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Assistant Professor, College of Letters

Employer
Wesleyan University
Location
Connecticut, United States
Salary
Salary Not Specified
Date posted
Jun 16, 2022

Job Details

Wesleyan University, founded in 1831, is a diverse, energetic liberal arts community where critical thinking and practical idealism go hand in hand.

Position Details

The College of Letters at Wesleyan University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Letters, beginning July 1, 2023.

We seek a scholar-teacher with expertise in premodern Islamic intellectual traditions and cross-cultural exchanges around the Mediterranean world.

The successful candidate may work in classical Arabic, Syriac, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Hebrew, Coptic, Ethiopic, Greek, Latin, and/or any number of related languages. Areas of research/teaching expertise may include instances of Muslim cultural transmissions and receptions between and within the societies of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, such as the Graeco-Syriac-Arabic “translation movement,” the cultures of al-Andalus, or Late Medieval travelogues. In their application materials, we encourage candidates to address the ways in which their research/teaching is informed by critical theories of gender, sexuality, class, race; or by academic subfields such as diaspora studies or translation studies.

The College of Letters ( COL ) is an interdisciplinary humanities program, offering a three-year B.A. major for the study of literature, history, and philosophy across the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Atlantic from antiquity to the present. The curriculum emphasizes the close reading of texts across a wide range of genres as a method for pursuing an historically situated and critical understanding of cultural exchange and colonial expansion. The COL emphasizes collaborative pedagogy, interdisciplinary inquiry, and creative exploration. Our students learn with and from one another; they receive narrative evaluations instead of letter grades; and they pursue a scholarly or creative senior capstone project.

The teaching load is 2/2. In addition to offering courses in their areas of scholarly expertise, the successful candidate will be expected to teach in the COL’s sequence of five interdisciplinary colloquia for majors (Antiquity, Medieval, Early Modern, 18th-19th centuries, 20th-21st centuries), the first three of which are co-taught by an expert in the period and a non-expert. We expect the successful candidate to have expertise suitable for teaching the Medieval colloquium. Additional duties include supervising senior theses and essays, advising majors and pre-majors, carrying on a program of research, and participating in faculty governance at the College and University level.

Minimum Qualifications

To be hired as an Assistant Professor at the time of appointment, candidates must have a Ph.D. in History, Literature, Philosophy, or in related interdisciplinary fields such as Comparative Literature, Intellectual History, History of Science, History of Rhetoric, History of Religion, Classics, or Qur’anic Studies. A successful candidate may be hired as an Instructor if the candidate does not have a Ph.D. in hand at the time of appointment, but will complete the Ph.D. within one year of hire.

Special Instructions To Applicants

Applications will be reviewed in two stages. By October 15, 2022 please send: (1) a cover letter; (2) a current CV; (3) a research statement; (4) a teaching statement. Long-listed candidates will be asked to send by December 15, 2022: (5) evidence of teaching ability; (6) a writing sample. In the cover letter, applicants should describe how they will embrace the University’s commitment to fostering an inclusive community, as well as their experience working with individuals from historically marginalized or underserved groups.

You will also be asked to provide the email addresses of three referees from whom we may obtain confidential letters of recommendation (please double-check the accuracy of the email addresses of the referees you name to ensure that you have the most up-to-date email addresses for each one).

After you have submitted all of the required documents, you will see a confirmation number. At that point, each of your referees whose email address you have provided will receive an automatically-generated email requesting that he or she submit a letter of reference for you.
Additional Information

Applications completed by October 15, 2022, will receive full consideration. Please contact Christine Tappe at ctappe@wesleyan.edu or 860-685-2230 if you have questions about the application process.

Note for Interfolio users:
We gladly accept letters of recommendation from Interfolio. From your Interfolio account, please use the “web delivery” method to upload your letters directly to our online application.

For further instructions, look here: http://product-help.interfolio.com/m/27438/l/266289-confidential-letter-uploads-to-online-application-systems

Wesleyan University, located in Middletown, Connecticut, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious creed, age, gender, gender identity or expression, national origin, marital status, ancestry, present or past history of mental disorder, learning disability or physical disability, political belief, veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information or non-position-related criminal record. We welcome applications from women and historically underrepresented minority groups. Inquiries regarding Title IX, Section 504, or any other non-discrimination policies should be directed to: Alison Williams, Vice President for Equity & Inclusion/ Title IX Officer, 860-685-3927, awilliams@wesleyan.edu.

Company

Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University, founded in 1831, is a diverse, energetic liberal arts community where critical thinking and practical idealism go hand in hand. 

Our student body of approximately 3,000 undergraduate and 200 graduate students is housed on a beautiful 316-acre historic New England campus that offers the comfort of an intimate and collaborative learning environment supported by renowned faculty, cutting-edge facilities, and unique research opportunities.

With our distinctive scholar-teacher culture, creative programming, and commitment to interdisciplinary learning, Wesleyan challenges students to explore new ideas and change the world. Our graduates go on to lead and innovate in a wide variety of industries, including government, business, entertainment, and science.

At Wesleyan, we are all educators. We welcome your interest in Wesleyan's diverse, energetic community of employees who, by their creativity, innovative thinking, and generosity of spirit, help make Wesleyan a great place to work. In this energetic and inclusive community, our talented faculty and staff foster a liberal arts educational experience characterized by boldness, rigor, and practical idealism. Genuinely open-minded, intellectually curious, and mission-driven, our employees invest their impressive talents in fulfilling careers.

Wesleyan offers a broad range of growth and wellness opportunities—comprehensive health benefitsfitness incentives, generous paid time offretirement plansflexible work schedules, and educational benefits, including free employee access to Wesleyan’s Graduate Liberal Studies program and undergraduate tuition reimbursement for dependents of eligible employees. Benefits-at-a-Glance

Campus life affords employees countless opportunities to experience general-interest, academic, artistic, and athletic events. Our location in scenic central Connecticut provides easy access to Boston, New York, and the many other exciting and culturally rich destinations of New England. Few workplaces are like Wesleyan, and we welcome your interest in learning more about us.

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