Job Description

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Boston invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor faculty position in Native North American Cultural Anthropology, to start September 1, 2025. The successful applicant will also have a core affiliation in the M.S. program in Critical Ethnic and Community Studies (CECS). Strong preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated relationships and active research in Native North American Indigenous communities (Mexico, United States, Canada), including Afro-Indigenous communities.

We seek an accomplished researcher and a conscientious instructor who is committed to teaching in an urban university setting and who share our commitment to teaching and research that are engaged with and accountable to local and native communities in our city and region. The position’s primary research and tenure home will be in Anthropology. It will include teaching undergraduate courses in Cultural Anthropology (some contributing to the undergraduate minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies) and graduate courses in CECS related to the candidate’s areas of specialization. The core affiliation in CECS — a transdisciplinary graduate program focusing on marginalized communities — will entail some teaching, student mentoring, and service. Tenure-track professors at UMass Boston teach an effective 2-2 load.

Areas of potential research interest include but are not limited to: settler colonialism and decolonization; race and gender justice; reproductive justice; education and youth issues; health and health disparities; food sovereignty; environmental and climate justice; material culture and heritage issues; Indigenous futurisms; language revitalization; and contemporary activism and social movements.

Rich opportunities for research, teaching, and collaboration with other indigenous-oriented units exist within the university such as the Institute for New England Native American Studies, the School for the Environment, the Sustainable Solutions Lab, and the Department’s own M.A. in Historical Archaeology

UMass Boston expects all faculty members to pursue external funding that supports long-term research agendas. The Department is particularly receptive to candidates who can involve students in research. We have a strong, demonstrated track record with sustained and supportive junior faculty mentoring, especially for scholars from underrepresented groups.

Minimum requirements: receipt of Ph.D. in Anthropology, Indigenous /Native Studies, or related discipline by September 1, 2025.

Applications must be submitted by October 16, 2024. Please send your CV with a cover letter describing in detail your research interests and teaching experience, three letters of recommendation, and a writing sample. Inquiries regarding the position can be addressed to Ping-Ann Addo, Anthropology Search Committee Chair (ping-ann.addo@umb.edu). 

UMass Boston is an urban public research university with a teaching soul, whose impact is both local and global. We are the third most diverse university in the country - more than 60% of our undergraduate students come from minoritized communities and groups and more than half of our students are the first in their families to attend a college or university. Thus, our students come to us from richly diverse life experiences and backgrounds; they bring to our classrooms and research settings the robust range of perspectives growing out of the socio-cultural, economic, and historical contexts in which they have lived, along with the challenges they encounter, engage, and strive to overcome. We invite applications from candidates who engage the diverse life experiences of our student body, who appreciate that students bring their holistic selves into the academic setting, and who recognize and articulate how their own life experiences and backgrounds have shaped their journeys, practices, and commitments as researchers, scholars, and educators.

UMass Boston is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact HRDirect@umb.edu or 617-287-5150.

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