The Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut seeks to hire an Assistant Professor (tenure track) with a research focus on racial and ethnic health disparities. This position is part of a cluster hire involving six Assistant Professor (tenure-track) positions in the area of Social Aspects of Ethnic and Racial Health Disparities. This hire demonstrates UConn’s and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and builds on the College’s existing strengths in health disparities scholarship.

We seek to hire an emerging scholar with broad training and an active research agenda who demonstrates theoretical innovation and a commitment to ethnographic engagement. Areas of specialization may include, but are not limited to, critical analyses of the causes and effects of health disparities and inequities, anti-racist approaches to addressing health disparities/inequities, human-environment interactions, and/or intersectionalities (e.g., with social class, age, gender identity, immigration status, sexual orientation, disability). Experience and interest in innovative, interdisciplinary, and/or community-based approaches are especially welcome. Theoretical focus is open, with some preference for engagement with critical and/or decolonial approaches. Geographic focus is also open, but we especially seek applicants whose expertise complements that of our current faculty. The candidate will support UConn’s long tradition of research and training in Medical Anthropology by offering undergraduate and graduate courses, advising, and mentoring students, and engaging actively in Departmental and interdisciplinary initiatives, such as the Department’s Sociocultural Anthropology Colloquium, the undergraduate and graduate Global Health programs, and the Research Program on Global Health and Human Rights at the Human Rights Institute.

Faculty hired as part of the cluster will have opportunities to collaborate within and across departments in the cluster, as well as opportunities for connections to other research-intensive centers and institutes across the University, including the Health Disparities Institute, the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP), the Human Rights Institute, and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. The College is also home to a vibrant collective of Institutes and Programs engaged in anti-racism scholarship, area studies, and intersectional struggles against oppression, including Africana Studies, American Studies, Asian and Asian American Studies, El Instituto, Native American and Indigenous Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

This hiring initiative builds on the investment of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in research, teaching, and outreach focused on health disparities, including an earlier cluster hire that brought several exciting scholars to UConn.

Founded in 1881, UConn is a Land Grant and Sea Grant institution and member of the Space Grant Consortium. It is the state’s flagship institution of higher education and includes a main campus in Storrs, CT, four regional campuses throughout the state, and 13 Schools and Colleges, including a Law School in Hartford, and Medical and Dental Schools at the UConn Health campus in Farmington. The University has approximately 10,000 faculty and staff and 32,000 students, including nearly 24,000 undergraduates and over 8,000 graduate and professional students. UConn is a Carnegie Foundation R1 (highest research activity) institution, among the top 25 public universities in the nation. Through research, teaching, service, and outreach, UConn embraces diversity and cultivates leadership, integrity, and engaged citizenship in its students, faculty, staff, and alumni. UConn promotes the health and well-being of citizens by enhancing the social, economic, cultural, and natural environments of the state and beyond. The University serves as a beacon of academic and research excellence as well as a center for innovation and social service to communities. UConn is a leader in many scholarly, research, and innovation areas. Today, the path forward includes exciting opportunities and notable challenges. Record numbers of undergraduate applications and support for student success have enabled the University to become extraordinarily selective.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The successful candidates will exhibit a genuine, demonstrated interest in using anthropological theory and methods to study Social Aspects of Ethnic and Racial Health Disparities. Candidates are expected to contribute to research and scholarship through high-quality publications in top-tier venues, externally funded research, and mentoring of graduate students. In the area of teaching, the successful candidate will share a deep commitment to effective instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Successful candidates will highlight a commitment to equity and be expected to: broaden participation among members of under-represented groups; demonstrate through their research, teaching, and/or public engagement multiple perspectives as the foundation of a rich learning experience; integrate diverse experiences into instructional methods and research tools; and/or provide leadership in developing pedagogical techniques designed to meet the needs of diverse populations and intellectual interests.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
● Doctoral degree (or equivalent foreign degree) completed in Anthropology by position start date.
● Teaching experience or demonstrated capacity to teach courses with documentation of a commitment to teaching.
● A strong record of scholarly productivity in the area of Social Aspects of Ethnic and Racial Health Disparities.
● The ability to contribute through research, teaching, and/or public engagement to the diversity and excellence of the Department and College.
● Effective communication skills (both written and oral).

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
● Demonstrated history of or potential for external research funding.
● Experience teaching courses relevant to health disparities.
● Demonstrated experience and commitment to teaching and/or mentoring a diverse student population.
● Ability to engage productively with faculty across disciplines.

APPOINTMENT TERMS
These are full-time, 9-month, tenure track positions with an anticipated start date of August 23, 2023. The successful candidates’ academic appointments will be at the Storrs campus. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience as well as disciplinary norms.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
Employment of the successful candidates is contingent upon the successful completion of a pre-employment criminal background check.

TO APPLY
Please apply online to Academic Jobs Online at
https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/22737 and submit the following application materials:
● A cover letter,
● Curriculum vitae,
● Research and scholarship statement (e.g., prior research findings and impact; future research plans);
● Teaching statement (e.g., teaching experience, mentoring experience, teaching philosophy, courses prepared to teach);
● Commitment to diversity statement (e.g., values around social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion; diversity-related experience in teaching, research, and service; plans to continue to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion);
● Writing sample and any supporting materials,
● Contact information for three (3) letters of reference. References will not be contacted without notification of the candidate.
Review of applications will begin October 15, 2022, and continue until the position is filled. For more information please visit the unit website: Anthropology. Since this is a cluster hire search, applicants will receive an email from our Human Resources department asking them to specify the department to which they are applying. For questions about this position, please contact Sarah Willen (sarah.willen@uconn.edu).

At the University of Connecticut, our commitment to excellence is complemented by our commitment to building a culturally diverse community.

These positions will be filled subject to budgetary approval.

All employees are subject to adherence to the State Code of Ethics, which may be found at http://www.ct.gov/ethics/site/default.asp.

The University of Connecticut is committed to building and supporting a multicultural and diverse community of students, faculty and staff. The diversity of students, faculty and staff continues to increase, as does the number of honors students, valedictorians and salutatorians who consistently make UConn their top choice. More than 100 research centers and institutes serve the University’s teaching, research, diversity, and outreach missions, leading to UConn’s ranking as one of the nation’s top research universities. UConn’s faculty and staff are the critical link to fostering and expanding our vibrant, multicultural and diverse University community. As an Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity employer, UConn encourages applications from women, veterans, people with disabilities and members of traditionally underrepresented populations.

On May 7th the Archaeological Society of Connecticut is having their in-person Spring meeting at the Wood Memorial Library in Windsor.  The event will host a number of excellent speakers and we encourage everyone to attend! Check out the full schedule here.

It’s that time of the year again where the Spring selection of courses have been made available! We are excited to announce that once again, among our other great courses, we are offering four weekend courses in archaeological science, each worth 1 credit. This year we are offering a statistics course using R, a microscopy and botany course, a table isotopes course, and a course on Arch GIS. This is a great opportunity to experience some practical scientific archaeology, learn a bit, and also earn a few credits while doing it! Check out the flier for more information or contact gideon.hartman@uconn.edu.

UConn Anthropology Graduate student, Christina Balentine, will be giving an exciting online public talk entitled “How humans thrive in extreme environments” for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on January 21 at 10.30 am.

Description:

When you think of superheroes, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, and the X-Men might come to mind. But do you ever think of yourself? Thanks to cultural innovations and genetic adaptation by natural selection, we humans rise to our own super abilities to thrive in seemingly intolerable environments all over the world: at extremely high altitudes in the Himalayas; in freezing cold in the Arctic; and in toxic, arsenic-rich regions in the Andes Mountains, to name just a few. Christina Balentine, an anthropological geneticist and PhD Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, will share her research on the topic and answer your questions as you learn about our own superhuman abilities

Please click this link for more information and instructions to register for FREE!

(description provided by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

UConn Anthropology graduate student Megan Alexander, was recently awarded a grant from the Landes Memorial Research Fund to support her dissertation research on death doulas and American notions of a “good” death.

“The Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund was established in 1991 in honor of Ruth Schlossberg Landes, Ph.D. (1908–1991) for interdisciplinary research and publications on subjects that were of interest to Dr. Landes during her professional and academic career”. Competitive applications were evaluated according to the following criteria: “the merit and significance of the applicant’s proposal; the applicant’s qualifications; the relevance of the project to subjects that were of interest to Dr. Landes during her career; and the degree to which grant funds are likely to contribute to the success of the proposed project”. 

Congratulations Megan on your hard work!

The Pandemic Journaling project, co-founded by Professor Sarah Willen was recently featured on UConnToday. The Pandemic Journaling Project was created last may, and is a way for people all over the world to document their experiences during this unprecedented time. The Pandemic Journaling Projects goal is to make sure that ordinary people struggling through this pandemic have their voices heard, and their experiences remembered. This project will serve as a resource for researchers studying how the pandemic has impacted peoples lives. UConn Today interviewed Dr. Willen and members of her team about the project, which you can read more about here.

Dr. Willen is an associate professor here in the department of anthropology. She is also the Director of Research Program on Global Health and Human Rights at UConn’s Human Rights Institute. To learn more about the Pandemic Journaling Project and the unique role that it plays in the documentation of history, be sure to check out the project’s website and start your journal today.

Dr, César Abadía-Barrero was recently awarded a SCHARP award for his project titled “Healing the Land to Attain Peace: A Community-Based Art Project in Rural Colombia”. This project aims to foster a community-led art and ethnographic exhibit of current efforts to build peace in an intercultural rural village of mestizo farmers and two indigenous groups (Uitoto Jurama and Coreguaje) located in Caquetá-Colombia. Through a series of Participatory Action Research (PAR) workshops, a group of 12 people will be trained in photography and “popular ethnography” and will be asked to capture in images and text what Buen Vivir (roughly translated from Andean indigenous languages as Good Living or Living Beautifully) means for them, if and how Buen Vivir was affected by the armed conflict, and how Buen Vivir can help build a long-lasting peace.