Openings

The Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS) invites applications for an assistant professor tenure-stream faculty position (9-month appointment) and an open rank faculty position in Black Feminisms, Genders, and Sexualities Studies (9-month appointment) in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University. The position (both hires) is a 100% appointment in African American and African Studies and begins August 16, 2025.  

AAAS at MSU was initially founded as a Ph.D. granting program in 2002 as a unit committed to making concrete connections between faculty scholarship, pedagogy, and social justice causes. On July 1, 2019, AAAS became a department. An undergraduate major was launched in 2022 to extend the Black Studies experience to an increasingly interested undergraduate population. As of spring 2024, we successfully graduated the first cohort of AAAS Bachelors of Arts. The Department of African American and African Studies embraces diverse approaches to intellectual leadership and artist-scholarship. We welcome interdisciplinary and integrated research, teaching, creative work, and engagement practices that are leading-edge in the doing of Black Studies. As a department our areas of specialization include Black Feminisms, Genders, and Sexualities Studies in all aspects of curriculum. Within the AAAS major, the curriculum is shaped by three concentrations: Communities in Action; Creative Expression, Culture, and Performance; and Black Institutions, Sustainability, and Statecraft.  

Our new colleague(s) will play a key role in collaboratively building AAAS with core areas in Black Feminisms, Genders, and Sexualities Studies. The normal teaching load is 2-2 (two courses per semester). The successful candidate will maintain high quality scholarship in Black Studies or related interdisciplinary fields and approaches. A typical workload percentage for a 100% appointment in the College of Arts and Letters is 40% research, 40% teaching, 20% service. The service load for this position (both hires) will be distinctive as the candidate(s) will provide support to the new build of the AAAS Department. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:   

• Aiding in the implementation of strategic short- and long-range plans for departmental development;   
• Assisting in the creation and implementation of operating policies and procedures, including best and promising practices for recruiting outstanding faculty, students, and staff;   
• Collaborating with AAAS faculty in sustaining public-facing humanities research agendas and excellence in outreach to foster and produce knowledge in the field and local communities.   

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.

Qualifications

We seek candidates who hold a terminal degree (doctorate or MFA) in their field and demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach to leading-edge Black Studies. Leading-edge Black Studies across our curriculum in AAAS at MSU includes, but is not limited to, these areas: Black Ecologies (e.g. Outdoors, Nature, Land movements, Geographies, Environmental Justice, etc.), Speculative Arts (e.g. Black Futures, Black Fantastic, Black Funk, Radical Imagination, Otherworldly and Underground Constructions of Blackness, and Black Arts practices and aesthetics), and Black Institutions and Practices (e.g. Media, Sound Studies, Music Production, Community-Based Organizations, Activism, Abolition, Black Diasporic Spirituality, Dance, Entrepreneurship, Quare studies, Queer of Color Critique, Abolition, and/or Healing and Wellness etc.).

Candidates should possess excellent communication skills. Successful candidates should have a demonstrated history of community engagement, community accountability, and/or community-based approaches to scholarship. Candidates should have a capacity to engage in curriculum and departmental development. Preference will be given to candidates who can research and teach in Black Feminisms, Genders, and Sexualities Studies and engage in service related to building a new department as well as contribute to the current AAAS curriculum.  

Candidates must demonstrate commitment to and alignment with department vision and values. As a department that is newly building, we have found transformative justice and leadership development processes critical to creating new departmental policies, procedures, etc. We actively engage and practice dreaming and wellness, individually and together, as a department. Candidates must welcome and be ready to engage these change efforts with openness and care.  

Minimum Requirements

• Interest in participating in AAAS new build including collaborating with faculty and engaging in departmental development as aligned with the purpose, aspirations, values, and practices of the department
• Doctorate or MFA in a field related to Black Studies
• Interdisciplinary and integrated research, teaching, creative work, and engagement practices that are leading-edge in the doing of Black Studies
• Willingness to activate department space through meaningful creative activities, practices, community engagement, teaching, program development, and public-facing scholarship
• Concrete connections between artistic, activist, practitioner, teaching, and scholarly commitments with a demonstrated commitment to community engagement and community accountability
• Excellent communication skills

Desired Qualifications

In addition to the minimum qualifications, the below are the desired qualifications. 

• Capacity to teach Black Feminisms, Genders, and Sexualities Studies and engage curriculum in its current configuration.  
• Interdisciplinary approach to leading-edge Black Studies in, but not limited to,  Black Ecologies (e.g. Outdoors, Nature, Land movements, Geographies, Environmental Justice, etc.), Speculative Arts (e.g. Black Futures, Black Fantastic, Black Funk, Radical Imagination, Otherworldly and Underground Constructions of Blackness, and Black Arts practices and aesthetics), and Black Institutions and Practices (e.g. Media, Sound Studies, Music Production, Community-Based Organizations, Activism, Abolition, Black Diasporic Spirituality, Dance, Entrepreneurship, Quare studies, Queer of Color Critique, Abolition, and/or Healing and Wellness etc.).
• Capacity to engage departmental development as aligned with AAAS vision and values, transformative justice and leadership development, and dreaming and wellness participatory practices of the department.  
• Interest and enthusiasm for teaching and mentoring students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Required Application Materials

Qualified applicants should submit:

1. A cover letter describing your intellectual, creative, and/or applied contributions to the field of Black Studies with an emphasis on how you will (re)orient your teaching, outreach, and service towards the on-going new build of AAAS. 
2. A current curriculum vitae
3. One of the following: sample artistic piece, project proposal with budget, publication, syllabus, or lesson plan, etc. 
4. A 1-page statement of the candidate’s philosophy of diversity, equity, and inclusion as it pertains to intellectual leadership in the areas of sharing knowledge, mentorship & stewardship, and expanding opportunity for others. The statement should also include an explanation of related past or planned activities/endeavors as well as how the candidate will advance the purpose, aspirations, values and practices of AAAS.  

Please note that candidates who advance to the secondary review stage of the process will be asked to submit letters from three referees who can comment on the candidate’s research, teaching, engagement, and/or service qualifications. No letters are required at the time of application.   

Special Instructions

Review of applications will begin October 1, 2024 and will continue until the position is filled. Applications must be submitted electronically to the Michigan State University Human Resources website http://careers.msu.edu. Posting number 957389.  

For more information on this position, please contact the search committee chair: Dr. Renée Wilmot at wilmotre@msu.edu (AAAS faculty member). Additional members of the search committee include Gianina K.L. Strother (AAAS faculty member), Dr. Sheri Lewis (AAAS faculty member), Dr. Suban Nur Cooley (AAAS Associate Chair and faculty member) and Dr. LeConté Dill (AAAS Associate Chair and faculty member).   

Persons with disabilities have the right to request and receive reasonable accommodation.