Call for Applications: 

Bates History Department and Africana Program

 

Visiting Assistant Professor, AY 2023-24 

 

Modern US History, with an Emphasis on African American History. 

 

The Bates History Department and Africana Program welcome applications for a 5-course Visiting Assistant Professor Position for AY 2023-24. They seek a colleague with a disciplinary expertise in history and a PhD in history, African American Studies, or related program. The colleague will teach the 100-level Rise of the American Empire (39 students) and the 300-level Black Resistance (15 students) in the fall. Descriptions of these courses follow. The successful candidate will teach two additional 200-level courses (29 students each) in the winter semester, as well as a half credit 3.5-week short term class in May 2024. These winter and spring courses may be of the colleague’s own design; or, they may be drawn from courses already listed in the catalog (link below). The three courses would be cross-listed with History and Africana, as is the Black Resistance seminar for the fall. The colleague should expect to advise students and as many as five senior thesis writers over the course of the year. 

 

Interested candidates should email a cover letter, c.v., teaching statement, sample syllabus, and the names of three references to History Department Chair Caroline Shaw (cshaw@bates.edu). Review of applications will begin Wednesday, May 17 and continue until the position is filled. The department hopes to begin scheduling Zoom interviews for their top candidates for the week of May 22.

 

Bates History Courses: https://catalog.bates.edu/departments/HIST/courses

Africana Program Courses: https://www.bates.edu/africana/program/courses/

 

History 141 – The Rise of the American Empire

 

During the nineteenth century, the United States experienced one of the most dramatic political transformations in world history, rising from an imperiled post-revolutionary state to become a global empire. This course examines the diverse experiences of those who lived through this era of dizzying change and confronted the forces that shaped a restless nation: slavery, capitalism, patriarchy, expansionism, urbanization, industrialization, and total warfare. Whether fighting for recognition or resisting the encroaching state, they struggled over the very meaning of American nationhood. The outcome was ambiguous; its legacy is still being contested today.

 

Africana/History 301G – Black Resistance

 

From antebellum slavery through twentieth-century struggles for civil rights, black Americans have resisted political violence, economic marginalization, and second-class citizenship using strategies ranging from respectability to radicalism. Engaging with both historical and modern scholarship, literary sources, and other primary documents, this course explores the diverse tactics and ideologies of these resistance movements. By considering the complexities and contradictions of black resistance in American history and conducting source-based research, students develop a deep understanding of the black freedom struggle and reflect on the ways that these legacies continue to shape present-day struggles for racial justice.