Job: Assistant Professor of Religion and the Environment

Vanderbilt University, Department of Religious Studies

Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Religion and the Environment

We seek a candidate with a PhD degree in Religious Studies or a related humanities/humanistic social science discipline with expertise in the study of religion. Ability to contribute to the College’s new interdisciplinary Climate Studies program is essential.

Area of specialization, theoretical and methodological approach, historical period, cultural framework and geographical locus is open. Some examples of appropriate research foci at the intersection of religion and climate may include but are not limited to animal studies, bioethics, Black geographies and ecologies, comparative eschatologies, earth-based epistemologies and ontologies, immigration and environment, indigenous environmental studies, new religious movements, religious law and ethics, urban ecologies, environmental geopolitics, etc.

The Religious Studies department particularly values a diversity of worldviews and discourses that have been historically marginalized.  In addition to contributing to the growth and development of the department and to the field of Religious Studies, the successful candidate will join a growing number of faculty across the sciences, social sciences and humanities in Climate Studies and benefit from a strong institutional commitment to research and teaching in this area.

The normal tenure-track course load is two courses per semester (four per year). The successful candidate should expect to teach introductory classes in Religious Studies as well as advanced courses in her/his/their area of specialization, and one course yearly in Climate Studies. Qualified candidates should be prepared to mentor graduate students and teach advanced courses in the methodologies appropriate to the study of religion in the Graduate Department of Religion.

PhD must be in-hand no later than August 15, 2022 when employment starts at the beginning of Fall 2022 term.

Applications are accepted only through Interfolio here: http://apply.interfolio.com/93684 .

Deadlines: The deadline for application is 11:59 p.m. CST on October 10, 2021. Application review will begin October 11, 2021.

Required Documentation:

  • Cover letter including personal statement
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Names and contact information for three academic recommenders
  • Research statement
  • Teaching statement and unedited course evaluations (if available)
  • Diversity statement (diversity, equity, and inclusion are growing in importance as benchmarks of success for faculty at Vanderbilt. Tell us some specific ways that you attend to these values and challenges in your work)
  • Graduate/Post-graduate Transcripts (official)
  • Writing sample (@ 30 pp.)


Questions: Direct questions to Laurel Schneider, Chair, Department of Religious Studies, laurel.c.schneider@vanderbilt.edu

Openings for Research Associates / Visiting Faculty

HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL announces five full-time positions as Research Associate and Visiting Faculty for 2022-23 in its Women’s Studies and Religion Program.  Proposals for book-length projects utilizing both religion and gender as central categories of analysis and focusing on any religion are welcomed. Salary for 2022-23 will be $60,000. 

Completed applications are due online by October 15, 2021.  Applicants must have received their PhD by October 1, 2021.  Please see our website (http://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/apply) for more information.

The Women’s Studies in Religion Program was founded in 1973 to explore the fundamental role played by religious traditions in defining roles for women and men.  Research on religion and gender sheds light on questions about the changing roles of women both inside religious communities and in broader public spheres.  The Program’s goal is the production of new primary research addressing these and related issues and the dispersal of that information through courses, publications, and public programs.

Contact:

Tracy Wall

wsrp@hds.harvard.edu

www.wsrp.hds.harvard.edu

3 positions in Race, Class, Gender, & Religion

University of Chicago Divinity School

Three open posts for specialists in race, class, gender, & religion

  1. Assistant Professor, Tenure Track – application link: apply.interfolio.com/89120
  2. Associate or Full Professor, Tenured – application link: apply.interfolio.com/89122
  3. Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Tenure Track – application link: apply.interfolio.com/89116

Job Descriptions:

The University of Chicago Divinity School invites applications for the above position from scholars whose work brings together race and religion, for an appointment date of July 1, 2022.  We understand both of these terms, race and religion, capaciously and are open to work across methods, disciplines, periods, and geographies. Candidates are expected to have the interest and ability to engage in interdisciplinary conversations with other scholars of religion and in other fields and areas within the University.

The Divinity School is the graduate professional school for the academic study of religion at the University of Chicago, a private research university. Faculty in the School teach graduate students in its Ph.D., M.A., M.Div., and A.M.R.S. programs; and undergraduates in the College. Many members of the faculty hold associate appointments in humanities or social science departments and professional schools of the University.

Candidates must hold the Ph.D. by the time of appointment.

The Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow position will appointed at the rank of Instructor for an initial two-year period to start July 1, 2022. This initial period is intended to serve in lieu of a postdoctoral appointment. Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellows will teach one class/year, receive research support, join a cohort of Fellows, and participate in programming designed to support them as they prepare for a review for promotion to Assistant Professor at the end of their two-year term.

Review of applications for all three positions will begin September 15, 2021 and will continue until the position(s) is/are filled or the search is closed.  Applicants should submit 1) a cover letter, 2) a curriculum vita, 3) a teaching statement, 4) syllabi, 5) a statement articulating future research agenda, 6) a writing sample of 25-40 pages, and 7) three letters of reference. Reference letter submission information will be provided during the application process. Applications should be made online, at one of the Interfolio links above.

We seek a diverse pool of applicants who wish to join an academic community that places the highest value on rigorous inquiry and encourages a diversity of perspectives, experiences, groups of individuals, and ideas to inform and stimulate intellectual challenge, engagement, and exchange.

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/Disabled/Veterans Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, status as an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University’s Notice of Nondiscrimination. Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-702-1032 or email equalopportunity@uchicago.edu with their request.

Employer Description:

The Divinity School is the graduate professional school for the academic study of religion at the University of Chicago, a private research university. Faculty in the School teach graduate students in its Ph.D., M.A., M.Div., and A.M.R.S. programs; and undergraduates in the College. Many members of the faculty hold associate appointments in humanities or social science departments and professional schools of the University.

Contact: Sara Bigger – sfbigger@uchicago.edu

Job Opening: Digital Researcher

Goldsmiths, University of London – Faiths and Civil Society Unit, Dept of Social Therapeutic and Community Studies

Location: New Cross
Salary: £39,306.20 to £43,783.32
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On:
6th January 2021

Closes:
11th January 2021 (12 noon)

Job Ref: 433060

Pay Scale: Grade 7 (Spine point 32)
Duration: 25th January 2021 – 18th September 2021

This is an exciting opportunity for a Digital Researcher to join a thriving research unit on religion and belief in the public sphere. You will design and deliver a comprehensive online platform for policy makers in health and social care who are seeking to engage with the diversity of religion and belief among their service users and patients. You will combine some or all of an interest in the study of religion and belief, understanding of the health and social care sector, and a high level of digital skills to deliver the following key roles:

  • Collate a searchable database of sources and resources around religion, belief and policy for use by policy makers in health and social care on an open access basis;
  • Maintain and further develop a network of policy makers, practitioners and service providers in the area of religion and belief in health and social care;
  • Design an attractive and highly accessible web platform
  • Design and deliver a highly effective approach to uses of social media;
  • Write for academic publishing;
  • Build small-scale funding proposals to support the ongoing life of the project.

Applications from Black Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds and from other people of other minority identities are particularly welcomed.

All applicants should enclose a two page letter of application (max) highlighting their suitability and eligibility for the post, together with a two page CV.

Closing date for applications: 11th January 2021 (12 noon)

Digital Researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London (jobs.ac.uk)

Job Opening: Assistant Professor of Sociology

Assistant Professor – Sociology Pacific University Forest Grove, OR
Information at the Pacific University website.

Focus on quantitative sociology

The department of Sociology, Anthropology, Criminal Justice Law and Society (SOANCJ) at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon is seeking an Assistant Professor of Sociology (tenure-track) to join the department in Fall 20

  • In alignment with the university’s mission to mentor students to be individuals who ‘think, care, create, and pursue justice in our world,’ the SOANCJ department strives to ‘engage students to create learning environments that foster critical and creative thinking using social science research and methods regarding the context, origins, and solutions to pressing social issues.’ The successful candidate’s approach to teaching, research, and university service will align with these mission statements. Candidates must have a PhD in Sociology or related field by September 1st, 20
  • The department seeks an individual with a quantitative background in sociology who demonstrates a promise for excellent teaching and mentorship of students and who will be able to teach courses within a liberal arts context. In addition to a promise for excellent teaching and mentorship, the successful candidate will implement a promising research agenda. Tenure-track faculty at Pacific teach 20 credits (typically, five courses) per year. The successful candidate will be asked to teach First Year Seminar (FYS), Social Statistics, Quantitative Research Methods and other courses in their specialty. We especially encourage scholars with a specialty in ethnic/intersectional studies and/or an interest in contributing to the development of an ethnic/intersectional studies program to apply. Pacific University is located in Forest Grove, Oregon, twenty-five miles west of Downtown Portland.
  • News from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Religion

    • JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS
    • UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL
    • REMINDER: 2021 ASA ANNUAL MEETING & RELIGION SECTION DAY
    • GRADUATE STUDENT MENTORING – STAY TUNED
    • NEWSLETTER & @ASA_RELIGION TWITTER ANNOUNCEMENTS

    JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS – UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL

    Tenure-Track Assistant Professor – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – ASA Job ID 16552

    • The Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to participate in the following search for a tenure-track assistant professor:
    • Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/184289
    • Please pass these links along to potential candidates; thank you! For questions about the search, please email Jennifer Eissing, Department of Sociology, at: eissingj@email.unc.edu
    • Applications will be considered until the position is filled, but our review of applications will begin on November 9, 2020.

    Postdoc – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – ASA Job ID 16557

    • The Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to participate in the following search for a postdoctoral research fellow:
    • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity: https://research.unc.edu/carolina-postdocs/applicants/
    • Please pass these links along to potential candidates; thank you! For questions about the search, please email Jennifer Eissing, Department of Sociology, at: eissingj@email.unc.edu
    • Deadline for submission is November 16, 2020.
    • *Note: We welcome more job announcements. Per ASA policy, academic jobs advertised through our listserv include ASA job bank ID.

    REMINDER: 2021 ASA ANNUAL MEETING & RELIGION SECTION DAY

    Plans for the 116th ASA Annual Meeting in Chicago, August 7-10, 2021 continue. Note that ASA’s online portal will open for submissions on Monday, November 9, 2020. The submission deadline is Wednesday, February 3, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

    Sociology of Religion Section Sessions are assigned to Day 4, Tuesday, August 10th. Since this is the last day of the meeting, our section receives an additional session for papers.

    The section’s Program Committee consists of colleagues with an array of expertise. In hopes of adequately diversifying the scholarship featured this year, we are issuing an OPEN call for all Religion Section sessions and roundtables, while asking that session organizers for each of our sessions pay particular attention to themes which I believe are of particular significance to the study of religion today as follows:

    • Session: Sociology of Religion OPEN (preference for papers on gender & sexuality) Session
      Organizers: Jonathan Coley and Courtney Irby
    • Session: Sociology of Religion OPEN (preference for papers on cross-national or international dynamics)
      Session Organizers: Gary Adler and Rachel Rinaldo
    • Session: Sociology of Religion OPEN (preference for papers on the State or power dynamics)
      Session Organizer: Meredith Whitnah and Rhys Williams
    • Session: Sociology of Religion OPEN (preference for papers on non-religious dynamics or nones)
      Session Organizers: Joseph Blankholm and Jacqui Frost
    • Refereed Roundtables: Sociology of Religion Roundtables OPEN
      Session Organizers: Orestes Pat Hastings and Laura Krull

    Our annual Sociology of Religion Section Business Meeting will convene immediately after the Roundtable Session.

    Also, the Religion Section anticipates partnering again with the concurrent meetings of the Association for the Sociology of Religion also in Chicago. For example, we plan to again co-host a joint mentoring session for graduate students as well as a joint evening reception. More details as they are available.

    GRADUATE STUDENT MENTORING – STAY TUNED

    Our ASA Sociology of Religion Section is making plans to offer opportunities for Graduate Student Mentoring in the coming year. Stay tuned for details as they emerge.

    NEWSLETTER & ASA RELIGION TWITTER ANNOUNCEMENTS

    If you have newsletter items – Announcements, Awards, Promotions, Publications, Calls for Submissions, Job Listings (with ASA Job Bank ID), and other relevant material, please email Evan Stewart at Evan.Stewart@umb.edu.

    If you have anything you would like to share in future announcement emails, please email me – gemarti@davidson.edu.

    Gerardo Martí, PhD
    L. Richardson King Professor of Sociology, Davidson College
    https://www.davidson.edu/people/gerardo-marti

    Notices from the Australian Association for the Study of Religion

    Call for Papers:
    Conferences

    • International Conference on Religious Tourism (ICRT), University of Punjab, Lahore Pakistan, 8-9 January 2020. Abstract deadline: 11 November 2019. More info.
    • “Mosques, power and politics”, Copenhagen, Denmark, 22-24 January 2020. Abstract deadline: 15 November 2019. More info.
    • The 25th Nordic Conference in the Sociology of Religion. 17-19 August 2020, Gothenburg, Sweden on ‘Religious Organisation(s): Challenges and changes in contemporary society’. Session proposal deadline: 15 November 2019. More info.
    • British Muslim Charitable Organisations: A Best Practice Forum, Birmingham, 15 January 2020. Abstract deadline: 22 November 2019. More info.
    • Rethinking​ ​Media, Religion and Secularities. Conference of the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture Conference location: Sigtuna Foundation, Sigtuna, Sweden. Conference dates: 4-7 of August 2020. Deadline for Paper proposals: 6 December 2019. More info.
    • International Communication Association Preconference on Intersectional Imaginaries in Media, Religion & Gender, Gold Coast, Australia, May 2020. Proposal deadline 15 December 2019. More info.
    • The XXII Quinquennial World Congress of the IAHR, hosted by the New Zealand Association for the Study of Religions, will take place at the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand from 23-29 August 2020. Submission deadline 31 December 2019. More info.
    • Navigating the non/confessional in university Islamic studies. University of Birmingham. 20-22 April 2020. Submission deadline 17 January 2020. More info.

      Publications

    • Call for Papers on Digital Visibilities of the Religious. Deadline 15 January 2020. More info.
    • Call for papers on Religion & Ecology for a special issue of Religions. Deadline 31 May 2020.

    Postgrad/ECR Opportunities

    Also if you’re on Facebook, we have a postgrad page so do join us 🙂

    New Publications
    Oosterbaan, M., van de Kamp, L. and Bahia, J. (2019), Global Trajectories of Brazilian Religion: Lusospheres, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Job Opening: Social Theory and the Digital Study of Religion

    The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of assistant professor in the area of Social Theory and the Digital Study of Religion, beginning August 2020.

    The area of specialization (historic period, region, or group studied) is open; however, the successful candidate must complement and enhance the current specialties of the Department by using social theory to understand religion as an element of culture. The specific research area is thus part of the scholar’s attempt to answer broader, cross-cultural questions related to identity, power, and discourse. This position will supplement the Department’s B.A. curriculum (which now includes a digital humanities course) and will be of primary importance to the Religion in Culture M.A. program (which requires students to be familiar with a variety of digital skills). While a variety of digital specialties are potentially relevant, the Department is especially looking for a scholar with demonstrated expertise in digital humanities research methods (e.g., computational text analysis, data visualization, network analysis, GIS, etc.) and public humanities (e.g., digital collections, digital curation, podcasting, etc.)

    The successful candidate will teach courses ranging from introductory/lower- and upper-level B.A. courses to graduate seminars on a variety of analytic topics related to the successful candidate’s historical and/or ethnographic area(s) of specialization. Additionally, the candidate will contribute to the department’s establishment of interdisciplinary digital humanities courses. All faculty are also expected to supervise M.A. students in the social theory of religion when student interests intersect with faculty expertise.

    At the time of hire, a Ph.D. is required. The committee welcomes applications from candidates with training in the academic study of religion as carried out in a public university, but will also entertain training in related fields (literature, history, anthropology, etc.), as long as expertise in studying and teaching social theory and digital methods in the study of religion are evident. Applicants should demonstrate an active and ongoing research agenda, highlight their teaching experience, and make readily apparent their ability to contribute to the life of an academic department in the areas of service and collaboration.

    For further information, see: https://facultyjobs.ua.edu/postings/45867

    Job Opening: Gender & South Asian Religions

    An announcement about a job at Concordia University:

    Tenure-track position in Gender & South Asian religions, specialization in Hinduism

    The Department of Religions and Cultures in the Faculty of Arts and Science at Concordia University seeks to hire a tenure-track faculty member at the assistant professor level, working in the fields of gender and South Asian religions, with a specialization in Hinduism. The ideal candidate will have an excellent research profile and appropriate abilities in Indian languages.  Filling this position allows us to support graduate studies in the area of South Asian religions. The successful candidate will, therefore, have teaching experience and the ability to mentor graduate students. He or she will also complement existing strengths in Asian religions and women, gender and sexuality studies in the Department.

    http://www.concordia.ca/artsci/about/jobs/tenure-track-appointments/gender-south-asian-religions-hinduism.html

    Job Opening in Sociology of Religion: University of Memphis

    The Sociology Department at the University of Memphis invites applications for a tenure track faculty position to be filled at the Assistant Professor rank.  Applicants must have a Ph.D. in Sociology no later than August 2020. Area of specialization for both research and teaching is the sociology of religion. Applicants for this position will be expected to teach in both the Sociology Department and in the Religious Studies Program.

    Applications must be made on-line at https://workforum.memphis.edu/postings/23269. Please upload a letter of application which includes teaching interests and research plans, a curriculum vita, publications or samples of written work (up to a maximum of 3 items), evidence of teaching effectiveness, and three professional references. Review of applications will begin November 1, 2019 and may continue until the position is filled. The successful candidate will join an exciting and growing department in a dynamic urban university. The University of Memphis is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Applications from women and minorities are strongly encouraged.

    Date Position is Available:
    Fall 2020

    Application Deadline:
    11/1/2019