Assistant Professor in Social Work

Assistant Professor in Social Work

Position Overview

The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare (KU SSW) is seeking candidates for two tenure-track assistant professor positions to begin Fall 2023 for academic year appointments. We welcome candidates who demonstrate a commitment to the School's values-relationship building; diversity, equity, and inclusion; practice with integrity; multisystem competency; critical perspective; and empirically informed social work-and whose scholarship, teaching, and service would contribute to the School's mission to promote social, economic, and environmental justice and transform lives and social contexts. Faculty candidates with a Ph.D. in Social Work or related fields or a DSW are invited to apply.

With newly innovated curricula and programs, we seek candidates who are passionate about social work education and committed to inclusive teaching and mentoring. We welcome candidates with interests across our BSW, MSW, PhD, and/or DSW curriculums. We are particularly interested in candidates with the following experience and interests: teaching in an online format; teaching within the MSW program in the subject area of macro practice; and teaching in the DSW program in the areas of administration and management, translational and implementation science, and pedagogy and instruction. Teaching opportunities include a variety of options to increase accessibility for students such as evenings, weekends, and at partnership sites.

As a School of Social Welfare within a comprehensive, premier research university, candidates should have a research agenda and experience that align with our School's commitment to community-engaged scholarship and service that advance social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. We embrace all types of research within a social justice-informed, anti-racist or racial justice lens, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods; creative methodologies; community-based and engaged research; conceptual, historical, and theoretical scholarship; and innovative methods. However, we encourage candidates to demonstrate a commitment to supporting their research and scholarship through a variety of funding, community-based partnerships, and other mechanisms. KU SSW is home to several nationally recognized Centers and expert researchers working together around specific topics (e.g. community engagement, child welfare, LGBTQ+ populations, DEI, aging). Collaborative opportunities exist for candidates to join with these efforts, should they align with their own interests and expertise.

The KU SSW is committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive educational environment for students, faculty, and staff. We aim to recruit and retain faculty to assist us in our mission to identify and challenge oppression in our own school, university, community, and profession. The successful candidates will have a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in social work practice and research, centered in social work values and ethics, and contribute to the school in these areas.

The main campus of the KU School of Social Welfare is in Lawrence and offers BSW, MSW, and PhD degree programs. The KU Edwards Campus is in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, and offers BSW and MSW courses. The MSW program is also offered at our partnership site, Pittsburg State University and starting in 2023, at Kansas State University - Salina. We will also be launching an online DSW Program and an online MSW Program in the 2023/2024 academic year. We encourage you to consider joining us in this growth and as we continually strive to reinvent, innovate, transform, and educate through quality education, research advancement, and community engagement.

Job Description

Situated in the beautiful, historic, and culturally vibrant city of Lawrence, a thriving community 40 minutes from the Kansas City metropolitan area and home to Haskell Indian Nations University, the School of Social Welfare plays a central role in the life of the University of Kansas. Founded in 1865, The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university that serves as a center for learning, scholarship, and creative endeavor. The University of Kansas is the only state university in Kansas to hold membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU), a select group of 62 public and private research universities that represent excellence in graduate and professional education and the highest achievements in research internationally. The University enrolls more than 28,000 students, offers 5,000 courses, more than 400 degree and certificate programs and employs 2,800 faculty members, many of them at the top of their fields. In KU's dynamic, cross-disciplinary research and learning environment, students exchange ideas, discover new ways of processing the world, and address society's grand challenges.

In a continuing effort to enrich its academic environment and provide equal educational and employment opportunities, the university actively encourages applications from members of underrepresented groups in higher education. The successful candidates must be eligible to work in the U.S. prior to the start of the position.

Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Allocation of Effort:

40% Research - Establish a community-engaged research program focused on advancing racial, social, economic, and/or environmental justice; publish scholarly manuscripts; engage in scholarly and community-based publications and presentations; impact the local, national, and/or international community with their research.

40% Teaching - Teach two classes per semester (four classes per year) across the BSW, MSW, PhD, and DSW curricula.

20% Service - Participate in school, university, community, and professional service activities.

Required Qualifications
Evaluation of the following requirements will be made through (1) descriptions of research, teaching and service in the letter of application and statements, (2) record of accomplishments and productivity included in CV and (3) information from three professional references.

• A PhD in social work or a closely aligned applied social science field or a DSW by August 2023.
• A beginning research career focused on advancing social, racial, economic, and/or environmental justice as evidenced by scholarly outcomes (publications, presentations) and community-based outcomes (community partnerships, creative and innovative dissemination, etc.).
• Teaching experience in social work.
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice and anti-racist research, teaching, and service.
• Demonstrated commitment to social work values of social justice, anti-racism, strengths-based practice, and empowerment.
• Demonstrated strong written and oral communication skills as demonstrated by application materials and interview process.

Additional Candidate Instructions

A complete application package will include:

• Online application
• Cover letter describing: interest in the position; alignment between candidate's practice and experiences, social work values, and the School's mission; candidate's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and candidate's anticipated contributions to KU and the SSW.
• Curriculum vitae
• Scholarship and Service statement describing: candidate's area of expertise/interest related to racial, social, economic, and/or environmental justice; community-engaged nature of the candidate's work; plans for incorporating candidate's research agenda at KU; description of the candidate's past and/or anticipated service activities; and inclusion of DEI in research, scholarship, and service.
• Teaching, Mentoring, & Advising statement describing: teaching philosophy with attention to DEI; evidence of responding to student feedback and evaluations; courses taught; interests in teaching at KU.
• Scholarship examples (one or two), may include: evaluation reports, published articles, theoretical/conceptual papers, community dissemination products, grant proposals, policy briefs, creative/innovative dissemination products, etc.
• List of three professional references

Only complete application packages submitted online will be considered.

In addition to the materials above, learning about each applicant's contribution and engagement in areas of diversity is an important part of KU's mission. As a result, applicants will be presented the following question at the time of application:

•Describe your experiences working with people from diverse backgrounds and explain how those experiences reflect your commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Applicants are also encouraged to include or expand upon how they have contributed to building a culture of belonging through DEI initiatives within the required application materials provided.

Review of applications will begin on October 5, 2022 and will continue until a pool of qualified applicants is obtained. First round interviews are tentatively scheduled to occur in mid-October. Applications will be accepted and reviewed until the positions are filled.

Contact Information to Applicants
Amy Mendenhall, PhD
Professor & Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development
Director, Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration
amendenhall@ku.edu
785-864-4792
http://employment.ku.edu/assistant-professor-social-work/23298br

Advertised Salary Range: Commensurate with experience
Application Review Begins: Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Anticipated Start Date: Friday, August 18, 2023

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