Performance, Play & Design: Associate/Assistant Professor of Dance (Initial Review 12/1/22)

Company: University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)
Location: Santa Cruz
Posted on: March 16, 2023

Job Description:

The Department of Performance, Play & Design (PPD) (formerly Theater Arts Department) at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) invites applications for a tenured Associate Professor or tenure-track Assistant Professor of Dance. We have a strong interest in a dance professional whose research is informed by a demonstrated history of embodied practice and critical inquiry, with a preference for experimental choreographers steeped in dance practices that have historically been marginalized by Western concert dance (e.g., hip hop or salsa). The successful candidate will teach technique, choreography, and repertory courses in our dance curriculum and specialized courses in their expertise such as: Indigenous dance; dances of the African diaspora, Pacific Rim, or Latin America; dance and disability; digital performance; screen-dance; performance as social practice; critical dance and race studies, etc. We have a strong preference for candidates with expertise in performance as community-led social change, antiracist theory and decolonial performance practice, and working across both digital and live platforms, and University and/or professional dance teaching experience and demonstrated service to the field.
Possible related areas of interest might include ensemble work, site-specific performance, consent-based performance/theatrical intimacy practices, and/or digital performance (VR, AR, MR, XR, interactive, motion capture). Because we are committed to equitable practices with regards to race, class, gender, sexuality, neurodiversity, ability, and religion, we are particularly interested in scholar-practitioners who have demonstrated potential to lead the field in these areas. We seek a candidate with evidence of inclusive teaching practices who can work with undergraduate and graduate students from diverse academic and sociocultural backgrounds. The successful candidate will engage in service at the program, department and campus wide levels, with particular focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion service, including recruiting more diverse faculty. We welcome candidates who understand the barriers facing women and minorities who are underrepresented in higher education careers (as evidenced by life experiences and educational background), and who have experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion with respect to teaching, mentoring, research, life experiences, or service towards building an equitable and diverse scholarly environment.
Previously a Theater Arts department (Design, Acting, Directing, Dance, Playwriting, History/Theory/Dramaturgy), we have recently merged with the Art & Design: Games and Playable Media program. The Department, comprising 17 nationally and internationally recognized faculty members, is positioned at the intersection of storytelling, worldbuilding, and cross-platform, interdisciplinary collaborations. Our curriculum centers anti-racist, intersectional feminist, and decolonial approaches. We offer two BA degrees, a Dance Minor, and a MA degree that emphasize creative collaboration, risk-taking/experimentation, critical/systemic thinking, rigor, agency, embodiment, and practice-as-research proficiencies. The Department also intersects with the MFA Digital Arts and New Media program. For more on our department and our social justice statement, please visit: and please see .
In addition to encouraging participation in robust departmental, divisional, and campus mentoring, the campus offers a Faculty Community Networking Program. UC Santa Cruz is a Hispanic-Serving Institution and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution with a high proportion of first-in-family undergraduate students.
The Arts Division supports faculty research through the Arts Research Institute ; the campus supports research and teaching with grants awarded by the Committee on Research, the Committee on Teaching, and other groups.
This recruitment is supported by the UC Office of the President's Advancing Faculty Diversity program and includes enhanced funding for faculty projects that contribute to diversity and to creating an inclusive climate.
UCSC is located among redwood forests and meadows overlooking Monterey Bay, along California's Central Coast in close proximity to Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Arts Division supports faculty research through the Arts Research Institute; the campus supports research and teaching with grants awarded by the Committee on Research, the Committee on Teaching, and other groups.
The chosen candidate will be expected to sign a statement representing that they are not the subject of any ongoing investigation or disciplinary proceeding at their current academic institution or place of employment, nor have they in the past ten years been formally disciplined at any academic institution/place of employment. In the event the candidate cannot make this representation, they will be expected to disclose in writing to the hiring Dean the circumstances surrounding any formal discipline that they have received, as well as any current or ongoing investigation or disciplinary process of which they are the subject. (Note that discipline includes a negotiated settlement agreement to resolve a matter related to substantiated misconduct.)

Keywords: University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), Santa Cruz , Performance, Play & Design: Associate/Assistant Professor of Dance (Initial Review 12/1/22), Education / Teaching , Santa Cruz, California