Director of the Pahl Center for the Study of Critical Social Issues

The University of California, Santa Barbara seeks to hire a nationally- or internationally- recognized scholar as Director of the Pahl Center for the Study of Critical Social Issues. The Director will be a 100% Senate faculty member in a home department with an additional appointment of serving as a part-time (50%) administrative director for the Pahl Center. The successful candidate may specialize in any area of the social sciences, and will have a tenured faculty appointment in the appropriate department in the Division of Social Sciences. The initial appointment as Pahl Center Director will be for a 5-year period, and is renewable.

Pahl Center scholars during the pilot phase of the center have addressed: masculinity and mass shootings, food insecurity, the California housing crisis, immigrant family separation, and student mental health. Other examples, central to some of the strengths in the Social Sciences at UCSB, may include, Race, Class, Gender; Global Inequalities; Political Polarization; Sexualities; Economic Inequality; Educational Equity; Health Equity; Prison Abolition or Criminal Justice Reform; Borders, Migration, and Refugeeism; and Environmental Justice, among others.

Job duties include: working with a diverse and interdisciplinary community of faculty, students, staff, and community-based partners to sustain existing and develop new initiatives that advance the Pahl Center's core mission; overseeing the administration of the Center; and teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Founded in 2023, the Pahl Center is centered around four key principles: (1) rigorous research on high-stakes social issues; (2) data-driven solutions rooted in social scientific research and analysis; (3) publicly-facing efforts to reach beyond the walls of academia with social science research; and (4) high-impact learning opportunities for student involvement in the research process. The vision is a Center that supports and collaborates with other community-engaged and/or publicly-facing initiatives or centers within the Division of Social Sciences, including the Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality and Democracy, the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies, the Center for Feminist Futures, the 2035 Initiative (with the College of Engineering), the Area Global Initiative, the UCSB Community Labor Center, the Broom Center for Demography, the Migration Initiative, and related initiatives outside of the division. The Pahl Center seeks to lead in collaborative work that creates a more robust infrastructure of support for community-engaged and/or publicly-facing research and pedagogy, and as a primary entry for community partners interested in fostering university and research partnerships.

Candidates with all forms of social sciences disciplinary training and expertise-broadly defined-will be considered. Specifically, we invite applications in any of the following fields and areas of expertise: American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Anthropology, Asian American Studies, Black Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Communication, Economics, Feminist Studies, Global Studies, Political Science, Sociology, or other relevant fields. In addition to scholarly and pedagogical contributions to their home department(s), the ideal candidate should have a record that demonstrates a commitment to the Pahl Center's four key principles, and a strong inclination to build intellectual community around these principles on campus and beyond.

The University is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching, and service as appropriate to the position.

Applicants should hold a PhD in a relevant social sciences discipline and must currently hold an associate or full professor rank or equivalent title with tenure.

The ideal candidate

* has a strong record of impactful scholarship on one or more critical social issues that reflects the principles, mission, and goals of the Center;

* approaches research with an awareness of the structural factors that shape social outcomes;

* grounds research in deep commitments to social-justice- and/or equity;

* practices methodological reflexivity;

* produces work that is community-centered, publicly-facing, or policy-focused;

* engages with communities in mutually-beneficial collaborative work, either directly or through a network of local, state or federal policy advocates ;

* has a commitment to bridging knowledge gained in community work to scholarly conversations, including theory; and/or

* has a record of institution building and leadership in working with faculty, staff, and students to increase the university's capacity for engaged scholarship, community-based teaching, and community collaborations

* has demonstrated effective teaching and mentoring through teaching statement and optional sample syllabi

* has evidence/promise of contributions to diversity in an academic community through research, teaching, leadership, and/or service.

All information about candidate dossiers, search committee deliberations and decisions will be kept confidential.

• 3-5 required (contact information only)

The committee will request letters of reference for candidates selected for serious consideration (or campus visits). Candidates will be informed prior to letters being solicited.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status. For the University of California's Affirmative Action Policy please visit: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4010393/PPSM-20. For the University of California's Anti-Discrimination Policy, please visit: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/1001004/Anti-Discrimination.

As a condition of employment, you will be required to comply with the University of California Policy on Vaccination Programs, as may be amended or revised from time to time. Federal, state, or local public health directives may impose additional requirements.