University Fellow for Faculty Diversity in Literature

To support the development of a more diverse professoriate, the Department of English at the University of North Carolina Asheville invites applications for a University Fellow for Faculty Diversity in Literature, with a specialization in global Anglophone literatures of the long 19th century, to begin Fall 2022. The University Fellows program seeks pre-doctoral and post-doctoral candidates looking for a faculty position at a liberal arts institution that takes equal pride in the excellence of its faculty’s teaching and scholarship. The Department of English is especially interested in receiving applications from candidates whose scholarship and teaching involves international, postcolonial, and multicultural approaches to romanticist, Victorian, or modernist literatures. Academic responsibilities include teaching specialty courses in our Culture and Identity requirement like Ethnic Literatures, Postcolonial Literature, and World Literature; major requirements like Western Literature II: Enlightenment to Modern, Readings in Fiction, and Introduction to Literature, as well as general education requirements in our First-Year Writing and Humanities programs. 

The successful candidate will have a lightened teaching load, faculty mentorship, and support for the development of their pedagogy and scholarship. The term of appointment is for two to three years. Following this term, the University Fellow may be offered a tenure-track position in the department. Additional information about the University Fellowship program, including details about each fellowship (pre-doctoral vs. post-doctoral) can be found at this link: https://academicaffairs.unca.edu/faculty-openings/university-fellowship-for-faculty-diversity/
 
Applicants should submit the following electronically at https://jobs.unca.edu:

●      Cover Letter: 1-2 pages addressing your interest in this position, why you are a fit for our institution, a description of your scholarly interests and the ways in which you engage or contribute to the evolution of your discipline. 
●      Curriculum Vitae
●      Teaching Philosophy: 1-2 pages describing your approach to teaching undergraduates at a liberal arts university. 
●      Diversity Statement: 1-2 pages describing: (a) your experience in advancing diversity in teaching, scholarship and/or service; (b) examples of demonstrated leadership potential in the area of equity and inclusion; and © your understanding of the importance of diversity and inclusion to the mission of a liberal arts university.
●      References: 3 letters of reference that should address your written, verbal, and interpersonal skills; ability to teach and mentor undergraduate students; and potential to develop and maintain a successful research program.

Review of applications will begin January 3 and continue until the position is filled. 

Inquiries only should be directed to the Search Committee Chair, Kirk Boyle (kboyle@unca.edu). 

University Fellows Program Mission

UNC Asheville is among the nation’s best public liberal arts & sciences colleges and the only designated liberal arts institution in the North Carolina university system. We are the founders of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and our students and faculty helped to design, fabricate, and install the largest public art installation ever shown in Times Square, collaborating side by side with a recent McArthur genius award winner. We offer an extraordinary liberal arts education at an incredibly affordable rate (tuition is under $7500 per year for in-state students), all in the beautiful mountain town of Asheville, NC. 

Our excellence is first and foremost a product of a faculty deeply committed to both teaching and scholarship in their disciplines. That excellence also demands that our curriculum, co-curricular activities, and entire community welcome, reflect, and celebrate a diversity of perspectives, lived experiences, and identities. Currently, our required core curriculum includes diversity intensive courses and we offer living learning communities specifically designed for students of color. Our Racial Justice Roadmap will serve as a guide to the work in which we will be engaging to become an even more inclusive campus.  That Racial Justice Roadmap includes initiatives that span student affairs, admissions and financial aid and critically important, academic affairs.  In particular, to support the development of a more excellent and diverse professoriate at UNC Asheville, we are expanding  the University Fellowship for Faculty Diversity (University Fellows) Program.

The program invites pre-doctoral and post-doctoral candidates specifically considering careers at a liberal arts institution which takes equal pride in the excellence of its faculty’s teaching and the quality of its faculty’s scholarship and creative production. UNC Asheville is looking for candidates who are able to help us advance one of our most important strategic objectives—to develop, maintain, and support a faculty whose diversity more closely represents the demographics of the nation and the state of NC, particularly with respect to race, with special attention to domestic underrepresentation of minorities in
various disciplines. 

University Fellows Program Details

Faculty at the University of North Carolina Asheville ordinarily teach 24 credit hours per year. University Fellows will have a lightened teaching load, receive extensive mentorship, and receive support for the development of their pedagogy and disciplinary work. 

In particular, University Fellows should expect to teach as few as three courses in their first year and will receive funds for professional development and research and/or creative production (to be arranged at the time of being awarded the fellowship). Salaries for pre-doctoral fellows before earning their degree will be commensurate with lecturers in the discipline; salaries for fellows who have earned their degree will be commensurate with visiting assistant professors.

By early fall of a University Fellow’s final year, it will be determined whether a tenure track offer will be made to the faculty member. In the event that an offer is not made or the tenure track position is not one that the fellow would like to accept, we will support the Fellow in the best ways possible in applying for a tenure track position elsewhere. 

 A few other details about each fellowship (pre-doctoral vs. post-doctoral) are summarized below:

Pre-doctoral: 

Three year term

Course Release:

Teach 12 credit hours over the first year (12 credit hours of release over the first year, not all to be taken in one semester). 

Four to six credit hours of release over the next two years.

Expectation is to complete the terminal degree by the end of year one. There may be opportunities that warrant consideration of completion beyond the first year, but these will be considered on a case by case basis. 

Salary increase, subject to budget and System Office constraints, will take place the year subsequent to completion of the degree.

Post-doctoral: 

Two or Three year term

Course Release:

Teach 36 credit hours (12 credit hours of release, not all to be taken in one semester) over the first two years of the fellowship.


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