APPLICATION PERIOD FOR THIS POSITION NOW CLOSED
The Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver campus) invites applications for the President’s Excellence Chair in Network Cultures, a full-time, tenured appointment at the rank of Associate or Professor with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2020. The Chair will be provided with research funds and have a reduced teaching load for a seven-year term, which can be renewed* for an additional 7-year term. For more information on the President’s Excellence Chairs at UBC please visit: ubc.ca/excellence.
The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. and be an outstanding researcher whose scholarship has made a significant international impact; have a strong record of attracting and supervising graduate students; have demonstrated excellence in teaching all levels of students; and be pursuing an original and productive research program with a proven track record of publication related to the developing field of Critical Infrastructure Studies, an interdisciplinary field that engages with the literary studies of network cultures, information studies and the history and sociology of science, in order to examine the technological mediation of data-driven knowledge environments and the cultural and political processes that they produce. The work of the candidates will address how such processes achieve meaning at the macro level of information systems or ecologies, adding to the understanding of algorithmic ethics, the materiality of digital infrastructure, and the perception of cultural objects as cultural techniques. Furthermore, candidates will seek to inaugurate processes of public humanities research that acknowledge the intertwined material and social contexts of cultural production.
The position is to be located in the Department of English Language and Literatures with the possibility of a cross-appointment, depending on the research and teaching interests of the candidate. The Chair will have a broad interdisciplinary focus, reflecting the Department’s interactions with other humanities departments and institutes including Art History; Asian Studies; Central, Eastern & Northern European Studies; French, Hispanic and Italian Studies; History; the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies; the Institute for Gender, Race Sexuality and Social Justice; the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Philosophy; and Theatre and Film as well as interdisciplinary programs such as Science and Technology Studies; Environmental Studies; and the Critical Racial and Anti-Colonial Studies Research Network. The Chair will interact with the Library’s Digital Scholarship Lab, the Oecologies initiative, and will benefit from the Department’s newly enhanced curriculum and broadly-based, interdisciplinary expertise in areas such as media studies, disability studies, posthumanism, environmental humanities, and post-conflict studies. Finally, it is expected that the Chair will foster national and international initiatives.
Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Métis, Inuit, or Indigenous person (the latter understood broadly in its global context). Applicants are asked to include, as part of their application materials, a separate statement describing past experience that promotes diversity and inclusion, broadly understood and/or plans to make future contributions to more inclusive representation of racialized minorities in the applicant’s core discipline(s), in the academy more broadly, and/or affiliate institution(s).
To ensure full consideration, applicants should submit their online application through the Department of English Language and Literatures’ Internal Resources website at: https://engl.air.arts.ubc.ca/position-35629, and be prepared to upload the following in the order listed: a letter of application, curriculum vitae, a description of current and future research interests, statement of teaching philosophy, the one-page diversity statement referred to above, a sample of ongoing research preferably in the form of published material, and evidence of teaching effectiveness. Applicants should also arrange to have confidential letters from three referees sent to english.recruitment@ubc.ca by the same deadline.
Applications and all supporting materials should be received by December 15. Review of applications will begin soon after this date and will continue until the position is filled.
This position is subject to final budgetary approval. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Queries should be addressed to:
Professor Patricia Badir, Head
Department of English Language and Literatures, University of British Columbia
397-1873 East Mall, Vancouver, BC; Canada V6T 1Z1
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.
*The name of the renewed Chair is subject to change.
