Rhode Island School of Design, Theory and History of Art and Design

Global Indigenous Worlds

The Department of Theory and History of Art and Design in the Division of Liberal Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, invites applications for a full-time faculty appointment in Arts of Global Indigenous Worlds at the rank of Assistant/Associate Professor, to commence fall 2023. Rank will be dependent on professional status and teaching experience.

RISD recognizes diversity and inclusion as fundamental to its learning community and integral to an art and design education. We welcome candidates whose areas of expertise foreground works and bodies of knowledge from historically underrepresented communities and whose experience in teaching, scholarship, professional practice, and/or service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence. We encourage applicants from communities that are underrepresented in the academy: Indigenous peoples, Native American peoples, Black and peoples of color, women, LGBTQIA+, veterans, and people with disabilities.

We are seeking a teacher-scholar whose work shows critical understanding of aesthetic and material production in and between Indigenous worlds. The position has specially been framed to situate the art of Indigenous worlds as a challenge to the idea of Europe as the primary cultural and epistemological domain of global aesthetic production in history. We are looking for candidates whose work challenges established models of art history—what constitutes art, what counts as historical research and evidence, etc.—and who can contribute to the department’s goals of challenging Eurocentric and modernist histories of art.

Successful candidates will be required to teach six courses per academic year, including participation in our first-year introductory courses, H101 (Global Modernisms) and H102 (Critical Introduction to History of Architecture and Design), which are required of all incoming RISD students. Being able to contribute to the ongoing process of reimagining the undergraduate survey course with new and exciting lectures and topics is an essential requirement of the position. Other teaching responsibilities will include undergraduate and graduate elective courses, including lectures and seminars. These courses contribute to students’ general education requirements at RISD and to requirements for the undergraduate concentration in Theory and History of Art and Design, which students can elect. Additionally, the Division of Liberal Arts houses two interdisciplinary Masters programs: Global Arts and Cultures (GAC) and Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies (NCSS). Depending on Departmental and programmatic needs, colleagues would have the opportunity to teach required MA courses, design graduate electives for the MA degrees, and advise MA theses, participate in programs’ evolution.

Required Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent terminal degree in Art, Architecture, or Design History, or an allied field relevant to the study of the arts of global Indigenous worlds conferred by fall 2023.
• Demonstrated record of, or evidence of the potential for, teaching at the Masters level in the specified areas of specialization.
• Demonstrated record of publication or evidence of an active research agenda relevant to the arts of global Indigenous worlds across traditionally defined geographical regions and exchanges between Western and non-Western traditions of knowledge production.
• A demonstrated teaching and/or professional record that exemplifies inclusionary practice.
• A demonstrated record of inclusive leadership.

Department /RISD Description

Rhode Island School of Design is an undergraduate and graduate college of art and design with approximately 2,500 graduate and undergraduate students. RISD is built on what is now called College Hill, part of the ancestral homelands of the Narragansett Nation, the only federally recognized tribe in Rhode Island. Indigenous people from many nations—near and far—live, study and work in Providence today. RISD community members are committed to actively addressing the many violent legacies of colonialism in our daily work. The amplification of Native voices and histories is crucial to rectifying the destructive past, and we gratefully acknowledge the ongoing critical contributions of Indigenous people across our state, region and nation. 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.

The division of Liberal Arts at RISD (in which THAD resides) has recently created three positions in Indigenous studies, of which this new position is one. In addition, in 2021 and 2022, RISD successfully completed a cluster hire of ten new faculty members whose work focuses on questions of race and decolonization in art and design. The current position is an opportunity to contribute to this evolving divisional and college-wide initiative.

Rhode Island School of Design has a diverse selection of Liberal Arts courses, which constitute a third of the undergraduate graduation requirements for students majoring in art and design. In addition to required courses, the Department of Theory and History of Art and Design offers approximately sixty-six electives per year ranging from histories of film and photography, Latin-American art, art of the Islamic World, medieval art and architecture, modern and contemporary art, modern architecture and design, Chinese art and archeology, and African art and performance. We offer both traditional art, architecture, and design topics and those with a more experimental and/or interdisciplinary focus. Our department’s curriculum is responsive to changing concerns in the field and attentive to its role in the art and design education of our students. The Department of Theory and History of Art and Design offers a Concentration that allows students to forge their own entryway into the theorization and creation of art, architecture and design works. The Department comprises ten full-time and twenty-eight part-time faculty members.

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 research 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. The successful candidate will be required to meet our pre-employment background screening requirements. Building relationships with local Indigenous communities is both encouraged and valued.

Union Yes

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”:
1) Letter of intent

2) Curriculum vitae

3) A statement of teaching philosophy in which you articulate the role of social equity, diversity, and inclusion in your pedagogy

4) Three syllabi: one for a first-year seminar, one for an undergraduate elective, and one for a graduate elective.

5) A writing sample (25 pages maximum)

File size is limited to 9 MB 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 at the semi-finalist stage.
Review of applications begins immediately and continues until the position is filled. Candidates who submit their materials by January 3, 2023 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.