Teaching Fellow in Human Geography

Updated: about 1 year ago
Location: Durham, ENGLAND
Deadline: The position may have been removed or expired!

Teaching Fellow in Human Geography (
Job Number:
 23000018)
Department of Geography
Grade 7: - £35,333 - £41,155 per annum
Fixed Term - Full Time
Contract Duration: 12 months
Contracted Hours per Week: 35
Closing Date
: 09-Feb-2023, 6:59:00 PM
Disclosure and Barring Service Requirement: Not Applicable. 

Durham University

Durham University is one of the world’s top universities, boasting a welcoming and vibrant international community. Durham is an exceptional place in which to base your career. Our strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences see us listed as a top 5 UK and top 100 global university with our students and our world leading academics sitting at the heart of delivering our ground-breaking work. As part of our ambitious strategy we are growing and we look forward to welcoming your application.


 
About Durham University

As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career while enjoying a high quality work/life balance. We are home to some of the most talented scholars and researchers from around the world who are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.

The University sits in a beautiful historic city where it shares ownership of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Durham Cathedral, the greatest Romanesque building in Western Europe. A collegiate University, Durham recruits outstanding students from across the world and offers an unmatched wider student experience.


 
Less than 3 hours north of London, and an hour and a half south of Edinburgh, County Durham is a region steeped in history and natural beauty. The Durham Dales, including the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, are home to breathtaking scenery and attractions. Durham offers an excellent choice of city, suburban and rural residential locations. If you’d like to find out more about the University, please visit https://www.dur.ac.uk/jobs/recruitment/
 
The Department
The Department of Geography at Durham comprises 65 academic staff (approximately equally divided between physical and human geography), a graduate school of around 100 research students, around 40 taught postgraduate students and 850 undergraduates. The Department is well supported with technical staff, including a cartography unit, and administrative staff.

We are ranked 12th in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2021). We are recurrently ranked in the top handful of programmes in the UK by various league tables. We are ranked 2nd in the Times / Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021, 6th in the Guardian University Guide 2021 and 3rd in the Complete University Guide 2021. The most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2021 placed us joint first in the UK for iGPA (average score scaled by proportion of staff submitted), with a 100% 4* score for our research environment.

Our aim is to sustain and support hubs of leadership in geographical scholarship – broadly conceived. We will maintain our reputation for theoretical and conceptual innovation so that we are shaping and leading debates globally.

We will continue to engage concepts and materials from across disciplinary boundaries to renew geographical scholarship and bring geographical perspectives to bear in other domains. We work across every continent and most major oceans and embrace the full diversity of methods and data available to the discipline.

We are further developing our core undergraduate programmes and will be recruiting world leading staff accordingly to ensure these programmes continue to offer the highest quality of education that develop students with skills to advance scholarly and public debates to which geography is central. The quality of our undergraduate students, and the degree programmes which ensue, combine with our large graduate school to provide a teaching experience for staff that is truly excellent.


 
The Role

Applications are invited for a Teaching Fellow in Human Geography. We are particularly eager to hear from applicants in any area of Human Geography with the capacity to teach  human geography material on climate change and the environment to both BA and BSc students.


 

Teaching Fellowships offer the opportunity of valuable experience to those early in their academic careers and the University is keen to maximise the benefit to as many people as possible.  The post of Teaching Fellow will involve a significant teaching load, which may extend into the summer period, and there may be related scholarship and the opportunity for administrative duties which relate to education and pedagogy.


 

The post is for a fixed term only, and it is not anticipated that the post will be extended beyond this fixed term, which will end 12 months after appointment.


 

Successful applicants will, ideally be in post by 1st September 2023, or as soon as possible thereafter.


 

The University provides a working and teaching environment which 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.


 
Key responsibilities
 
  • Teach parts modules in appropriate learning environments at undergraduate/postgraduate levels, including material on climate change and contributions to research methods, subdisciplinary and fieldwork teaching. 
  • Demonstrate the ability to manage own teaching and designing, planning and writing of teaching materials;
  • Lead some aspects of modules and contribute to modules led by others by collaborating with colleagues on course development;
  • Develop and deliver an inclusive curriculum and make an active contribution to an inclusive community in which diversity is embraced and celebrated;
  • Seek and take on board feedback on teaching and engage with others in CPD;
  • Supervise undergraduate and taught postgraduate projects/dissertations. 
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  • Start to engage in scholarship (the creation, development and maintenance of the intellectual infrastructure of subjects and disciplines) e.g. develop online teaching resources;
  • In addition to Board of Studies, membership of some departmental committees and professional body memberships;
  • Student support, assessment of academic performance and provision of feedback
  • Undertake effectively and efficiently any administrative role allocated by your Head of Department.

 
How to Apply
For informal enquiries please contact Professor Cheryl McEwan - [email protected]   All enquiries will be treated in the strictest confidence. 
 

We prefer to receive applications online via the Durham University Vacancies Site. https://www.dur.ac.uk/jobs/


 

Applications are particularly welcome from women and black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in the University  .


 
What to Submit
All applicants are asked to submit:
  • a CV and a 2 page (max) covering letter which details your experience, skills and achievements in meeting (or the potential to meet) the criteria set out above.
  • A 1-page (max) outline of a bloc of 5 lectures designed to teach human geography material on climate change to Level 2 BA and BSc undergraduate students.

 

Referees

You should provide details of 3 referees and the details of your current line manager so that we may seek an employment reference (if they are not listed as an academic referee).  Please note:

  • We shall seek references during the application process.  Unless in the case of very early career candidates, referees should not (if possible) include your PhD supervisor(s) and include references from a University other than your own.
  • We would ask that you alert your referees to this application as soon as possible so that we can quickly obtain references.  If you do not wish (some or all) of your referees to be approached during the recruitment process; you must clearly indicate this to us at the time of your application.
  • References sought for candidates may be made available to the panel during the shortlisting process.
  • We will seek a reference from your current line-manager if we make you an offer of employment (albeit you may have also nominated your line manager as an academic referee).  Please clearly indicate on the application form which referee is your current line-manager and indicate if we should only approach them once an offer has been made.

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.
 
Next Steps

The assessment for the post will include a teaching exercise and interview/ Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview and assessment ideally in week commencing TBC.


This is a TF post so we should refer to the TEF metrics.  We are a Silver Institution with aspirations for gold. 


Person Specification
 

Candidates applying for a grade 7 post will have recently completed or be concluding their PhD and, while they may have limited direct experience of the requirements for the post, they must outline their experience, skills and achievements to date which demonstrate that they meet or that they have the potential to achieve the

 

Essential criteria:  

 

  • A good first degree in Human Geography or cognate discipline.
  • A PhD (or be close to submission) in Human Geography or a related subject, or equivalent demonstrable practitioner experience which may include appropriate certification and/or membership of a relevant professional body.
  • Experience of teaching and examining at University level with positive student feedback gained.
  • Experience of contributing to the development and delivery of high-quality teaching and/or assessment of learning, including the design and creation of successful learning environments and curricula.
  • Demonstrable ability to participate in the collegial/administrative activities of an academic department and/or discipline.
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to engage with a range of students and colleagues across a variety of forums.
  • Demonstrable expertise in teaching or research related to climate change may be an advantage.

  •  
    Desirable criteria:
  • Experience of successfully developing innovative teaching methods for the design/delivery of high quality teaching.
  • Expertise in teaching or research related to climate change
  • Experience of successfully working in an administrative role within an organisation or department.
  • Experience of providing high quality one-to-one student supervision.
  • Evidence of work undertaken (or which would be undertaken) in preparation for teaching and keeping up to date with developments in the subject area, such as
  • Active membership and engagement with a professional body;
  • Demonstrable innovation in educational practice;
  • Publication in a scholarly journal or relevant professional publication;
  • Attending and presenting internal and/or external seminars or at a regional conference; and/or
  • Materials/curriculum development for wider use in a department.
  • Candidates may have, or should have the ability to attain the rank of Fellow of HEA.

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