The Native American Studies Program at Colgate University is conducting a tenure-stream faculty search. Read the full job posting and apply through Interfolio. Over the years, the Native American Studies program has benefited from rich collaborations across multiple disciplines represented in the university.
Colgate University is one of the nation’s leading liberal arts universities. Our mission primarily focuses on undergraduate education, and Colgate faculty find it exciting and rewarding to teach and pursue research with undergraduates. We know, however, that potential candidates may be unfamiliar with the opportunities and expectations at a predominantly undergraduate institution, or how to best showcase their experiences when applying for such a faculty position. Thus, we have prepared the following document to clarify key items when considering a faculty career at Colgate University and when applying for our position.
Application Materials
Cover Letter
In your cover letter, you should share your ideas about teaching and the experiences you have had that will inform how you would teach at Colgate. We realize that you may not have had full responsibility for a course. But tell us about the teaching that you have done and what you learned from it. Let us know the subjects that you are most passionate to teach. Let us know why you want to teach in an undergraduate setting. We are eager to learn more about your experiences and interests, and how you plan to build on them in your classes at Colgate.
We also would like you to showcase your scholarship. In your cover letter, you should outline your scholarship plans for the short and long-term. This trajectory should be written for a non-specialist, while including sufficient detail to show that the projects are well crafted. The plans should be ambitious and speak to outputs you have planned from the doctoral work, as well as to new research you project beyond the dissertation.
Curriculum Vitae
On your CV, you should list all the courses you have taught, clearly distinguishing those for which you have been the instructor of record, from those for which you have served as a teaching assistant. Also, be sure to highlight any workshops or training on teaching and learning that you have completed.
In your CV, please provide a list of your publications or creative works and include any works in progress that you have started drafting, indicating the present state of each work. If you have not yet finished the Ph.D., please indicate your planned date of completion.
Teaching
The successful candidate for our position will teach introductory and advanced level courses in Contemporary Native American Studies, working from the candidate’s areas of expertise. Colgate faculty also contribute to the Liberal Arts Core Curriculum. Native American Studies faculty regularly offer courses within the “Core Communities” component of this curriculum (i.e. Core Haudenosaunee, Core Maya, Core Bolivia, Core Mexico, Core Indigenous North America).
The normal teaching load at Colgate is five courses over the year. In general, class sizes run from 25 students at the introductory levels to 12 students in senior seminar courses. The student-to-faculty ratio at Colgate is 9:1. Colgate does not offer regular courses during the summer months, which are reserved for research and scholarly work. Colgate students also may work with professors during the summer, either as an assistant on a professor’s project, or on an independent project that a professor supervises.
The Native American Studies Program maintains an interdisciplinary course of study through which students may choose to major or minor. The Native American Studies Program has an active programming agenda. Recent speakers, for example, have included Sunny Dooley, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Angela Ferguson, David Treuer, and Stephen Graham Jones.
Colgate sustains robust programs and support for off-campus study through faculty-led semester-long study groups and through short-term (3-5 weeks) extended study opportunities that may extend a course in an off-campus context. Native American Studies faculty have participated in a semester-long Santa Fe Study Group that uniquely centers community-based learning with Pueblos. Faculty also have opportunities to propose new study groups and extended study programs, according to their expertise and interests.
Colgate recently undertook a revision of its core curriculum. From that process, the new “Core Conversations” component focuses on the reading of five shared texts, and that list of texts, as of fall 2023, includes Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. This means all Colgate students will be reading this text as a part of their Colgate education.
We understand that many competitive candidates have not had extensive teaching experience as graduate students or as post-doctoral fellows. Colgate provides a good deal of support for new faculty (and established faculty as well). The Center for Learning, Teaching, and Research sponsors many events including lunchtime teaching tables, symposia on teaching and learning, reading groups, and informal breakfasts to discuss pedagogy. Colgate’s Faculty Development Council oversees the allocation of funding for professional development for teaching and pedagogy, course development, and faculty travel related to courses and professional development. There are many opportunities to meet with other faculty members, both within the department and outside, particularly during the faculty-wide retreat every spring to discuss the Liberal Arts Core Curriculum. Senior colleagues mentor pre-tenure members of the program, following the program’s official mentoring policy. Also, as appropriate, faculty of color will be connected with Colgate’s Faculty Diversity Council.
Scholarship
As articulated in the university’s Vision Statement, “Some believe there is a trade-off between faculty members who are productive scholars at the forefront of their fields and faculty members who are good, supportive teachers and community members. At Colgate, we would not be true to our institutional ethos if we accepted this position. The high-quality liberal arts education that we will offer to future generations of students must be built upon lively and active scholars who bring new ideas and perspectives into the classroom and transform students with their own enthusiasm for their work.” Colgate’s Faculty Handbook, under “Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion,” states that “In its highest form, scholarship denotes original research in a scholarly field or discipline, or its equivalent expression in the creative arts.” As with teaching, Colgate highly values scholarship and the program expects new faculty members to become productive scholars who present at scholarly meetings and publish in peer-reviewed venues.
Thus, we are also seeking a scholar-teacher to join our department of active scholars committed to ongoing scholarship, inquiry, and publication. To get a feel for the ongoing scholarship in our program, view our faculty profile pages. Colgate offers multiple ways that faculty may involve undergraduate students in their scholarship. Colgate students are eager to contribute to faculty scholarly projects, and they are exceptionally capable.
Colgate provides annual funds to each faculty member for professional needs, to cover travel to conferences, professional books, professional society memberships, or other expenses related to scholarly work. Colgate provides a wealth of additional support for faculty that will support research, travel, publication expenses, publication subvention (for example, to pay an open-access licensing fee for an article). Please explore Colgate’s faculty funding resources.
Colgate has a generous sabbatical program, including a four-course pre-tenure leave, which is typically taken in the 4th year after starting to teach at Colgate. Post-tenure, faculty earn sabbaticals at the rate of 0.5 SLA (Scholarly Leave Account) credits for every 5 courses taught (0.5 per year). Faculty also may receive SLA credits for mentoring research students in the summer. Faculty members apply to take a sabbatical and typically use 2 to 3 SLA credits for a one-semester sabbatical. To take a two-semester sabbatical, faculty may accumulate 5 SLA credits, or combine SLAs with outside fellowship funding, or combine SLAs with application to the Colgate Research Council for a Senior or Associate Faculty Leave.
Funding is available from a variety of sources including the Faculty Research Council, and through external grants. Typically, about 200 undergraduates across all disciplines conduct summer research at Colgate. For more information, read about Student Summer Fellowships.
Although external research funding is not a requirement for tenure, Colgate expects that new faculty members will establish active research or scholarly programs that will be attractive to external funding agencies and that faculty will apply for funding. Colgate has a grants office to assist faculty in identifying potential funding opportunities and submitting competitive grant proposals. Faculty members in the program have had very good success over the years securing funds from many foundations and government agencies (including ACLS, NEH, and NSF).