Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design seeks a forward thinking and experienced artist/designer, educator and scholar for the position of Associate Professor in its highly regarded Graduate Department of Digital + Media, with the expectation that this individual will also serve as the appointed Department Head starting July 2011. Established in 2003, the Department of Digital + Media offers an MFA program for approximately 30 students a year who bring diverse research interests and creative explorations of technology and the digital world to the fields of contemporary art/design, and new media practices. It is one of three stand-alone graduate departments at RISD. Because of its interdisciplinary structure and reach, the Department of Digital + Media has developed strong connections to other departments and programs both at RISD and at neighboring Brown University. The position offers a unique opportunity for a dynamic intellectual and pedagogical leader to guide the future of the department in its exploration of advanced art, design and research practices within the current cultural environment of ubiquitous digital media. The successful candidate should be an artist/designer who is engaged in the understanding of emergent, adaptive and social media technologies and their relationship with other media, disciplines and debates within contemporary theory. She/he will foster a department culture of curricular innovation in which faculty are encouraged to develop progressive teaching and research practices. As Department Head, she/he will play a pivotal role in supporting the diverse practices of D + M graduate students and forging partnerships with other graduate programs at RISD, as well as external research partners. She/he will develop the role of the Digital + Media Department as a research incubator and creative forum at RISD, and advance the Digital + Media program within the expanding field of new media and technology in art and design graduate education.
Applicants should have a terminal graduate degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience in art, design, media, computer art, or contemporary theory; at least 5 years of full-time teaching at the college or university (especially graduate) level or the equivalent; a demonstrated background and interest in academic, intellectual leadership in a graduate program; and a strong record of research and creative work.
Applicants should provide a letter of interest; statement of teaching and leadership philosophy in the context of this field of inquiry; curriculum vitae; names and contact information for three references; examples of creative and scholarly work; and selected syllabi from courses taught with examples of student work.
Review of applications will begin immediately, and continue until the position is filled. Candidates who submit their materials by January 5, 2011, will be assured full consideration.
For more information about RISD and to apply online visit http://www.risd.edu/jobs
RISD is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage inquiries from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of our College. RISD does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, genetics, or any other protected characteristic as established by law, in employment, or in our education programs.
About the Department of Digital + Media:
The Department of Digital + Media is engaged in a critical examination and exploration of the dynamic relationship of technology, contemporary culture, media, and physical objects, time and space. It offers a two-year MFA with annual enrollment of thirty graduate students with a diverse range of undergraduate and professional backgrounds. The mission of the department is to create a resonant environment for leading edge creative work and research focusing on the creative potentials of media and contemporary technologies. Embracing the broad and dynamic potential of digital media as a ubiquitous tool across many domains, the department fosters exploratory work that exhibits a high degree of innovative visual, sonic, and/or textual expression with conceptual clarity and technological insight and agility. A continuum between digital media and physical objects, virtual and actual space is emphasized.
Working from a cogent theoretical, historical, and conceptual curricular core, the department is an environment that supports diverse forms of experimentation for students. Students are immersed in a multi-perspective approach to knowledge and contemporary culture with particular relevance to their own areas of interest merged with theory and critique from other disciplines and areas of research. Through a complex understanding of the capacity of digital and new media and social practices through conceptual, critical, social, and cultural inquiry, students pursue ambitious independent work and theses. Multiple, but interconnected, core intellectual values include:
- To know how to use digital (and analog) technologies; study and understand the various perspectives of their histories and how they came to be
- To understand the implications materialized in a device or technology; why they are there and for whom, in order to challenge, critique, and interrogate the embedded assumptions and prescriptions and engage critically with technologies
- To investigate existing or make new technologies from the perspectives of artists and designers rather than from traditionally trained engineers
- To work in the areas of social practice, activist practice, and science, technology, and society studies in both material and community projects
Performance, installation, dance, film, sound, objects, two- and three-dimensions, video, glass, ceramics, architecture – any of these forms and media may be part of students' practice and research, but these forms are not the sole reason the work exists.
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