Faculty in Ecological Science or Cultural Studies

Sterling College is conducting a search to identify two new colleagues to join its faculty in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. The start date is flexible from as early as August 2022, and is pending budget approval. 

Expected qualifications include:

Relevant teaching experience Subject matter expertise Advanced academic credentials and/or substantial practitioner experience Demonstrated commitment to interdisciplinary, experiential, field-oriented pedagogy Demonstrated commitment to our mission of ecological thinking and action Demonstrated commitment to pedagogy that integrates multicultural perspectives in the curriculum and promotes inclusion in the classroom

The College is committed to in-person instruction, but experience and familiarity using online tools, particularly for hybrid course delivery and competency-oriented education, will be seen as a strength.  

Faculty responsibilities include: 

Teaching courses across the curriculum and contributing to the foundational curriculum of the college Academic advising Service on committees or councils  Advising students in independent studies and senior research projects.  Sterling is also one of nine federally designated Work Colleges, and faculty members serve as supervisors in our work program. 

Open positions are in the two focal areas below; applicants whose strengths span across the focal areas are also encouraged to apply.

Focal Area 1: Agroecological and Ecological Science

Applicants for this focal area will have the ability to teach introductory courses in ecology, biology, and sustainable agriculture, and additional courses in one or more of the following areas: agroecology, statistics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), climate science, and nutrition. This position could include management of our new science lab and/or GIS lab. 

Focal Area 2: Cultural Ecology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, or Ethics

Applicants for this focal area will have the ability to teach a breadth of humanities classes relating to ecology, environmental studies, and food and farming. Preferred candidates will have expertise in cultural ecology and/or ethnoecology, or one or more of the following areas: cultural anthropology, cultural studies, philosophy, and ethics.

Diversity Statement 

Sterling College - its Board of Trustees and Faculty Council - has adopted a detailed ten-year strategic initiative that is intended to better promote equity and inclusion across all of its academic programs and in all of the locations in which they take place. 

Sterling acknowledges that the land on which we gather—places now known as Vermont and Kentucky—are the traditional and unceded territories of several indigenous peoples: the Abenaki in the North and the Shawnee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Osage people to the South. We also learn in-and-from a range of landscapes that belong to other indigenous peoples.  

As we seek deep reciprocal relationships with nature, we respect and honor the place-based and cultural wisdom of indigenous ancestors and contemporaries.  Words of acknowledgement and intention are just a first step.  We must match them with acts of respect and repair.

Updates on Sterling’s work on diversity, equity and inclusion are available here. 

Given the rural setting of the Sterling campus and the experiential nature of our curriculum, the position requires the ability to move across campus in various weather conditions over uneven surfaces. There are expectations of sustained computer use or screen time as well.

Application Instructions

The Search Committee will begin to review candidates on April 18, 2022. Candidates who have submitted materials prior to April 22, 2022 will receive full consideration and the searches will continue until successful appointments have been made. 

Please send a cover letter, CV, and details of three references to Micki Martin, Executive Assistant to the President and Secretary of Faculty Search (mmartin@sterlingcollege.edu).

About Sterling College

Our College uses education as a force - through programs of study and work in fields associated with agroecology, ecology, environmental humanities, and education - to address critical problems caused by unlimited growth including: fossil fuel dependence, threats to biodiversity and loss of wild places, destructive agricultural practices, and structural oppression that encourages estrangement from community, nature, and place. Sterling faculty lead with a commitment to create affordable, experiential, place-based learning opportunities to fulfill our mission to prepare students to be knowledgeable, skilled, and responsible leaders in the communities in which they live.

Founded in 1958, the College was a pioneer of the idea that neither the narrow technician nor the uninformed idealist alone can address the issues facing humanity and is one of only nine federally recognized work colleges. Sterling’s transdisciplinary oriented faculty of 18 serves a student body of 125 residential students on its campus in Craftsbury Common, Vermont and at instructional sites in Jeffersonville, Vermont, the American Southwest, and Kentucky. While the College is poised for growth in the number of programs and the population of students it serves, we are intentionally one of the smallest residential colleges in the nation and view our 7:1 student to faculty ratio and small classes as important strengths. 

The Sterling College campus in Craftsbury Common, Vermont has a variety of facilities and lands that are critical to the experiential education we offer, including academics and the work program. The Sterling College Farm includes facilities for our livestock and draft animals, and also includes extensive gardens which provide produce for the kitchen as well as our local CSA. An additional facility is The Farm Between,  a perennial fruit and berry farm with a focus on beneficial insects and bird habitat, located 45 minutes from campus in Jeffersonville, Vermont, and managed by faculty and students. Sterling also owns a working forest as well as a 300-acre ecologically significant natural area. 

Additional programs of the College include:

EcoGather, an online platform for ecological thinking and action that works directly with community, corporate, university, government, and foundation partners around the world to create regenerative communities with food and agriculture at the core. The Wendell Berry Farming Program in Henry County, Kentucky, the nation’s first tuition-free farm-based program leading to a degree in sustainable agriculture and food systems, inspired by the teaching and writing of activist and author Wendell Berry and in partnership with The Berry Center. The School of the New American Farmstead and the Office of Continuing Education provide professional study onsite and online for students seeking courses and professional certificates relevant to the College’s four degree offerings and  the various intersections of social and environmental justice.