Full Professor, Democracy Initiative

In the fall of 2020, with the generous support of the John L. Nau Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the University of Virginia’s Democracy Initiative and College of Arts & Sciences launched a multiyear faculty hiring project. Over four years, we will hire a dozen or more new faculty members at all ranks in the departments of Classics, History, and Philosophy, Politics, and elsewhere. Across all the searches, the Departments seek to appoint scholars whose primary research is focused on the study of the principles of democracy, democratic accountability and representation, either to advance the work of the core lab on the history and principles of democracy or to contribute to one of the Initiative’s other projects.

This year, with the support of the John L. Nau Foundation, the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia invites applications for Full Professor position on the study of democracy. Our understanding of democracy is a capacious one that considers questions of citizenship, culture and the arts, civic practice, economics, environment, health and medicine, media and communication, political and legal institutions, religion, social mobility, and many other topics. Candidates can be working in a variety of scholarly fields within the Arts, Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences, including cross-disciplinary, interstitial and emerging areas of study, and focus on any historical period and any geographical area. We are open to a wide range of methodologies: applicants may pursue artistic, cultural, ethnographic, historical, institutional, linguistic, literary, philosophical, political, sociological, theoretical or other approaches to deepening our understanding of democracy. We particularly seek a scholar whose work connects broadly across disciplines and seek to actively participate in the project of the Democracy Initiative and its intertwined missions of teaching, research, and public engagement.

A PDF of the position description is available here.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to both the home department or program and the Democracy Initiative.

• Contribute to disciplines and areas of focus.

• Contribute through teaching, leading working groups or research projects, and/or public and community engagement projects.

Candidate Profile

Applicants should have the qualifications necessary for appointment at the rank of Full Professor within their discipline. The appointment will be made in the most appropriate department or program from those participating in the search (listed below) and joint appointments are possible.

• American Studies
• Anthropology
• Art
• Classics
• Economics
• English
• French
• German
• Global Studies
• History
• Media Studies
• Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures
• Philosophy
• Politics
• Religious Studies
• Sociology
• Spanish
• Theatre and Performance Studies
• Women, Gender, and Sexuality

To Apply or Nominate:

Confidential inquiries and nominations should be directed to AJ Davidson, Senior Search Consultant, at ajh2d@virginia.edu.

To apply, you must submit the following:

• Cover letter describing your research and teaching and addressing your demonstrated past experience working on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and/or working with diverse populations (not to exceed three single-spaced pages)
• Current curriculum vitae
• A statement outlining what kinds of intellectual and/or institutional contributions you could envision making to the Democracy Initiative (not to exceed two single-spaced pages)
• The names and contact information of three referees

Please submit materials via Workday. The search will be carried out with full confidentiality. Applications received by December 1 will receive full consideration.