Community Engagement through Dance Pedagogy

Position
Assistant professor, full time, tenured/tenure-track faculty

Unit
College of the Arts and Sciences, Department of Dance

Focus Area
Humanities and the Arts

Description

The Department of Dance at The Ohio State University seeks a dance artist/teacher/scholar with expertise in community engagement through dance pedagogy, art-making processes, and movement practice. We welcome a colleague interested in forging collaborations between OSU Dance and underserved local, national, and international communities to engender greater public engagement with their voices and histories. We particularly welcome applicants whose foci embrace African American, Latinx, immigrant, and refugee community contexts.

This position is partially funded by Ohio State's Discovery Themes, a significant faculty hiring investment in key thematic areas in which the university can build on its culture of academic collaboration to make a global impact. This position maps onto the Human Dimensions of Global Challenges Focus Area of the Humanities and the Arts Discovery Theme, and was inspired by the Be the Street pilot project of the Humanities and Arts Discovery Theme.

Our new colleague will contribute:

In Research: Pioneer community-based artistic collaborations and choreography, and/or scholarship in dance pedagogy.

In Teaching: Instruct courses in community art-making practices, dance technique/movement practice, and dance education. Lead community engagement initiatives such as the School Tour Group, student projects in schools and community centers, and work with local arts groups and/or social services. Additional expertise could include one or more of the following areas: composition, somatic practices, and creative technologies for dance.

In Service: Provide leadership in undergraduate and graduate programs, curriculum development, advising, and governance within the department, college, university, and the field.

The Department of Dance at The Ohio State University, one of the oldest dance departments in the country and a founding member of the National Association of Schools of Dance, consistently ranks as one of the top programs in dance. We provide intersecting investigations with courses in varied movement and choreographic practices, repertory, dance studies, production and lighting, dance pedagogy, screendance and dance-related technologies, dance documentation, theory and analysis. The breadth of our program values diverse perspectives and prioritizes educating students in a comprehensive way within the lively discourse of a major research university. We have a bold commitment to cultural, racial and ethnic diversity, reflected throughout our curriculum and in recruitment of faculty, students and staff.

Our department is staffed by 12 tenure-track faculty, adjunct educators, international guest artists, visiting scholars, and 20 graduate associates. We serve 105 BFA undergraduates, 30 MFA/PhD graduate students, 250 dance minors, and 1200 general university students each semester. A significant number of our graduates are in tenure-track positions (more than 80) and in chair positions nationally.

Our newly renovated facilities in historic Sullivant Hall feature state-of-the-art performance spaces, six studios, a costume shop, and a media lab. Our neighbors include The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design with a motion capture lab and the famed Wexner Center for the Arts.

Qualifications

Applicants are required to have an MFA with significant work as an artist. Preferred experience: university teaching, developing or working in interdisciplinary research teams, mentoring members of underrepresented groups. Appointment is contingent on the university's verification of credentials and other information required by law and/or university policies, including but not limited to a criminal background check.

Inquiries may be directed to Mitchell Rose, Search Committee Chair, rose.320@osu.edu.

Our Commitment to Diversity

The Ohio State University is committed to fostering a culturally and intellectually diverse environment and encouraging all members of our learning community to reach their full potential. We are responsive to dual-career families and actively promote work-life balance to support our community members through a suite of institutionalized policies. We are an NSF ADVANCE Institution and a member of the Ohio/Western Pennsylvania/West Virginia Higher Education Recruitment Consortium.