Job Description

Located in the vibrant community of Walla Walla, WA, Whitman College is home to an intellectually diverse, dynamic, and supportive community of some 500 staff and faculty serving roughly 1,500 students from the local region and across the globe. With exceptional students, accomplished faculty and staff, and engaged alumni, Whitman College continues to build on its national reputation for academic excellence as one of the top undergraduate, liberal arts colleges in the country.

The Department of History seeks applicants for a tenure-track position in Indigenous Histories of the North American West, beginning August 2024, at the rank of Assistant Professor. The field of specialization in History or Indigenous Studies is open, but candidates must demonstrate engagement with historical analysis and methodologies.The department particularly welcomes candidates with Indigenous community lived experience.

The standard annual teaching load is five courses. We are looking for a colleague who will offer courses – of their own design – at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels that will fully center narratives of Indigenous peoples, while interrogating the very categories of “North American” and “West/Western.” This new colleague will collaboratively contribute to any redesigns of the department’s curriculum, including two currently-required courses: a methodologies course and a senior capstone seminar. They will also contribute to the shared rotation of departmental offerings in the College-wide series of first-year seminars.

If relevant, the successful candidate would have opportunities to teach courses in the History-Environmental Studies combined major, as well as in a variety of interdisciplinary programs, including Indigeneity, Race & Ethnic Studies (IRES), Gender Studies, or Global Studies.

Whitman College has a layered and painful past on the homelands of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla peoples. There remains much work to do in bridging the present and past to a reparative future. In 2017, the College signed an MOU with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.Recent investments in this relationship include the temporary erection of a Long Tent by regional tribal members on campus, which was associated with numerous educational opportunities for the Whitman and Walla Walla communities, the implementation of Šináata Scholarships for Indigenous students, and the creation of a new position to facilitate these connections in the form of a Special Assistant to the President.

The College provides a generous pre-tenure sabbatical leave program and professional development support for both research and teaching. The successful candidate will demonstrate potential to sustain an active scholarly or creative research agenda and to participate in faculty governance, mentorship, or other forms of service that contribute to the overall functioning of the college.

Application Instructions

Whitman College is committed to fostering an inclusive learning community that values diverse identities, experiences, and perspectives. In the cover letter, candidates should describe their interest in teaching undergraduates, majors as well as non-majors, at all levels of instruction. In doing so, candidates should address how their lived experiences and classroom and scholarly practices will advance equity and inclusion in the learning environment and help Whitman promote antiracist, systemic change. The History Department encourages applications from people whose training, methodologies, and production range across the spectrum from those developed by and for indigenous communities to Euro-American academic ones. We ask that applicants, in the cover letter, address their systems of education, their research methodologies, as well as the scholarship produced and community engagement engendered by their research and activism.

To apply, go to The online application will prompt you to submit all of the required materials: a cover letter; curriculum vitae; separate statements addressing the candidate’s teaching interests and scholarly agenda; graduate transcripts; and evidence of demonstrated or potential excellence in undergraduate instruction. The committee will solicit three letters of recommendation from applicants who reach the interview stage.

Review of applications will begin 15 September 2023.

This institution is using Interfolio's Faculty Search to conductthis search. Applicants to this position receive a free Dossieraccount and can send all application materials, includingconfidential letters of recommendation, free of charge.

Whitman College is cultivating a community built on inclusion and belonging. We recognize the value of those who can offer historically underrepresented perspectives and encourage applications from those whose background, knowledge, and insights from lived experience can add to the college’s working and learning environment.

Whitman College is an EEO employer.The college shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR §§ 60-1.4(a), 60-300.5(a) and 60-741.5(a). These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities, and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Job Tags

Similar Jobs