Assistant Professor of English

The Department of English at Amherst College invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track appointment in the fields of Asian American, Pacific Islander, or Asian diasporic literature, media, and culture. This position, which begins on July 1, 2023, is part of a three-position cluster hire across the college in Asian American studies. The successful candidate will be appointed and evaluated in the Department of English, but will also join an interdisciplinary community of faculty (both continuing and new) whose teaching and research concern Asian Americans and/or Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. This includes not only members of the Amherst College faculty, but also affiliates of the Five College certificate program in Asian/Pacific/American studies. Within the last decade, Amherst College has profoundly transformed its student body in terms of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and nationality, among other areas. Today, nearly one-quarter of Amherst’s students are Pell Grant recipients; 49 percent identify as domestic students of color; and 10 percent are international students. We seek candidates who will excel at teaching and mentoring students who are broadly diverse in regard to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, nationality, sexual identity, and religion.

At Amherst College, the field of English is broadly defined. Among our faculty are colleagues jointly appointed in the departments of American Studies and Black Studies, as well as colleagues who serve as contributing faculty in the college’s programs in film and media studies, education studies, and Latinx and Latin American studies, as well as the Five College certificate program in Native American and Indigenous studies. We welcome candidates whose research and teaching might strengthen or multiply such cross-departmental connections, helping us to network Asian/Pacific/American studies across the college. The goal is eventually to launch a new major in Asian American studies.

The teaching load is two courses per semester, plus thesis advising duties. We seek a candidate whose research and teaching demonstrate foundational knowledge of literary-critical debates in Asian American studies, with attention to both aesthetic and political concerns. However, we encourage applications from candidates whose pedagogy and scholarship meaningfully push or disrupt the boundaries of the Asian Americanist canon in terms of critical approach, media form, or diverse political geographies and histories. We also welcome inventive blends of teaching and research with public humanities work and community engagement.

The successful candidate will pursue a robust research agenda. Secondary research fields of particular interest include, in no particular order: diaspora, migration, and refugee studies; queer theory, trans studies, or queer of color critique; critical disability studies; Indigenous and Pacific studies; comparative race and ethnicity; environmental humanities; media studies and popular culture; digital humanities; performance studies; creative writing; rhetoric and composition; or approaches to imperialism, militarism and settler colonialism throughout the Asian diasporic world. By the start of the appointment, the candidate must have fulfilled all requirements for a Ph.D. in literary studies or a related field.

Candidates should apply electronically to http://apply.interfolio.com/110895. Please include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, writing sample (fifteen to thirty pages), as well as three letters of recommendation. Applications received by October 1, 2022, will be guaranteed full consideration. The search will remain open until the position is filled.

Questions about the search may be directed to the academic department coordinator Eileen Smith (esmith@amherst.edu) or to the search chair Alicia Mireles Christoff (achristoff@amherst.edu). The other members of the search committee are: Pooja Rangan, Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint, and Sony Coráñez Bolton.

Amherst is a private undergraduate liberal arts college, with 1,800 students and more than two hundred faculty members.  Located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, Amherst participates with Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts in the Five-College Consortium. Amherst College is an equal opportunity employer and encourages persons of all genders, persons of color, and persons with disabilities to apply. The college is committed to enriching its educational experience and its culture through the diversity of its faculty, administration, and staff.