridize a range of methods across artistic and design practices, as well as across hand and digital platforms.

At RISD Landscape we explore a wide range of global contexts, but are also deeply rooted in the coastal context of Rhode Island. In 2018 we launched a dual-degree program with the Department of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, and we see this as an extension of our commitment to bridging art, design, and scientific disciplines as we take on increasingly urgent hydrological issues associated with climate change. Across all contexts, we engage scales from the region down to the detail, with an emphasis on teaching our students how to design with physical and phenomenal materials that shape space.

Faculty Responsibilities

All full-time faculty are required to teach six “teaching units” per year which translates to two studios (2 teaching units each) and two seminars or lecture courses (1 teaching unit each) each year. Department heads are provided with teaching releases and are only required to teach 4 teaching units each year. In addition to teaching commitments, full-time faculty are expected to maintain a professional practice, serve on college committees, advise students, participate in curriculum development and other departmental activities and projects, and contribute to the vibrancy of the intellectual life of the college. RISD supports faculty professional practice with sabbaticals, pre-critical review leave, conference funding, and professional development grants.

Union

Yes

Pre-employment Requirement

The successful candidate will be required to meet our pre-employment background screening requirements.

Special Instructions to Applicants

Please attach the following to the appropriate links and the section labeled “Documents Needed to Apply”:

1. Letter of Intent – Description of qualifications, areas of specialization, and reasons for applying to RISD .
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Teaching Philosophy – Discussion of teaching approach and experience, a brief description of courses you would be interested in teaching at RISD, as well as a discussion of how you create a dynamic, inclusive, and collaborative classroom environment.
4. Research Agenda – Summary of research goals, outcomes and future plans. (attach to the section labeled “Other 1”)
5. Digital Portfolio with images of professional work (20 pages maximum).
6. Digital Portfolio with images of student work accompanied by brief course descriptions (20 pages maximum).
7. Examples of Course Syllabi (2-3 samples).

Names and contact information for three references are requested as part of the application process. Requests for reference letters are sent directly to the reference providers when candidates become semi-finalists.

*Rank will be dependent on years of in-rank teaching experience and professional status.

Review of applications begins immediately and continues until the position is filled. Candidates who submit their materials by December 15, 2021, are assured full consideration.

EEO Statement

RISD is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetics, or any other protected characteristic as established by law.

Posting Detail Information

Posting Number

F00071P

Open Date

Close Date

Open Until Filled

Yes
Supplemental Questions

Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Documents Needed To Apply
Required Documents

1. Cover Letter
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Portfolio of Professional Work
4. Portfolio of Student Work
5. Teaching Philosophy
6. Sample Syllabi
7. Other 1

Optional Documents