Apply at bit.ly/cunyhums-postdoc (CUNY Job ID: 17983)
Deadline: February 15, 2018

ABOUT THE POSITION

The CUNY Humanities Alliance is a partnership between the City University of New York’s Graduate Center and LaGuardia Community College, designed to prepare graduate students in the humanities for teaching in community college, and supported by a four-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation. As we enter years 3-4 of the grant, we seek a CUNY Humanities Alliance Postdoctoral Fellow interested in pursuing research on equitable, inclusive practices in classrooms and universities, with an emphasis on the role of community colleges and the humanities within the higher education landscape.

The Postdoctoral Fellow will be institutionally located within the Futures Initiative, one of the Graduate Center-based partners on the Humanities Alliance grant. The Futures Initiative brings together graduate fellows, faculty fellows, and undergraduate leadership fellows from across CUNY through a range of programs that support equity and innovation in higher education—including the Humanities Alliance. We welcome candidates from any field of the humanities, education, or the interpretive social sciences. Competitive candidates should demonstrate interest in areas such as: diversity and inclusion in community college and throughout higher education; equity and inequity; critical university studies; student-centered pedagogy; the role of higher education in students’ lives; first-generation college students; English language learners; or other vital issues of concern to students, such as food and housing insecurity, immigration, bias based on race, gender, sexuality or ability, income inequality, or social mobility.

The Fellow will review and synthesize research completed in years 1-2 and will conduct original research and analysis on the impact of the grant project at CUNY, and the potential for the project to be a model for other institutions. Depending on the candidate’s areas of strength, research might focus on results of implementing student-centered pedagogy; lessons learned in creating bridges between community colleges and four-year colleges; and the role of graduate education in preparing future community college faculty. Candidates will be expected to meaningfully communicate the impact of the cumulative work of the four-year CUNY Humanities Alliance to various audiences in different contexts. Such communications might include data visualizations, conference presentations, formal writing for reports or scholarly publications, and informal writing on blogs, social media, and other online platforms.

As a member of the Humanities Alliance and Futures Initiative teams, and working in collaboration with the Teaching and Learning Center at the Graduate Center and the Center for Teaching and Learning at LaGuardia Community College, as well as other faculty and staff at both institutions, the Fellow will have an opportunity to develop a range of professional skills related to educational technology, the public humanities, scholarship of teaching and learning, and university work in the humanities more broadly. The Fellow will be supported in publishing their own scholarly work, including revising their dissertation into publications, and working with the qualitative and quantitative data generated by the program’s activities. To facilitate professional development and future career trajectory, the Fellow will develop a tailored plan to support their individual career goals, which might include faculty, administrative, or policy-oriented positions.

This position reports to the Director of Administration and Programs of the Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center. This position begins in summer 2018 (depending on the candidate’s availability) and ends June 30, 2020.

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Designs research and public projects related to equity, access, and the future of the humanities in community colleges and throughout higher education;
• Contributes to executing, reporting on, and assimilating findings from “Community College and the Future of the Humanities: Engaging Faculty and Students in Institutional and Classroom Transformation,” a national conference hosted by the CUNY Humanities Alliance Conference on October 18 and 19, 2018;
• Reviews existing analysis and research instruments (surveys, interviews, focus groups) developed by first postdoctoral fellow in years 1-2 of the program;
• Develops a plan for additional research and analysis, with a focus on the program’s overall impact at CUNY and its potential to serve as a model for other institutions;
• Produces original scholarship and visual materials based on existing and new research that can be published in a range of venues, from informal social media and blogging platforms to scholarly journals and news outlets;
• Posts regular research updates on the CUNY Humanities Alliance website;
• Collaborates with partnering units on community-building components of the Alliance, including presenting ideas to connect the programming and people of the Futures Initiative and the Humanities Alliance;
• Participates in and leads workshops and meetings of the CUNY Humanities Alliance and Futures Initiative Fellows;
• Obtains approval of research from the Human Research Protection Program (CUNY’s IRB equivalent), if needed;
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Ph.D. in the humanities or the interpretive social sciences. Candidates should have their doctoral degree in hand by the position start date. Research interest in pedagogy and/or the future of higher education. Excellent research, writing, and communication skills.

OTHER QUALIFICATIONS

A preferred candidate should have:

• A dissertation that engages in issues of higher education systems, student success, collaborative pedagogy, public humanities, scholarly publishing, digital literacy, or peer-to-peer communication methods.
• Demonstrated analytical skills, including both qualitative and quantitative analysis.
• Understanding of the changing environment of scholarly publishing.
• Nuanced grasp of the registers and modes of communication in academic communities at various levels—administration, faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students.
• Experience working within online communities.
• Experience with data visualization.
• Experience with design, including use of Adobe Creative Suite software.
• Expertise in some current area of digital, hybrid, or online pedagogy or instruction.
• Digital fluency, ideally with some experience working with HTML, CSS, and open-source content management systems such as WordPress.

Scholars of color, people with backgrounds historically underrepresented in the academy, and people with direct experience in community colleges are strongly encouraged to apply.

Apply at bit.ly/cunyhums-postdoc (CUNY Job ID: 17983)
Deadline: February 15, 2018