Faculty in Poetry

Information & Responsibilities

The School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) invites applications for a full-time mid-career faculty position in poetry. The position’s duties are divided between the Institute’s MFA Program in Creative Writing and the BFA program in Critical Studies. 

The MFA program in Creative Writing is committed to developing world-leading work in the expanded field of writing. We foster serious, experimental engagements within genre, medium, and performativity across and through literary conventions and traditions. Our faculty have a strong commitment to pedagogy that engages and inspires a diverse student body at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The BFA Program in Critical Studies offers courses that are creative and critical in their content and approaches, teaching students from across the Institute’s five other schools: Art, Dance, Music, Film & Video, and Theater. Our BFA courses engage disciplines ranging from the Sciences to the Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts. Projected Salary Range for the position will be $72,670 to $84,255.  

We seek to appoint a poet who would make sustained and vital contributions to the future of our MFA program alongside our innovative, accomplished faculty and contribute to the rich interdisciplinary education of our BFA students from across the Institute. We prefer candidates able to teach and research within fields such as Postcolonial Poetics, African-American, Africana, Latinx/e, Asian-American, Ethnic, Indigenous, Trans, and/or Queer Studies, but are open to other specialities as well. A commitment to a decolonial, antiracist approach to teaching is strongly valued by the School of Critical Studies. 

Duties: The successful candidate will contribute strongly to the MFA Creative Writing Program and the Critical Studies BFA undergraduate curriculum. We invite candidates who demonstrate and cultivate pedagogical approaches to poetry that are practice-based and informed by critical perspectives.  An applied engagement with interdisciplinary approaches, and innovative practices related to the field is also desirable.  As writers, scholars and teachers, faculty members in the Creative Writing MFA also engage in and demonstrate facility in other creative writing genres, arts practices, critical methodologies and/or fields of academic inquiry. While we stress this is primarily a position in poetry, the School of Critical Studies values the ability and desire to teach undergraduate courses in other areas. Occasionally,  faculty from the MFA Creative Writing team also have the opportunity to mentor and teach in the MA Program in Aesthetics and Politics in the School of Critical Studies, though this is not a requirement of the position.

Responsibilities for each faculty include:

  • A 3:3 course load. This course load is generally assigned as follows: two MFA Creative Writing courses, and three additional courses in other Critical Studies programs, usually but not exclusively the BFA program. A single course release is awarded each year for mentoring graduate students (approx 4-6 per year). All active MFA faculty receive this course release for their mentoring duties. 

  • Conducting mid-residency and graduation reviews

  • Participating in curricular planning, admissions review and assessment for undergraduate and graduate programs

  • Attendance at various program, school and Institute events

  • Sustaining a vibrant publication record and achievement in the field of  writing

  • Institute and School committee work and other forms of service as designated

 

CalArts is a world-renowned visual and performing arts college located in Valencia, California. Founded in 1961 it opened in 1969 as the first institution of higher learning in the United States specifically for students interested in the pursuit of degrees in all areas of visual and performing arts. CalArts encourages students to explore and recognize the complexity of the many aspects of the arts. It is supported by a distinguished faculty of practicing artists and provides its Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts students with the hands-on training and exposure necessary for an artist's growth. The Institute is organized into six schools: Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater.  The School of Critical Studies has a special role in that mix, providing a robust liberal arts education to CalArts undergraduates from each of the other 5 schools. At the graduate level, in addition to the Creative Writing Program, Critical Studies also houses the MA in Aesthetics and Politics.

We seek to employ faculty who can engage our diverse communities of learners at the highest levels of artistic endeavor and critical thinking. We welcome candidates who possess a demonstrated worldview and cultural competency to support teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students of varied backgrounds, capabilities, perspectives, social identities and gender expressions. CalArts is an equal opportunity employer.  

CalArts is proud of its diverse student body and deeply committed to supporting the cultural and artistic aspirations of all its students. We seek new faculty committed to increasing opportunities for low-income students and currently disenfranchised groups, and to working in support of institutional goals of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access in an ongoing way.

Requirements

  • The successful candidate will have published  a minimum of two (2) books with nationally or internationally recognized presses. 
  • Two (2) or more years teaching at the college level full time or equivalent including some experience teaching graduate level students. 
  • A Masters or PhD degree in a field relevant to the position or equivalent accomplishment.

How to Apply

  • Applicants should send a letter of interest that does the following:

    • Addresses their achievements in the field of poetry, also addressing their philosophy on the teaching of  Poetry and Creative Writing.

    • Addresses the needs of the position for a candidate who can deliver exciting, innovative Poetry and Creative Writing courses at the graduate and undergraduate level, while also contributing to the wider mission of the School of Critical Studies described above. 

    • Addresses how the candidate approaches issues of equity, diversity and inclusion in an academic setting. 

    • Addresses other experience and skills the candidate possesses that make them especially suited to the position. 

  • Applicants should also send a 10-15  page (creative) writing sample

  • Applicants should submit a current CV.

The materials below will be required for candidates who advance to the finalist stage of the process. You may upload materials now, but they will not be reviewed until the finalist stage. If you choose to upload these materials at a later date a reminder email will be sent to you. Finalist will be asked to submit:

  • A 1-3 page teaching statement (describing in more detail than in the letter of application) the applicant's teaching philosophy in relation to the teaching of poetry and creative writing and other academic subjects of relevance to the applicant. The statement should also address how the applicant's teaching practice engages anti-racist/decolonial pedagogy
  • Three confidential letters of references
  • 2 sample syllabi

Review of applications will begin on November 15, 2022, for full consideration please apply by that date. 

All submissions are confidential.

Questions about applying? Contact the Director of Faculty Affairs at dofa@calarts.edu

Please click here to apply

Equity & Diversity

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) seeks to employ faculty who can engage our diverse communities of learners at the highest levels of artistic endeavor and critical thinking.  Across the range of practitioners from artists to scholars and librarians, we welcome candidates who possess a demonstrated worldview and cultural competency to support teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students of varied backgrounds, capabilities, perspectives, social identities and gender expressions. CalArts is an equal opportunity employer.