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Parsons School of Design is looking for an assistant professor of indigenous building and regenerative practices to join its staff in New York.

Tenure-track appointment
College: Parsons School of Design
Department: School of Constructed Environments
Start date: 1 July 2024

Parsons School of Design, a college of The New School, acknowledges the ancestral and traditional territories of the Lenape people on which our faculty, staff and students work, learn and create. We recognize that New York City has the largest urban indigenous population in the United States.

Parsons is committed to cultivating curricula grounded in social, racial, gender, disability and climate justice. As fundamental to this process, we are launching multiple full-time faculty positions in indigenous knowledge and practices. This initiative endeavours to begin readdressing the underrepresentation of indigenous knowledge and practices at Parsons. We invite applications from candidates whose work centres ways of understanding and practising art, design, and strategy that honours the original stewards, artists, makers and designers on Turtle Island.

As part of this cluster search, we invite candidates for a tenure-track appointment as assistant professor of indigenous building and regenerative practices in the School of Constructed Environments. This appointment will begin 1 July 2024.

We seek candidates who are engaged in indigenous building and regenerative material practices. An ideal candidate will be an active practitioner, educator, and/or researcher in this field of work, informed and in active dialogue with indigenous frameworks of meaning, history and culture. We are especially interested in candidates who embody a depth of indigenous knowledge embracing longstanding and active cultural frameworks. We welcome candidates whose building, architecture and design practices embrace regenerative material and land practices, and whose work includes climate and environmental justice. While recognizing the global, cross-cultural scope of indigenous building practice, this position has a Northeast regional lens within the context of Manhattan. Ideal candidates will demonstrate active dialogue with indigenous communities, locally and/or broadly. Candidates will lead seminary courses and design studios in building, architecture and indigenous practices at the graduate and undergraduate levels. The candidate should be able to engage students with a diversity of skills, backgrounds and interests.

Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments (SCE) engages the disciplines of architecture, interior design, lighting design and industrial design – ideal candidates will be able to collaborate within a focused discipline and across all disciplines. As one of the only schools in the country that offer degrees in the full range of fields that construct our environment, SCE welcomes faculty who have a deep commitment to disciplinary rigour and cross-disciplinary collaborations. The school has over 150 faculty and nearly 800 students. Located in the heart of New York City, Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments nurtures tomorrow’s practitioners and guides them in designing socially just, environmentally regenerative and innovative cities, buildings, interiors, lighting and products. We foster the skills, values and vision vital to creating more integrated, equitable and delightful worlds.

The New School is strongly committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and particularly seeks applications from members of underrepresented groups, as well as candidates who share this commitment.

Responsibilities

The work of this faculty member is divided between teaching, scholarship or professional/creative practice, and university service. The standard teaching load is five courses – or the equivalent – per academic year. Within their field of expertise, the faculty member will be expected to teach undergraduate, including first-year, as well as graduate courses, to majors and non-majors. They will hold regular office hours and participate in extracurricular teaching activities such as critiques, review panels, thesis supervision, independent study and advising. University service includes program, Parsons, and New School assignments on committees and task forces, and as program directors or associate directors with a reduced teaching load in graduate and undergraduate programs, including the undergraduate first year. All faculty are expected to be engaged with scholarship or professional/creative practice at a level commensurate with their faculty rank.

Minimum qualifications:

• a B.Arch, M.Arch or alternative terminal degree in a related field, or equivalent professional or life experience
• ongoing engagement with the Indigenous community
• active/current professional practice or creative/critical scholarship that demonstrates significant creative and professional achievement
• two years teaching at college, university, community-based, and/or secondary education level with evidence of engagement with course and syllabus development/planning
• strong interest in working collaboratively across Parsons and the university
• ability to work effectively as part of a team, as a collaborator or lead
• excellent interpersonal and organizational skills, including the ability to meet deadlines, communicate and motivate effectively
• evidence of a commitment to educational equity in teaching, research, scholarship, professional/creative practice or other experience
• evidence of cross-cultural communication skills in teaching, research, scholarship, professional/creative practice or other experience
• evidence of demonstrated interest in/building the ability to mentor and support students from diverse backgrounds, to develop and nurture the individual student’s abilities and a strong commitment to progressive education; this evidence can be in a candidate’s teaching, research, scholarship, professional/creative practice, or other experience
• evidence of a commitment to diversity and inclusion (in classroom, campus, community) in teaching, research, scholarship, professional/creative practice or other experience

Preferred qualifications:

• experience in higher education academic setting, with a working knowledge of curriculum development, student support and management
• experience teaching English language learners, students from low-income backgrounds, and first-generation college students
• university-level teaching that includes a combination of studios, seminars, and tutorials at the undergraduate and graduate levels
• experience with/commitment to curricular and community-building work for first-year college students; capacity to lead in the context of a first-year studies program

Work modality

On-campus position: faculty are expected to work on-campus due to the nature of the work in accordance with the university policies as set forth in the full-time faculty handbook
Salary range: $75,000-$90,000 per annum
Priority application deadline: February 29, 2024

Special instructions to applicants

To apply, please submit:

• • a current CV
  • a cover letter: one to two pages summarizing experiences as related to the requirements of this job description
  • a teaching statement: one to two pages describing artistic/design/research practice and teaching philosophy; please include in the statement an articulation of your approach to inclusive pedagogy and demonstrated evidence of commitment to equity, inclusion and social justice
  • the names and contact information for three professional and/or community references
  • one sample syllabus with assignments

Longlisted candidates will be asked to provide:

• up to ten creative, research or professional practice projects
• one to ten examples of student work mentored by the candidate

Please visit www.newschool.edu/parsons/academics for a full list of programs.

To submit your application, click the ‘apply for job’ button below.

We look forward to receiving your application.

www.newschool.edu/parsons/about

• Applications have closed.