Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies, Will

Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies

The American Studies Program at Williams College seeks to hire a tenure-track assistant professor with expertise in Native American and Indigenous Studies. The field of specialization is open. The successful candidate will be an outstanding teacher and scholar who can contribute fully to the American Studies Program through teaching, research & scholarship, advising & mentoring, and service & program-building. Williams College places a high value on scholarship and undergraduate teaching. Thus, the search committee seeks applicants whose supporting materials demonstrate a commitment to both original scholarship and inclusive teaching with a student population that is broadly diverse with regard to gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religious views, socioeconomic status, experience with higher education, and more. Candidates will be expected to fulfill a teaching load of two courses per semester, by offering core program courses and introductory and advanced courses in NAIS.

PhD must be in-hand by the time of appointment. Candidates with a PhD in American Studies or other interdisciplinary fields are preferred, but applicants with PhDs in traditional disciplines, whose primary research, teaching, and scholarship aligns with the position, are welcome to apply and will be given full consideration. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and strongly encourage individuals whose experiences and perspectives will enhance our commitment to academic excellence and innovation to apply. Salary is commensurate with rank, and the hired candidate will be eligible for a full package of faculty benefits as described online at hr.williams.edu/benefits. Williams also provides faculty with an annual allocation of funds to support travel and research, in addition to several internal research and mentorship opportunities.

The American Studies Program at Williams is a small but vibrant program with dynamic and engaged majors, whose numbers have grown in recent years. Started over 80 years ago, it is one of the oldest AMST programs in the country. Today, our courses and programming engage prominent theories, methods, and topics in the interdisciplinary field, especially as they relate to slavery, colonialism, capitalism, and empire. Information about the program is available at https://american-studies.williams.edu/. In recent years, AMST faculty and students have contributed to efforts to support the growth of Native American and Indigenous Studies on campus and engage in collaborative relations with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, whose ancestral lands Williams College has been on since its founding in 1793. We aim to continue these efforts, which are aligned with the College’s most recent Strategic Plan, especially coming to terms with institutional history and acknowledging historically oppressed communities with deep ties to the geographic area. We thus encourage candidates with experience working and/or teaching in collaboration with community members outside of the institution to apply, but such experience is not required.

Applications should be submitted via lnterfolio https://apply.interfolio.com/170916 and should include:

• a curriculum vitae
• a cover letter of no more than 2 pages describing your research agenda, major scholarly accomplishments and/or works-in-progress, teaching experience, course offerings, and program-building and/or service experience. Keep in mind that you will have room to elaborate on your teaching in the required teaching statement.
• a one-page statement about your approach to teaching/pedagogy
• a sample syllabus for an Introduction to American Studies course
• a sample syllabus for one NAIS course
• a writing sample of no more than 25 pages (you may include an abstract of the piece, if you wish); the piece can be published or a work in progress, as long as it is based on your core research
• three letters of reference

Review of applications will begin on October 1st, 2025, but applications will be accepted through October 8, 2025. For questions, please contact Jan Padios, Professor of American Studies and chair of the search committee, at jp14@williams.edu.