Department Chair Hiring Cluster in the Arts

Brown University seeks three visionary leaders to serve as tenured department chairs for a unique cluster hire, as part of the newly established Brown Arts Institute (BAI). This is an open-field search for three senior arts scholar-practitioners. We seek to recruit a dynamic configuration of faculty members with complementary scholarly and artistic interests to lead three departments: Literary Arts, Modern Culture and Media, and Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. They will contribute half of their effort (teaching, programming, etc.) to the Brown Arts Institute and will be appointed with tenure in their respective department at the level of associate or full professor.

This is an exciting moment for interdisciplinary teaching in the arts at Brown, which has embarked on an ambitious set of investments in its arts faculty and facilities. Long known for cutting-edge and innovative interdisciplinary practice and scholarship, and a history of visionary and trend-setting programs, the arts at Brown are both studied and practiced, with scholarship that is both critical and creative. Building on the Brown Arts Initiative launched in 2016, the establishment of the Brown Arts Institute in 2021 cements the role of the arts at the heart of Brown's distinctive Open Curriculum by providing original creative collaborations, interdisciplinary programs, and innovative and bold engagement with important artistic, social, and environmental issues at Brown and beyond. At the core of the BAI are the founding goals of supporting arts that are experimental, collaborative, and engaged.

• To expand Brown's legacy of enriching tradition by supporting all that is experimental, forward-thinking and cutting-edge in the arts
• To facilitate greater opportunity for collaboration across arts departments, among artists, with other academic fields, and with external partners locally, nationally and globally
• To enhance opportunities for engaged, activist artists and scholars whose work responds to contemporary issues

Brown University, BAI, and all of the Arts Departments value diversity and inclusion at all levels. Building on its 2016 Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, Brown has recently released the Phase II Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.