Assistant Professor of American History since 1865 with Environmental Humanities or Medical Humanities (HIS_02)

Working at Durham University  

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting – Durham is a university like no other.

As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career. The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.  

We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it’s also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.

Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential. 

Our Purpose and Values

We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Durham? information page.   

The Department 

The Department of History at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the role of Assistant Professor. We welcome applications from candidates with research and teaching interests in (North) American history since 1865 with a specialism in either environmental humanities (environmental history, including built environment / urban history) or medical humanities (history of biomedicine as desirable). We particularly encourage candidates whose research complements and expands the department’s current strengths. Applications from candidates who share the Department’s commitment to decolonising the curriculum are especially encouraged.

Following recent expansion, Durham University History Department is now one of the largest centres in the UK for the study of history. We are consistently ranked amongst the top departments in the country by the Complete University Guide, the Times and Sunday Times and the Guardian University Guide. We place research at the heart of our varied undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, inducting our students into a community of historians from the outset. Our research expertise and teaching provision extend from late antiquity to the present day and we are home to scholars of Europe, Africa, Asia and North America and of social, cultural, political, economic, religious, intellectual, environmental and gender history. This range and breadth open up possibilities for transnational, transhistorical and comparative work that tends to be the hallmark of ground-breaking research in our discipline. As a group of researchers, we are alive to the constant evolution of historical questions and we are committed to developing the intra- and interdisciplinary breadth to respond to, initiate and shape the discipline and scholarship more broadly defined. This brings us together as historians and makes Durham an exciting place to work, research and study.

The Durham University History Department has an outstanding reputation in the field of modern American history, as well as in environmental and urban history and in the history of science, technology and medicine. The Department has strong links with: the Institute for Medical Humanities; the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing; the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience; the Centre for Global Understanding of Environment, Science, and Technology (GUEST); the Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society (CHESS); the Centre for Culture and Ecology; the Global Policy Institute; the Environmental and Energy Economics Centre; and the Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease. Our postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers are also active in this interdisciplinary environment. We are currently home to students funded by two doctoral training centres, the AHRC Northern Bridge Partnership and the ESRC NINE DTP .

This post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent research and teaching while allowing you unrivalled opportunities to progress and embed your career in an exciting and progressive institution. For more information, please visit our Department pages at History - Durham University

Assistant Professors at Durham 

Assistant Professors on the Education and Research track are encouraged to focus on research and teaching but are also expected to engage in wider citizenship to enhance their own development, support their department and discipline and contribute to the wider student experience. Academic colleagues are supported to publish excellent research in their area of interest with a focus on high quality outputs (including monographs and journal articles), rather than quantity. We aim to support your research needs, including practical help such as resources to attend conferences and to fund research activities, as well as a generous research leave policy and a designated mentor. Durham University is also committed to ensuring outstanding teaching quality, stimulating learning environments, and innovative curricula for all our students. You will be supported to develop your teaching expertise and skills. We are confident that our recruitment process allows us to attract and select the best talent to Durham. We therefore offer a reduced probation period of 1 year for our Assistant Professors and thereafter, subject to satisfactory performance, your position will be confirmed as permanent. We strive to provide a working and teaching environment that is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate these key principles as part of the assessment process. 

Assistant Professor of Modern American History with Environmental or Medical Humanities

Applicants must demonstrate research excellence in the field of modern American history, show potential to engage the environmental or medical humanities, and possess the ability to teach our students to an exceptional standard and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Pursue research that is high quality in terms of originality, significance and rigour;
• Develop clear plans for the pursuit of national and international funding opportunities to support research and end-user engagement;
• Play a role in relevant teaching and research supervision and contribute to ongoing curriculum development;
• Contribute to enhancing the quality of the research environment in the Department, the wider University and beyond through collaborative research activity;
• Demonstrate a willingness to contribute to the administrative work, citizenship and values of the Department;
• Deliver lectures, seminars and tutorials at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels, as well as engaging in related activity such as assessment;
• Fully engage in and enhance the values of the Department;
• Contribute to attracting and supervising research students and to enhance the Department’s commitment to its vibrant and inclusive postgraduate culture;

Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key component of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do.  We also live by our Purpose and Values  and our Staff Code of Conduct.   At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all colleagues undertake activities that are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI. 

We welcome and encourage applications from those who are currently under-represented in our work force, including people with disabilities and from racially minoritised ethnic groups.

If you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on the volume and recency of your research outputs and other activities, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application. The selection committee will take this into account when evaluating your application.

The University has been awarded the Disability Confident Employer status. If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role. 

Person Specification 

Candidates will have completed their PhDs (or be close to completion) and should outline their experience, skills and achievements to date, which demonstrate that they meet the essential criteria.

Research  

Candidates must have the capacity for and be progressing towards the independent development of internationally excellent research that produces high-quality outcomes, including some work that is recognised as world-class or that has world-class potential.   

Essential Research Criteria

Education 

Candidates must demonstrate the development and delivery of high-quality teaching that promotes a supportive and enabling learning environment and contributions to curricula that encourage students to achieve their potential.

Essential Education Criteria 

1.     Quality – evidence of the development and delivery of effective and engaging teaching. (Candidates may choose to provide student evaluation scores and/or peer reviews of teaching).

2.     Innovation – experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate your contribution to new programme development or innovation in the design and delivery of high-quality teaching and assessment of learning. This can include lectures, small group learning and/or using technology or other techniques to enhance learning and/or assessment.

3.     Strategic – evidence of strategic teaching development, or achievements that demonstrate the potential to engage in the design of excellent teaching programmes that are research informed and led.

Services, Citizenship and Values 

Active engagement in administrative and citizenship requirements and to fostering a respectful environment, including a demonstrable commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Essential Services, Citizenship and Values Criteria

1.     Citizenship contribution – evidence of participation in the citizenship/administrative activities of an academic department, faculty or university. (Candidates may choose to evidence: departmental or university roles; mentoring activity; pastoral and academic support of students; engagement with widening participation; carrying out departmental and interdepartmental activities effectively; involvement in departmental activities such as open days, employability events, departmental meetings and committees or involvement in equality and diversity initiatives; and membership or engagement with external bodies) .

2.     Leadership – experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate engagement in activities that contribute to the administrative functioning of an academic department, faculty, university and/or discipline, including leadership or responsibilities in an academic context, or the potential to contribute to these activities. (Candidates may choose to detail any leadership roles which they have undertaken, preferably in, but not limited to, an academic context) .

3.     Communication – candidates must have excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to engage with a range of students and colleagues across a variety of forums.

Desirable Criteria

The desirable criteria for this post (for which candidates should provide evidence of some if not all criteria) are: 

Income generation – evidence of engagement in the development of successful research projects and quality research grant proposals.

Contact Information 

Department contact for academic-related enquiries 

Professor Len Scales, Head of Department: [email protected]

Contact information for technical difficulties when submitting your application 

If you encounter technical difficulties when using the online application form, we prefer you send enquiries by email.  Please send your name along with a brief description of the problem you’re experiencing to [email protected]  

Alternatively, you may call 0191 334 6801 from the UK, or +44 191 334 6801 from outside the UK. This number operates during the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday, UK time.  We will normally respond within one working day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).  

University contact for general queries about the recruitment process 

Lauren Gulliver- Recruitment Coordinator- [email protected] 

How to Apply  

We prefer to receive applications online.    

Please note that in submitting your application, we will be processing your data.  We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.dur.ac.uk/ig/dp/privacy/pnjobapplicants/  which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.  

What to Submit 

All applicants are asked to submit: 

• A CV;
• A covering letter that details your experience, strengths and potential in the requirements set out above;
• A personal research plan of not more than 1,000 words. This should cover your publication plans, planned future research project(s) and related funding applications and any other relevant information, over the next five years; 
• Two of your most significant pieces of written work;
• An EDI and values statement of no more than 500 words outlining work you have been involved in that demonstrates your commitment to EDI and to our values, i.e. involvement in equality, diversity and inclusion activities such as mentoring or volunteering.

Where possible we request that you provide accessible web links to your publications, which the hiring Department will use to access your work. The application form contains fields in which to enter each of the web links.

Please note we are unable to access publications behind a paywall.  

In the event you are unable to provide accessible links to online hosting of your work, publications should be uploaded as PDFs as part of your application in our recruitment system.

Please ensure that your PDFs are not larger than 5mb. Your work may be read by colleagues from across the Department and evaluated against the current REF criteria. 

All application documents should be uploaded with your name and document type as PDF files. 

We will notify you on the status of your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to ensure you receive all emails.  

Referees 

You should provide 3 academic referees they should not (if possible) include your PhD supervisor(s).  The majority should be from a university other than your own (save for early career applicants applying for their first post).

References will be requested for candidates who have been shortlisted and will be made available to the panel during the interview process. 

As part of your application, you will be asked whether you give your consent to your academic references being sought should you be invited to attend an interview. We will only request references where permission has been granted.  

Next Steps 

All applications will be considered. Our usual practice is for colleagues across the Department to read the submitted work of long-listed candidates.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to the University, either virtually or in-person, and will have the opportunity to meet key members of the Department. The assessment for the post will normally include a presentation to staff and students in the Department, a teaching exercise, and an interview. We anticipate that the assessments and interviews will take place over two days in or around April 2024.

If you are unable to attend on the date offered, it may not be possible to offer you an interview on an alternative date. 

Applicant Guidance  

For further guidance on your application please see HERE