Professor (Open Rank) of English — Creative Writing (Poetry)
- Employer
- Swarthmore College
- Location
- Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
View more categoriesView less categories
- Faculty Jobs
- Arts & Humanities, English Literature & Composition
- Position Type
- Tenured & Tenure-Track
- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Institution Type
- Four-Year Institution
Job Details
Location: Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Open Date: Sep 17, 2024
DescriptionThe Department of English Literature at Swarthmore College invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track appointment in Creative Writing with specific expertise in poetry. Because this is an open-rank position, we will hire a poet at the assistant professor or tenured associate/full professor level, depending on qualifications and experience. This position will begin in Fall 2025.
We are particularly interested in candidates who demonstrate through their teaching, mentoring, and writing a commitment to the inclusion of historically underrepresented perspectives and who bring multilingual, international, environmental, and/or cross-cultural perspectives to their work. Candidates whose work emerges from or engages BIPOC communities in the U.S. and/or the cultures of the Global South are especially encouraged to apply.
Candidates should also have an established record of undergraduate teaching, including teaching creative writing workshops for students at all levels, from beginning to advanced. We welcome candidates with demonstrated strengths in poetics, literary criticism, and literary theory who will be prepared to teach hybrid courses that blend critical and creative writing, which has been an important feature of our curriculum; we also welcome candidates with leadership experience inside academia and out—for example, building public reading series, editing a poetry journal, or working with community-based arts organizations. The position carries a four-course load for the academic year (2 workshops/courses per semester). In addition to teaching courses that reflect their interests and experience, the successful candidate will also advise individual writing projects and support other program duties, such as awarding writing prizes, organizing readings, advising student publications, and planning our new biennial Writers’ Festival.The Creative Writing Program within Swarthmore’s Department of English Literature is thriving. To learn more about us, please visit: https://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature/creative-writing-program
Located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Swarthmore College is a highly selective liberal arts college whose mission combines academic rigor with social responsibility. Swarthmore has a strong institutional commitment to diversity, and actively seeks and welcomes applications from candidates with exceptional qualifications, particularly those with demonstrable commitments to a more inclusive society and world. Applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information on Faculty Diversity and Excellence at Swarthmore, see http://www.swarthmore.edu/faculty-diversity-excellence/information-candidates-new-faculty
Qualifications
The successful candidate will possess a terminal degree (e.g., and MFA in poetry or a related field and/or a PhD degree). The strongest candidates will be poets who demonstrate a commitment to impactful art and innovative teaching with a passion for motivating and mentoring young writers of diverse backgrounds and identities.
Application InstructionsTo apply: visit apply.interfolio.com/152987. Poets should provide us with (1) a cover letter addressing their research and/or creative work as well as the teaching and mentoring qualifications outlined above, (2) a CV, and (3) a writing sample of no more than 25 pages. Applicants should also be prepared to provide us with an additional writing sample, a teaching statement, and at least three letters of recommendation once we complete our initial review of applications. The co-chairs of our search are Professors Sangina Patnaik and Chinelo Okparanta. Please address any questions you may have to poetrysearch@swarthmore.eduAll applications received by November 15, 2024, will receive fullest consideration, though we will continue to review applications until the position is filled.
Organization
Swarthmore College, a highly selective college of liberal arts and engineering, has supported thinkers and doers for more than 150 years. Since 1864, it has lifted students to their full intellectual and personal potential so they can apply their knowledge with meaning and purpose.
Located 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Swarthmore has been co-educational since its founding by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Our Quaker founders believed in the practical application of knowledge for the common good. While Swarthmore is no longer a religious institution, these Quaker roots anchor and inform how Swatties learn and work.
The College offers two degrees: the B.A. in the arts and sciences and the B.S. in engineering. With a student/faculty ratio of 8:1, Swarthmore ensures that its students have close and meaningful contact with their professors.
Swarthmore’s alumni body is small (about 20,000 living alumni) but distinguished. Five Swarthmore graduates have won the Nobel Prize; Swarthmore is also among the top five highest producers of doctorate recipients in the humanities, life sciences, and all sciences combined, with 20 percent of Swarthmore graduates going on to earn a doctorate degree. Some prominent Swarthmore alumni are acclaimed artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby ‘04, novelist Jonathan Franzen ’81, Ashesi University founder Patrick Awuah ’89, Chris Van Hollen ’83, U.S. Senator from Maryland, fashion designer Joseph Altuzarra ’05, and noted sociologist Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot '66.
As of June 30, 2016, the College has an endowment of approximately $1.7 billion. Swarthmore's robust financial aid program ensures the College’s commitment to providing access to an exceptional liberal arts education for all qualified students without regard to their ability to pay and allows the College to meet each admitted student's demonstrated financial need. With one of the most generous financial aid programs in the country, Swarthmore awards aid -- without loans -- to more than half of its students.
True to its Quaker heritage, Swarthmore maintains a commitment to service and the common good. Students find support for service projects through the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility and in the nearby communities of Chester and Philadelphia and around the world. In addition, Swarthmore is one of 10 charter members of Project Pericles, which supports students who propose and implement projects to identify issues and advance solutions.
Swarthmore's residential campus features more than 425 wooded acres, including rolling lawns, a creek, wooded hills, and hiking trails which are maintained by staff horticulturists as the nationally registered Scott Arboretum.
Swarthmore College, a highly selective liberal arts college located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, has supported thinkers and doers for more than 150 years. Swarthmore has a strong institutional commitment to excellence through diversity in its educational program and employment practices and actively seeks and welcomes applications from candidates with exceptional qualifications, particularly those with demonstrable commitments to a more inclusive society and world.
Get job alerts
Create a job alert and receive personalized job recommendations straight to your inbox.
Create alert