Call for Applications

The Center for RIDGS Studies is in a period of leadership transition; Director Keith Mayes will complete his three-year term in June, at which point, Associate Director Jimmy Patino will begin a three-year directorship. This is a call for applications to fill the Associate Director position.

 

The RIDGS Associate Director is part of the RIDGS leadership team along with the Director and Program Coordinator. They help make all decisions about RIDGS programming, provide capacity in its implementation, serve as Director of Graduate Study for the RIDGS minor, serve as a mentor in the RIDGS Dissertation Proposal Development program during the years it is offered, and are encouraged to pursue their own programming initiatives in RIDGS.

 

Importantly, the Associate Director is expected to assume the Directorship at the end of their term, ensuring continuity in leadership and meaning that applicants for this position should be prepared for a six-year commitment.

 

The Associate Directorship is compensated with one course release per year during the three-year term, along with $5000 in research funding each year (this is contingent on confirmation from the Dean). The RIDGS Director’s compensation is negotiated with the Dean prior to the start of their term. The current directorship package from CLA is six course releases and $15,000 in research funding during their three-year term; we cannot guarantee identical compensation for future directorship terms. 

 

Eligible faculty for the position must be tenured and have extensive knowledge and experience with intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches to race, indigeneity, disability, gender, and sexuality studies. Applications are comprised of: Cover sheet, complete CV, and a 1-2 page statement describing your qualifications, reason for applying, and vision for RIDGS during your terms as Associate Director and Director across six years. By submitting an application, you commit yourself as a candidate. Applications will be reviewed and voted on by the RIDGS Advisory Board.

 

 

 

The Mission Statement of the Center for RIDGS Studies is below:
 

It is the mission of the Center to continue the work of the Race, Indigeneity, Gender and Sexuality Studies Initiative (RIGS) established in 2015 through student action, faculty cooperation, and University response.  The Center aims to support innovative research, teaching, and community-building for scholars engaged with issues of race/racial justice, indigeneity, gender, sexuality, and ableism/disability. The Center is dedicated to bringing faculty, staff, and students together to pursue lines of inquiry that challenge systems of power and inequality, assert human dignity, work towards racial justice, defend the rights of Indigenous people and Nations, and imagine social and institutional transformation.  To  further these aims, the Center supports a wide range of activities, which  may include, but are not limited to: courses and teaching responsive to current events, the RIDGS graduate minor, research circles, colloquia and workshops, lectures, conferences and symposia, community engagement efforts, the publication of scholarly research, programmatic  development, and the research efforts of students and faculty, individually and in collaboration,  including post-graduate opportunities.  The Center maintains close ties and fosters coalition among the founding RIDGS units: African American & African Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano & Latino Studies, American Studies, Critical Disability Studies, and Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies.