As part of The Ohio State University’s Provost’s Tenure-Track Fellow to Faculty Program, the Department of English and the American Indian Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences invite applications for an assistant professor position. We seek a scholar whose research agenda focuses on Native American literature and culture. The following areas are particularly desirable complements to the larger university research initiatives in this field: settler colonialism, decolonization, genocide, Indigenous epistemologies, sovereignty, social movements and activism, ecocriticism and environmentalism, gender and sexuality, and community engaged research. Candidates with research agendas that deliberately and explicitly consider the role of culture and cultural productions in dismantling systems of oppression or structural inequalities are particularly appealing. Both English and American Indian Studies value interdisciplinary research and teaching and welcome interest from candidates with research agendas that will find linkages and connections with faculty and university research initiatives in the sixteen colleges at Ohio State and in the local tribal communities.

The Department of English boasts a strong group of faculty whose research and teaching is situated within U.S. ethnic and postcolonial studies, which will offer a supportive environment as well as opportunities for mentoring and professional development. English studies at Ohio State covers a wide range of sub-disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches to analytical studies and the development of logical thought. It is a lively, intellectual home to innovative academic programs and curriculum that consistently receive national recognition. The American Indian Studies (AIS) program is an interdisciplinary program that strives to further the long and ongoing traditions of American Indians in Ohio through its programming, course offerings, undergraduate minor, and collaborations with the Center for Ethnic Studies. AIS has strong connections to the Newark Earthworks Center on the Ohio State-Newark campus and to the American Indian Council student organization. There are seventeen federally recognized tribes with historic ties to Ohio.  OSU Department of English Land Acknowledgement: https://english.osu.edu/about/land-acknowledgment

This hire in the Department of English is part of a cluster hiring collaboration with the Department of Comparative Studies, the Department of Linguistics, The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, and the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies which will each hire an Assistant Professor in Indigenous Studies.

The Provost’s Tenure-Track Fellow to Faculty Program is a two-year program that assists early career scholars as they transition to the tenure track. Provost Fellows will receive research funding and participate in career development programs to support their transition to assistant professor and their long-term career success. In addition, Provost Fellows will focus time on research for up to two years allowing for an in-depth start on scholarship, with limited teaching requirements (although Fellows may teach one course per year if they choose), participate in the activities within the Department of English, and have a designated faculty mentor. Following the fellowship period, which is an instructor rank appointment, Provost Fellows will then transfer to the rank of assistant professor within the Department of English and the tenure clock will begin. 

The program is particularly interested in recruiting scholars who will contribute to a climate that values diversity and inclusion in the areas of scholarship, creative expression, and/or community engagement.