Providence, USA
Assistant or associate professor in Apparel Design
at Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is looking for an assistant or associate professor to join its team in Providence, USA.
The Department of Apparel Design, in the Division of Architecture and Design, at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), invites applications for a full-time faculty appointment at the rank of assistant/associate professor, to commence fall 2023. Rank will be dependent on professional status and teaching experience.
RISD recognizes principles of social equity, diversity, and inclusion as fundamental to its academic mission as an art and design school. We understand these principles to require ongoing attention to differential embodied experience and expansion of the forms of knowledge from which our curricula originate. RISD is engaged in the collective work of institutional transformation and would value applicants whose pedagogical and professional experiences have prepared them to foster equitable teaching and learning environments. We seek applicants whose teaching and professional work (creative practice and/or academic scholarship) attends to embodied difference as intersectional and centers on bodies of knowledge from historically underrepresented communities. We encourage applicants from traditionally underrepresented communities including Native American peoples, Black and Indigenous peoples of color, Latinx, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, veterans, and persons with disabilities.
The department seeks candidates engaged in a contemporary practice that contributes to reimagining the field of clothing, fashion and adornment. We are particularly interested in candidates who are able to articulate a progressive vision for inspired leadership and knowledge exchange within an academic department and who have a proven record as an effective studio teacher and critic/mentor. Working as part of a creative team of faculty, candidates should possess the ability and desire to critique fashion as an industry and discipline and collaborate with colleagues across disciplines with distinct and diverse practices, skills, and experiences. Both within apparel/fashion and in collaboration with other disciplines, candidates must possess the ability to teach a range of courses, from research and concept ideation to the creation of garments, including construction, draping and drafting. We welcome candidates whose experience in teaching, scholarship, professional practice, or service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to work towards positive and sustainable change. Preference will be given to candidates with a vision for apparel/fashion design education and experience in knowledge systems that address ethical and responsible design, change advocacy, sustainability as it relates to race and material culture/practices, intersectional feminism, queer theory, and/or digital technologies. Successful candidates will be able to offer courses that both expand and seek to challenge traditional art and design curriculum and pedagogies.
Required qualifications
- a bachelor’s degree and professional experience that contributes to interdisciplinary expertise relevant to the candidate’s practice and pedagogy in reimagining fashion, apparel and adornment
- at least three years working in fashion or allied industries
- a solid, broad, multi-disciplinary professional network
- a minimum of three years of full-time teaching experience or an equivalent amount as an adjunct
- an active research practice or an ongoing creative practice
- a demonstrated teaching and/or professional record that exemplifies inclusionary practice
- a demonstrated record of inclusive leadership
Preferred qualifications:
- a combination of bachelor and advanced degrees in disciplines that contribute to the candidate’s interdisciplinary expertise relevant to the candidate’s practice and pedagogy in reimagining fashion, apparel and adornment
- candidates with a degree in a non-traditional apparel/fashion discipline (gender studies, business, industrial design, ethnic studies, material science, or others) are also encouraged to apply
- five years of full-time teaching experience, or an equivalent amount as an adjunct
Department/RISD description
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is an undergraduate and graduate college of art and design with approximately 2,500 graduate and undergraduate students. RISD supports faculty professional practice with sabbaticals, pre-critical review leave, conference funds, and professional development grants. RISD has a critical review process, which is very similar to the tenure process. For more information about RISD, please visit www.risd.edu.
Apparel Design at RISD fosters a creative practice rooted in embodied tactile materiality and ethical consciousness. The curriculum is founded on craftsmanship—research, technical skill building, detailing, gesture, aesthetic, and form—that are responsive to individuals and contexts. The mission of the Apparel Design department is to prepare students to be conscious leaders with global relevance—resourceful, feeling thinkers who approach clothing as a platform for diverse cultural dialogue. Through multidisciplinary approaches, students engage in the generation and sharing of not only dress and adornment, but also the notion of clothing and the systems for making it. The department recognizes that to address the demands and opportunities of the twenty-first century, the future designer will be able to incorporate knowledge of traditional forms and practices embedded in the craft of making, while also engaging change advocacy to address unethical practices driven by the textile and fashion industries.
Apparel Design addresses and responds to the critical challenges of our time and works toward positive and sustainable change. As a challenge to the relentless cycle of fashion, we slow down, rethink, and reinvent. The department fosters designers who want to critically question the industry and/or pursue allied or independent careers. Working in spacious studios, an engaged and individualized approach to teaching is possible due to the high faculty to student ratio. Students develop a range of conceptual and technical skills, explorations into identity/identities and contexts, and progress from the craft of basic to advanced pattern drafting, draping, construction, and machine knitwear. Students also participate in industry internships.
Faculty responsibilities
The full-time faculty teaching load is six teaching units a year. In addition to teaching, full-time faculty are expected to maintain a dynamic professional practice, serve on college committees, advise students, participate in curriculum development and other departmental activities and projects, and contribute to the vibrancy of the intellectual life of the college.
Pre-employment requirement
The successful candidate will be required to meet our pre-employment background screening requirements.
Special instructions to applicants
RISD faculty search committees comprise colleagues from within and outside of the hiring department.
Please attach the following to the appropriate links in the section labeled ‘Documents Needed to Apply’:
- letter of intent
- curriculum vitae
- a statement of teaching philosophy in which you articulate the role of social equity, diversity, and inclusion in your pedagogy
- two documents from the following list (in one PDF)
- a syllabus relevant to the areas of specialization sought
- a proposal for a sophomore-level course (including a paragraph that describes the course rationale and an outline of course assignments/activities)
- a proposal for a senior-level course (including a paragraph that describes the course rationale and an outline of course assignments/activities)
- a narrative (500 words maximum) that describes how you have instructed students in a conceptual or technical skill central to the practice of Apparel Design
- a narrative (500 words maximum) that describes how you approach critique
- portfolio of recent professional work (20 images maximum, in one PDF)
- examples of student work (20 images maximum, in one PDF)
File size is limited to 9MB per file. Applicant materials cannot include links. Materials that do not comply with the instructions will not be considered. Only materials that have been requested will be considered.
Names and contact information for three references are requested as part of the application process. Requests for reference letters are sent directly to the reference providers when candidates become semifinalists.
Review of applications begins immediately and continues until the position is filled. Candidates who submit their materials by 25 November 2022 are assured full consideration.
EEO Statement
RISD is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetics, or any other protected characteristic as established by law.