Full-Time Faculty/ World Literature, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences

About Fashion Institute of Technology:

The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), an internationally renowned college of art and design, business and technology, of the State University of New York, invites nominations and applications for a full-time tenure-track faculty position in the English and Communication Studies Department, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Fashion Institute of Technology, a part of the State University of New York, has been a leader in career education in art, design, business, and technology for nearly 70 years. With a curriculum that provides a singular blend of hands-on, practical experience, classroom study, and a firm grounding in the liberal arts, FIT offers a wide range of outstanding programs that are relevant to today’s rapidly changing industries. Internationally renowned, FIT draws on its New York City location to provide a vibrant, creative community in which to learn. The college offers more than 45 majors and grants AAS, BFA, BS, MA, MFA, and MPS degrees, preparing students for professional success and leadership in the global marketplace.

With close ties to industry, FIT draws faculty from the city’s art, business, and design elite, and from the rich academic community of the region. The College continually seeks creative faculty members who are passionate about their field and demonstrate exceptional professional capability in the core competencies of instruction design, learning enrichment, globalism, and use of technology, as well as mastery of established and emerging industry practices.

The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences provides the foundation for an FIT degree, committed to providing a broad-based general education for FIT students, integrating traditional academic study with career preparation. Home to seven academic departments, 17 minors, and two interdisciplinary majors, our faculty prepare students to become reflective, critical, and engaged citizens of the world. Committed to scholarship, academic service and student-centered instruction, faculty members foster an understanding of diverse cultures and international perspectives as well as an appreciation for the richness and changing composition of American culture.

The English and Communication Studies Department prepares students to be reflective, creative, critical, and engaged citizens of the world through the study of literature, writing, and communication. Our wide-ranging curriculum provides students with the tools to navigate their environment, to stimulate the imagination, and to communicate across boundaries and borders as they begin to enter the global marketplace.

Job Description:

The English and Communication Studies Department seeks a full-time specialist in World Literature with a regional specialization including, but not limited to, the Global South, African and African Diaspora, Caribbean, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Oceanic, or South/South East Asian literary traditions.

The successful candidate will be expected to contribute leadership and vision to the Department’s literature program, to provide intellectual and pedagogical innovation for world literature courses, to serve as a mentor to current and new literature faculty, and to develop interdisciplinary college-wide programming in global and area studies.

The candidate will be expected to work closely with other Liberal Arts and Sciences departments and have a commitment to working with culturally, linguistically, and academically diverse students in an institution with strong emphasis on globalism and experiential learning. At hire, the faculty member will be expected to teach existing courses in the English and Communication Studies Department, including literature and composition; develop new curriculum in the candidate’s area of specialization; and be prepared to offer courses that expand and seek to decolonize/challenge traditional liberal arts curricula and pedagogies. Additionally, the candidate will engage in academic service and conduct research in their area of expertise.

Requirements:

Specific Competencies

Successful candidates will excel in the following areas:

Globalism

• Possess expertise in helping students discover how specific works of literature can challenge or solidify accepted norms and values and uncover moments of cultural evolution and revolution.
• Demonstrate ability to help students delve into human experience by examining key works of literature from diverse historical, racial, ethnic, religious, aesthetic, economic, social and cultural perspectives; while also encouraging them to challenge essentializing tendencies and debates that might circulate and solidify around the reception of these works.
• Demonstrate ability to create a dynamic classroom where students can effectively communicate across cultural and linguistic boundaries and balance differing worldviews based upon a deep knowledge and awareness of other people, countries, cultures, and beliefs through the careful study of literature.

Instructional Design

• Demonstrate ability to adapt course materials to adjust to new innovations within and outside of the discipline.
• Experience utilizing a variety of instructional delivery methods and emerging technologies to improve student learning.
• Willingness to embrace innovative pedagogical, collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches in literature, where appropriate.
• Demonstrate instructional variety and flexibility to accommodate students of different learning styles, abilities, demographics, or diversity.
• Demonstrate experience in creating engaging curriculum and classroom environments that will reinforce and further develop advanced skills in critical reading, thinking, presenting, writing, and communication skills.

Learning Enrichment

• Possess a passion for expanding students’ horizons, curiosities and imagination through literary examples and wide-ranging curricular innovations that fall outside the Western literary tradition.
• Demonstrate experience in guiding students to hone lateral thinking skills and to engage in critical analysis as they dissect a work’s themes, authorial and stylistic choices, historical context and cultural significance through careful literary analysis.
• Demonstrate the vision to deliver and advance the mission of the English and Communication Studies Department and the School of Liberal Arts: to develop reflective, critical and engaged citizens of the world.
• Demonstrate interest in developing a wide-ranging curriculum that takes advantage of areas of expertise while contributing to the ECS Department’s vision.
• Experience encouraging student interaction, collaboration, teamwork and cooperation in the learning process.

Professionalism

• Maintain active participation in professional practices and scholarship, and a willingness to mentor faculty both within the School of Liberal Arts and across the College. Demonstrate expertise in current critical, theoretical, and pedagogical trends and practices in the field.
• Demonstrate ability to represent FIT with innovative scholarship presented at local, regional, national, and international professional organizations and through peer reviewed publications.
• Demonstrate ability to support FIT’s goals and mission of promoting issues of sustainability, pluralism, and diversity through literary studies.
• Demonstrate the ability to collaborate with colleagues to increase the visibility and profile of literary studies at FIT.
• Maintain positive, helpful, supportive, respectful, collegial, and teamwork-oriented relationships with other professionals.

Technology

• Demonstrate ability to utilize innovative instructional technology and to select the most appropriate technologies to enhance student-learning outcomes.
• Possess expertise in using social and emerging media to create engaging and evolving methods of instruction and student-centered interaction.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Candidates should possess a PhD in English, Literature, or Comparative Literature; with a regional specialization including, but not limited to, the Global South, African and African Diaspora, Caribbean, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Oceanic, or South/South East Asian literary traditions.
• Candidates should also exhibit a record of academic research and publication, professional activities, successful college-level teaching, and familiarity with both online and hybrid learning environments.
• ABDs will be considered with the understanding that successful defense of the dissertation/thesis is required prior to the start of the second semester of employment.

Preferred Qualifications

• We invite applicants with research and teaching expertise in a broad range of non-Western literary traditions with a comparative, transnational, interdisciplinary, and/or Postcolonial studies approach, in addition to literary subfields that might include critical theory, diasporic studies, ecocriticism, gender and sexuality studies, non-traditional literary forms, speculative fiction, visual narratives, and theatre and performance studies. Experience with interdisciplinary and innovative approaches to teaching literature and the digital or public humanities would also complement our commitments to innovation, and civic engagement. An ideal candidate would be prepared to offer courses that expand and seek to decolonize/challenge traditional liberal arts curricula and pedagogies. Expertise in critical literary theory around areas such as: indigenous studies, critical race and intellectual histories, colonization, decolonization, post-coloniality, and cultural representation, as well as in material practices of resistance would also be desirable.

This position will be required to constantly read and comprehend, occasionally perform calculations, constantly verbally communicate, frequently analyze, and constantly write. The working conditions for this position will be any combination of the classroom, lab, and/or office space. Certain roles may be required to handle machinery and chemicals. The physical requirement for this position will require occasional sitting, constant standing, occasional bending, frequent walking, and occasionally lifting 10 lbs. or less.

Additional Information:

This is a full-time, tenure-track position beginning in Fall 2022. Review of applications will commence immediately and continue until the position is filled. First consideration will be given to completed applications received by November 1, 2021. Salary and appointment rank will be based on education level and cumulative experience.

Link to FIT Benefits for Full-Time Faculty

Salary Schedule (page 72)

Application Instructions:

Please note that a background check is required for appointment to this position.

Please note applications without all application materials will not be considered.

For consideration, please provide:

• Letter of interest clearly indicating your qualifications for the position;
• Curriculum Vitae/Resume;
• A minimum of three professional references, including names, titles, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail contact information;
• Evidence of teaching effectiveness;
• Statement of teaching philosophy;
• Sample publication/writing sample.

Please note that due to the volume of applications, we will not be able to contact each applicant individually. Additional information about the Fashion Institute of Technology can be found at: www.fitnyc.edu.

FIT is firmly committed to creating an environment that will attract and retain people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds. By providing a learning and working environment that encourages, utilizes, respects, and appreciates the full expression of every individual’s ability, the FIT community fosters its mission and grows because of its rich, pluralistic experience. FIT is committed to prohibiting discrimination, whether based on race, national origin, gender, religion, ethnic background, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or any other criterion prohibited by applicable federal, state, or local laws. FIT is committed to providing equal opportunity in employment, including the opportunity for upward mobility for all qualified individuals.

The College reserves the right to select one or more candidates after having been duly reviewed and presented to the President in conformance with the provisions of Article 15 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.