Hamilton College invites applications for two (2) two-year visiting faculty fellows in Native and Indigenous Studies with the possibility of a one-year extension, beginning July 1, 2023. We welcome applications from early and mid-career candidates who will have the PhD or MFA in hand by the start date of the appointment. Hamilton College places the highest value on undergraduate teaching; consequently, we seek teacher-scholars who can demonstrate in their supporting materials a capacity for excellent teaching and who have a commitment to working effectively with a student population that is broadly diverse with regard to gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, and religion. We encourage and welcome applications from members of groups traditionally underrepresented in the faculties of higher education institutions.

These positions require vision, initiative, and a desire to join a Hamilton community eager to develop a Native and Indigenous Studies program. This initiative endeavors to draw curricular and thematic connections across the faculty to enhance the focus on Native and Indigenous Studies, and to provide more formal connections between faculty and the Wellin Museum of Art where several exhibits in the past 10 years have focused on the relationship of Indigenous Studies and a liberal arts education. Equally important, the initiative also aspires to develop and strengthen the relationship between the College, the Oneida Indian Nation and Haudenosaunee Confederacy. With the creation of a Native and Indigenous Studies program, our hope is that Hamilton students will be able to: identify the relationship between colonial and decolonized approaches to knowledge creation and understanding; critically analyze materials and their contexts to draw connections between the past, present, and future; identify disciplinary practice and the creation of social, structural, and institutional hierarchies; and be able to conduct their own interdisciplinary research with a focus on Native and Indigenous lifeways.

Fellowship Terms

The salary for this position is commensurate with experience plus $5,000 per year for research expenses in addition to at least one conference trip. The College also provides health insurance benefits, relocation subsidy and college housing eligibility, and academic support including office space and a computer.

During the period of residence at Hamilton, in collaboration with each other, fellows will propose, develop, and each offer three courses per academic year. The visiting faculty fellows will also undertake initiative-related work, which includes: 

(i) developing a lecture series in 2023-2024, 

(ii) organizing a symposium in 2024-25, 

(iii) participating in campus discussions on creating a Native and Indigenous Studies program, and 

(iv) advising and mentoring undergraduate students.

Qualifications

We seek candidates whose work engages with any one or more of the following thematic areas, particularly in ways centered in the American Northeast and/or the region’s hemispheric and global connections: 

• Cultural Expression and Performance: oral history, communication, and transmitting generational knowledge as performing or studio arts. Areas of emphasis could include literature, creative writing, visual studies, art history, dance, theatre, studio art, and/or music, with a focus on communicating generational knowledge within and between Indigenous Peoples, and with external audiences.

• Environmental Indigenous Studies: climate change, environmental ethics, political action, ethnobotany, climate justice, and tribal governance.

• Identity and Indigenous Traditions: gender, sexuality, and feminism, ethics, critical sovereignty, and queer theory.

• Indigeneity and Policy: Federal Law and Policy, land acknowledgement and representation, Indigenous histories and philosophies, and Institutional and Social Geography in the study of place.

• Indigenous Health: traditional medicine, population-specific vulnerabilities (addiction, diabetes), healthcare discrepancies, mental health, spirituality, conceptualizations of the mind.

• Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Placemaking and local knowledge, metaphysics, intersection of indigenous knowledge and scientific understandings, museums, heritage display, curatorial practice, and material culture studies.  

• Languages: Native North American language and communicative norms as well as global indigenous cultural and language revitalization efforts: Indigenous Language Revitalization, Indigenous Oral Traditions, Indigenous Cultural Revitalization Movements.

Application Instructions

Applications should be submitted http://apply.interfolio.com/120101 and should include:

• a cover letter with a description of your research and teaching interests/experience;

• a CV;

• a one- to two-page statement describing your teaching, research, and community engagement;

• a 500-word statement explaining why this fellowship would be significant to your professional life including a preliminary idea for the symposium; and

• Names of three professional references (letters will be requested for finalists) 

Review of applications will begin on March 20, 2023 and will remain open until the positions are filled.

As this is an expressly interdisciplinary initiative, we encourage interested candidates to identify at least two academic units from those listed below with which they might affiliate and/or offer courses.

Participating departments and programs:

• Anthropology

• Art

• Art History

• Biology

• Dance and Movement Studies

• Digital Arts

• Environmental Studies

• History

• Latin American Studies

• Literature and Creative Writing

• Philosophy 

• Psychology

• Religious Studies

• Theatre

Inquiries should be sent to the Associate Deans of Faculty, Nathan Goodale (ngoodale@hamilton.edu) or Penny Yee (pyee@hamilton.edu).  

Hamilton (www.hamilton.edu) is a residential liberal arts college located in upstate New York. Distinguished for its open curriculum, inclusive teaching and scholarship, and nurturing an academic environment where students come to “Know Thyself,” the College is committed to building and sustaining a diverse learning community for approximately 2,000 undergraduates. Beyond fully meeting its legal obligations as an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer, Hamilton College is committed to diversity in all areas of the campus community. Applicants with dual-career considerations can find other Hamilton and nearby academic job listings at https://hercjobs.org/regions/higher-ed-careers-upstate-new-york/, as well as additional information at Opportunities for Spouses and Partners. Hamilton provides domestic partner benefits.

Hamilton College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity in all areas of the campus community.