STETSON UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF DESIGN
THEATRE ARTS PROGRAM, DEPARTMENT OF CREATIVE ARTS
POSITION:
Stetson University seeks an Assistant Professor of Theatre in Design/Production Management. This full-time, nine-month, tenure-track appointment, beginning August 2013, is for a dynamic teacher-artist with a passion for teaching in an active theatre arts program committed to liberal arts education. Applicants should demonstrate potential for excellence in the areas of undergraduate teaching and professional artistic work. A successful candidate will serve as the resident scenic/lighting designer and production manager, overseeing all areas of theatre production. Proficiency in an additional area of design (such as sound or costumes) will strengthen the application. The Theatre Arts Program is particularly interested in candidates who understand the unique demands of a design position in a liberal arts environment and who want to contribute to the life and growth of a vibrant theatre arts program.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Candidates must have an MFA or PhD in hand at time of appointment. Applicants should provide evidence of expertise in the areas of scenic/lighting design, and/or production management. Expertise in an additional area of design is preferred. Proficiency with all relevant technology, including industry standard software applications, is expected.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Primary responsibilities include teaching at least two traditional courses each semester (such as stagecraft, intro to theatre, scenic design, lighting design, and any other design course relevant to the candidate's area of expertise), along with serving as the instructor for Theatre Arts Workshop each semester. In addition, the candidate will serve as the scenic/lighting designer for two productions each semester, and serve as the production manager for a four-show season. The candidate may also be asked to teach courses that fulfill the University's core mission of liberal arts education such as introductory-level arts courses, first-year seminars and junior seminars. Other responsibilities include participation in directing Senior Projects (required of all majors), advising, supervising workstudy, and departmental and university service.
For more information on our expectations in teaching and scholarship, our tenure policies, and our support for faculty development, please see the Academic Affairs website: http://www.stetson.edu/administration/academic-affairs/newfac.php
THE DEPARTMENT:
Stetson's Theatre Arts Program, an integral part of the newly designed Creative Arts Department, offers a BA in Theatre Arts. Now in its 106th season, Stetson has the longest-running theatre production record of any college or university in Florida. With an average of 20 majors, 10 minors, and as many as 80 total student participants per academic year, we produce four shows per year in a hands-on liberal arts program devoted to training the whole artist, through experiential and applied learning. Currently, the Theatre Arts Program is housed in a performance complex inside the Museum of Florida Art, which includes a 240-seat modified proscenium/studio theatre with scene shop, design studio/computer lab, and costume shop. All productions and performance/design classes are taught in this space as well. The Theatre Arts Program emphasizes one-on-one faculty mentoring and provides plentiful opportunities for all students to participate in productions. To further enhance the learning experience, the Theatre Arts Program strongly supports students' development of relationships with outside arts organizations.
THE UNIVERSITY:
Founded in 1883, Stetson University (http://www.stetson.edu) is a private, selective university comprised of a rich array of liberal arts and professional academic programs. Collectively, Stetson's teacher-scholar faculty works with 3,800 students in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. The University's historic main campus, located in DeLand, enrolls more than 2,500 students in undergraduate programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business Administration, and the School of Music. Stetson University College of Law, Florida's first law school, moved from the main campus to Gulfport in 1945, and, with the addition of the Tampa Law Center, serves over 1,000 students working full-time or part-time toward J.D. or LL.M. degrees. Graduate programs offered at the main campus and at Stetson University Center in Celebration include Business, Educational Leadership, Reading, Education, Counseling, and English. Stetson has regularly been ranked among the best regional universities in the Southeast and was the first private college in Florida to be granted a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
Stetson University provides an inspiring education that engages students with rigorous academic and creative study grounded in liberal learning. Working closely with faculty, staff, and with one another, students cultivate abilities to explore issues deeply, think critically, reason empirically, speak persuasively, and connect ideas creatively. Stetson's academic program prepares and inspires students to dare to be significant™, realizing 21st century learning goals that will foster their ability and commitment to make a difference in the world. We seek faculty who themselves dare to be significant; think across disciplinary, methodological, and social boundaries; exercise pedagogical creativity and adaptability (including the use of technology to enrich and extend learning); and are passionate lifelong learners.
Stetson values the development of the whole person committed to engaging and building lifelong connections with the larger world through Personal Growth, Intellectual Development, and Global Citizenship. To that end, the University fosters policies, practices, and modes of inquiry to support and explore these values areas, integrated in a University-wide commitment to personal and social responsibility. Firmly committed to inclusive excellence, our vibrant community of teacher-scholars nurtures the potential of individual students to lead lives of significance and prepares each to meet the challenges of shaping the future—locally, nationally, and globally.
INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE:
Stetson University is a welcoming community that (pro)actively and intentionally engages inclusive excellence both as a core value of our community and intellectual/creative life and as a means to effect institutional transformation at all levels of the university. We believe that individual and cultural differences enhance all aspects of our educational mission, but we also aspire to foster critical understanding of the interpersonal and institutional dimensions of these differences. We strive to be a community that at the individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels
- welcomes, respects and bridges differences
- recognizes the value of diversity in advancing the University and local and global societies
- creates inclusive learning environments, including a diverse curriculum predicated on ideas of inclusivity, community engagement, and social justice
- aims to build a more socially heterogeneous bodies of students, faculty and students
Stetson's commitment to inclusive excellence extends throughout the University and to each of our core values: global citizenship, intellectual development, and personal growth. We strongly encourage members of under-represented groups and women to apply for employment. Candidates are encouraged to highlight skills and experiences that demonstrate a commitment to social justice, diversity and inclusion.
THE COMMUNITY:
DeLand is a picturesque residential community of 25,000 located 20 miles west of Daytona Beach and 35 miles northeast of Orlando. The area offers extensive cultural as well as recreational activities.
SALARY:
Salary is competitive.
STARTING DATE:
August 15, 2013
APPLICATION:
Applicants must send the following materials for consideration: cover letter, curriculum vitae, design portfolio, three letters of recommendation, official transcripts, and statement of teaching philosophy specific to a liberal arts context. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.
Application materials may be submitted electronically to Julie Schmitt at jschmitt@stetson.edu or mailed to the following address:
Dr. Julie Schmitt
Director of Theatre Arts
Search Committee Chair, Creative Arts
Stetson University, Unit 8377
421 N. Woodland Blvd.
DeLand, FL 32723
Stetson University is an Equal Opportunity Employer that affirms cultural diversity and inclusion as a core value of academic excellence at Stetson University. We are committed to achieving equal access in education, employment, and participation through the recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty, staff, and students from diverse backgrounds, and to meaningful academic and intellectual transformation in curriculum, research and service. We are dedicated to actions and policies that foster a community in which individuals with various identities, cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints work together to create opportunities for engagement through rewarding and fulfilling careers and personal experiences in a culturally and racially diverse society and a globalized world. We strongly encourage members of historically under-represented and economically-disadvantaged groups and women to apply for employment. Stetson University is an EEO, ADA, ADEA, and GINA employer.