Posted: 17-May-23

Location: East Lansing, Michigan

Salary: Open

Categories:

Internal Number: 865276

Research Assoc.- Creativity & the Time of COVID-19

The Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition lab in the Department of English and the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University are excited to announce the opening of a 2023-2024 Postdoctoral Research Associate line in conjunction with the Mellon Funded Creativity in the Time of COVID-19 grant. To be eligible, applicants must have completed their PhD or equivalent in a relevant field during or after the 2022-2023 academic year and prior to the start date. Review of applications will begin in May 2023 and will continue until the position is filled. 

This position is a postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of English funded from August 16, 2023 through December 2024. This Research Associate will be appointed for two-year terms to spearhead research, co-author articles, coordinate work across project partners, assist with mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students on our multidisciplinary team, and enhance this grant’s national and international impact, also having a chance to create and teach new courses based on Creativity in the Time of COVID-19 in the Department of English.

This research associate will be working directly with the Lead PI Creativity in the Time of COVID-19, Dr. Natalie M. Philips. In addition, the postdoc will work with co-PI Dr. Julian Chambliss to enhance the impact of the project’s digital archive. The ideal candidate will already be deeply engaged with cognitive research with concern linked creativity, disabilities, and digital humanities methodology. Successful applicants will be able to articulate how they will utilize the project archive from Creativity in the Time of COVID-19 while also maintaining their own individual research focus.  

As part of the Mellon funded project, “Creativity in the Time of COVID-19”, the College of Arts & Letters announces a new Research Associate in the Arts & Humanities. This is a search for an interdisciplinary scholar to fill a 16-month, 1.5 year Research Associate in the Department of English. The goal of the Creativity in the Time of Covid-19: Art as a Tool to Combat Inequity and Injustice is to collect, exhibit and archive the creative outputs of diverse communities while illuminating ways the submitters use creativity to deal with historical patterns of discrimination that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the support of this Mellon Foundation grant, Creativity in the Time of COVID-19 will expand on a research study begun at MSU last Spring in response to shelter-in-place orders. We will extend our IRB-approved study of how MSU students are using creative outlets during COVID-19 to include domestic and international responses to the pandemic. We have conducted outreach to underrepresented communities including, but not limited to immigrants and refugees; African American, Latinx and Chicanx, and Asian American communities; those of Native American and Indigenous descent; LGBTQ+ communities; as well as individuals with disabilities and/or chronic health conditions. To ensure that these voices are at the center of the project and their work is highlighted in a variety of public spaces, in Year Two and Three we bring together a multidisciplinary team of community partners and artists to design and curate a virtual and on-site exhibit showcasing artwork created during COVID-19. This artwork will include music, creative writing, art, protest posters, homemade masks, TikTok videos, graffiti, photo montages, etc. These works will be displayed on MSU’s campus and other satellite locations. We will use the art collected from the study to create a digital archive housed with the Michigan State University Library digital collections. The works will provide inspiration to design more inclusive pedagogy and classroom spaces, as well as developing new approaches to art-therapy, music therapy, and narrative healing that emerge from the everyday artistic practices of individuals in underrepresented communities.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.

Doctorate

• Demonstrated background and experience in Digital Humanities research
• Ph.D. candidate in English with dissertation completed by start date
• Hands-on experience with arts equity
• Research on creativity and intersectional identity: BIPOC/API, LGBTQIA+, disability communities
• Grant-writing experience
• Proficient in Microsoft Suites, with particular knowledge of Excel
• Preparing conference presentations for virtual and live academic audiences
• Strong knowledge of or experience with accessibility benchmarks for arts exhibitions and/or social media for diverse disability communities 

• Interest in teaching digital humanities courses related to Creativity in the Time of COVID-19 in the Department of English at MSU
• Experience mentoring and training undergraduate students from across disciplines in interdisciplinary settings 
• Experience with large-scale budgets, grant compliance, and fiscal and time management
• Interest in or experience with academic and community outreach for our diverse digital archive
• Familiarity working with digital tools for data analysis, visualization, and research including, but not limited to: Voyant, Mallet, ARCGIS, digital tagging, etc.
• Interest in art therapy and narrative medicine 

Review of applications will begin May 31, 2023 and will continue until the position is filled. Applications must be submitted electronically to the Michigan State University Human Resources website http://careers.msu.edu Posting Number 865276. For more information, contact Natalie Phillips, Chair of the Search Committee at (nmp@msu.edu). Persons with disabilities have the right to request and receive reasonable accommodation.

05/31/2023

The College of Arts & Letters recognizes that only an academic and organizational culture, which actively seeks out and strengthens diverse voices and perspectives among its members results in true excellence. The College of Arts & Letters is particularly interested in candidates of all backgrounds who are committed to the principle that intellectual leadership is achieved through open access and pro-active inclusion.

The Department of English at Michigan State University champions teaching practices that acknowledge difference and advance equal access to education. Through the study of literature and film, our curriculum inspires discussions about race, ethnicity, gender, class, sex, sexuality, ability, and religion. Our teaching, scholarship, and service are explicitly committed to advancing equity and justice and questioning established power structures. We foster curiosity through the study of literature and film and through creative production. We endorse the principle of education for institutional change, aimed at ending exclusionary practices and creating a more equitable academic environment. We teach critical thinking and creative problem solving—skills essential to democratic social engagement. We value research that informs public debate and empowers future scholars and artists to generate transformative methodologies. By going beyond conventional approaches to the arts and humanities, our faculty and students examine the political and social power of language and images and analyze how cultural expression can serve to reproduce injustices. We also explore how pedagogy, literature, film, and art often expose and resist systemic inequalities. Our professional service and community outreach are grounded in the principle of social awareness, and guided by honesty, transparency, integrity. We support efforts that urge the University to examine its institutional practices and values, and that address historical biases and ongoing discrimination. When appropriate we engage the broader community in conversations concerning cultural and political inequities. Our aim is to foster an educational experience that is wholly informed by upholding equity and justice. The Equity and Justice Committee was established in 2019 to support the above mission.

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery and forges enduring partnerships to solve the most pressing global challenges while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

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