Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

Bates College’s Program in Environmental Studies invites applications for a full-time, tenure track position in environmental arts or humanities, to begin August 1, 2025. We seek an outstanding scholar/artist with strong commitments to excellent undergraduate teaching and mentorship in a liberal arts context. A terminal degree is required.

Bates’ Program in Environmental Studies is a vibrant, multi-disciplinary community. We seek a scholar in cultural studies, literature, or the visual arts who is attentive to hierarchies of power and privilege and can offer cross-cultural and/or transnational perspectives on environmental traditions. Fields and research approaches are open, but could include: critical race theory, ecocriticism and nature writing, ecofeminism/feminist environmentalism, energy humanities, blue humanities, Indigenous and post-/de-/anti-colonial environmentalisms, posthumanism and animal studies, and queer ecologies.

The position carries a standard five-course annual teaching load. The duties of the position include the three main areas of faculty work: teaching, professional achievement, and governance and engagement. The standards of excellence for faculty at Bates are articulated in Article II of the faculty handbook, and include a commitment to inclusive and evidence-based pedagogy, impactful professional work, and contributions to the broader Bates community. The successful applicant will offer courses in their area of expertise.  Faculty also teach in the general education curriculum, provide academic advising, and mentor student theses. Successful candidates will be expected to develop a signature and independent scholarly or artistic program. Faculty also take part in our system of shared governance.

Bates students come from a diversity of educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, and we are committed to each student’s success. Thus, candidates may choose to provide evidence of their skills and experience supporting a diverse student body either in a separate, additional document or integrated into the teaching and research statements. We encourage applications from individuals from historically marginalized groups and from those who may have followed non-traditional pathways to higher education due to societal, economic, or academic circumstances. Applicants may choose to describe the breadth of their teaching repertoire, for example, how they have worked with, or plan to work with, historically underrepresented, first-generation, and marginalized student populations.

Bates College is a residential liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine—a diverse and growing community roughly 45 minutes from the state’s largest city, 2 ½ hour north of Boston, and 4 ½ hours south of Montreal. Faculty scholarship and creative work at Bates are robustly supported by start-up packages, internal grants, and a well-staffed external grants office. Community-engaged learning and study abroad are both broadly encouraged and supported; pedagogical development and innovation is further buttressed by a new Center of Inclusive Teaching and Learning.

Educational access and racial justice are central to Bates’ history and mission and our faculty-led initiatives reflect this commitment.

Review of applications will begin on October 1, 2024. Applications should include

1. a cover letter (including a brief overview of scholarly work and a list of potential courses)
2. a curriculum vitae
3. a statement of teaching philosophy (2 pages) that describes how the applicant meets Bates’ standards of excellence in terms of inclusive and evidence-based pedagogy
4. a research statement (2 pages), that speaks to the current and future promise of a candidate’s professional work
5. a sample of their written scholarly work
   
   The search committee will request letters of recommendation from three referees for short-listed candidates. Graduate transcripts will be required of the successful candidate, and employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check and verification of degree.