The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Rhode Island seeks to hire a Distinguished Multicultural Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year. Subject to a favorable review of teaching and scholarly activities within the first twelve months, the fellow will transition into a full-time tenure-track position at the level of Assistant Professor at the end of the first year. We seek a sociologist who specializes in race/ethnicity, racialization, and/or racial inequality.

This position is part of a Social Science Diversity & Justice cluster hire and a larger set of coordinated diversity and inclusion initiatives sponsored by the Provost’s office (https://web.uri.edu/provost/files/Agenda-for-Change-2021.Final_.pdf). The goal of the fellowship is to support emerging outstanding scholars from historically underrepresented groups interested in pursuing a tenure-track faculty position. The cluster hire includes three postdoctoral positions:

-A sociologist specializing in race/ethnicity studies, racialization, and/or racial inequality (housed in the Sociology & Anthropology Department)
-An anthropologist specializing in the Indigenous peoples of the Americas (housed in the Sociology & Anthropology Department; this position was filled in July 2021)
-A scholar of crime/criminal justice who addresses race in their research or pedagogy (housed in the interdisciplinary Criminology and Criminal Justice Program)

We aim to hire a cohort of scholar-teachers that excel in academic and/or public scholarship and to facilitate mentorship and professional development towards a tenure-track position. We view mentorship as a multidimensional and reciprocal process. As such, the three postdoctoral fellows will be able to form a peer mentoring group, will have campus offices in the same building, and will have opportunities for collaboration with faculty in home and other departments, such as Africana Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies. The cluster hire’s focus on diversity and justice relates directly to the goals of the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, the Criminology and Criminal Justice Program, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the wider University. For more information, see: https://web.uri.edu/artsci/news/uri-to-hire-three-distinguished-multicultural-postdoctoral-fellows/

The University of Rhode Island is a Land & Sea-Grant University which sits on/occupies Narragansett land, part of Rhode Island’s long, complicated history of intertwined settlers and Indigenous peoples. Rhode Island has a deep and rich history of critical freedom struggles borne of the state’s involvement in enslaving African and Indigenous peoples, and subsequent multi-century civil rights movements. The state is home to vibrant communities of the African diaspora, with significant populations of people from Cabo Verde, Liberia, and the Caribbean, Latinx and Indigenous populations from the Caribbean and Central America, and Southeast Asian populations from Laos and Cambodia. As the state’s flagship university, our students increasingly come from these diverse communities. The University will be the new home to the Tomaquag Museum, Rhode Island’s only Indigenous museum, expected to open in 2023.

We seek a scholar-teacher who is committed to the University of Rhode Island’s mission as a learner-centered research university where diversity, fairness, and respect are valued. The ideal candidate would be adept at engaging and supporting students from a variety of backgrounds. We strongly encourage applications from individuals who are under-represented across race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other legally protected basis.

The postdoctoral fellow would be expected to teach courses in the sociology of race/ethnicity, advance their research agenda and contribute to department, college, and university service. The teaching load during the year of this fellowship is 1:1. The transition to a tenure-track faculty position will be based on continued interest on the part of the fellow as well as the potential of the fellow to contribute to the teaching, scholarship, and service needs and goals of the department as judged by the departmental faculty and Dean of the College. If the fellow does not transition to a tenure-track position, the University is committed to providing a second year of support in the postdoctoral fellowship position.
 

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