University at Buffalo (UB)
Applications are sought from exceptionally accomplished individuals who, through their record of scholarship and/or creative endeavors, teaching, mentoring, and service, as well as their skills, experiences, underrepresentation, and areas of scholarly and/or creative expertise, can substantially advance diversity, equity and inclusion at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.
Exposing students, faculty, and staff to new ideas and perspectives, engaging with undergraduate and graduate mentoring circles, linking to the community through talks, exhibits, scholarship and/or creative projects, the Distinguished Visiting Scholars program will contribute to the university’s existing commitments to groundbreaking research, transformative educational experiences and deeply engaged service to its communities.
The Distinguished Visiting Scholars program at UB began in the fall of 2020 under the Center for Diversity Innovation. The founding purpose was to ignite a faculty diversity initiative in which visiting scholars from across the country would spend a year on campus to work on a scholarly and creative process. It was designed for mid-career faculty, authors and creatives from historically marginalized populations to begin a new project incorporating public presentations engagement with community members at UB, other campuses throughout Buffalo, and across Western New York.
The College of Arts and Sciences looks at “distinguished” from the vantage point of elevating the importance of work in diversity, equity and belonging. This means moving beyond status quo metrics of distinction typically based on more individualistic scholarly achievements, privileging those who could be more self-centered and self-involved in advancing their careers. In the context of this program, the “distinguished” in Distinguished Visiting Scholars recognizes scholarly and artistic excellence, but it also acknowledges the often overlooked, invisible labor that candidates engage in to meet the specific needs of underrepresented students and colleagues who are structurally and institutionally marginalized in the university environment. “Distinguished” also recognizes the additional labor involved for those who prioritize community engagement and accountability to diverse and marginalized communities in their work. The designation of distinguished, as we define it takes the invaluable contributions that our candidates make in these areas into account.
One-year, temporary, full-time, residential, salaried position (benefits eligible) as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar hosted by a department within the College of Arts and Sciences. Distinguished Visiting Scholars will be part of a cohort.
Advanced assistant professors, associate or full professors or highly accomplished non-academics whose profile matches the needs of the program and would be qualified to obtain tenure in a UB department. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States. No sponsorship is available for this position.
Any area of scholarship and/or creative endeavor. All candidates are encouraged to highlight ways in which their scholarly and/or creative endeavors, teaching, and/or service (including service in their communities) relate to diversity, equity/inequality, and inclusion.
The evaluation of all Scholar applicants will include careful attention to the applicant’s history of mentoring students and record of developing the next generation of scholars, artists and/or practitioners in their field. Scholar applications will include contact information for letters of reference from former students/mentees, as well as a description of their approach, accomplishments, and history of mentoring with particular emphasis on how they have advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The Distinguished Visiting Scholars program has a number of requirements, in addition to planned work on a specified scholarly and/or creative project.
The Distinguished Visiting Scholar program is committed to the concept of a residential visit involving community engagement.
During their visit, Scholars must reside in a community which affords Scholars the ability to be in attendance in the Scholar offices at mid-day three to four days a week, at other designated times, and to attend the weekly seminars and other speaker events hosted by the DVS program and/or their host departments at UB and within the local community.
Our expectation is that Scholars will remain in residence in the DVS program from the date upon which all full-time UB faculty are required to be present (a week before the start of classes in the fall) through late May, excluding holiday periods. While Scholars are required to be in residence through late May, they may coordinate with the director to continue using their Scholar office and UB library and IT resources after that date.
Information to assist Scholars in finding housing and schools can be provided. Funds are available to all Scholars who relocate to participate in the program. (Relocation expense guidelines for this program conform to IRS, SUNY, and UB relocation rules.)
Further application information about the Distinguished Visiting Scholars (DVS) Program.
DVS is designed to attract a diverse pool of applicants that meet the eligibility criteria. Each applicant must complete the UB Jobs online application and provide the required information. The online application allows applicants to identify a department that they would find most appropriate to host them for the ten-month visiting scholar appointment. View a list of the departments in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at UB. You can identify the department(s) in your application that you believe would be the most appropriate host(s) for your visit.
Applications that are completed and submitted by the deadline will be forwarded to the UB department that you have indicated as aligning closest to your discipline or field. Departments will provide evaluations of applicants. The university-wide Distinguished Visiting Scholar selection committee will choose candidates who can fulfill the program objectives and contribute greatly to the campus culture. Candidates who are selected will be invited to be a Distinguished Visiting Scholar for the 2023-24 academic year.
Yes, the program is generously funded by the UB Office of the Provost on an annual basis.
Given the program structure of mentoring circles and engagement within the College, the university and the larger community, we will host only Scholars who can commit to an academic year in the Buffalo Niagara region.
Eligible applicants who can apply include advanced assistant professors, associate or full professors, or highly accomplished creatives and/or scholars outside of the academy whose profile matches the needs of the program and can meet qualifications to obtain tenure in an academic department at UB. Each Distinguished Visiting Scholar will hold a full-time, temporary, salaried position at UB with eligibility for health benefits.
The salary associated with fulfilling the residential and all other requirements of this program is $115,000. Each scholar receives the same salary regardless of discipline/field and rank. The program follows a myriad of practices that centralizes diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging to provide each Scholar with the most productive, engaging, and rewarding experience possible.
Scholars will not have assigned teaching duties in their host department. Instead, Scholars will participate in structured mentoring circles with undergraduate and graduate students, as well as be available to their host departments to engage in class presentations, campus-wide talks, exhibits, performances and other activities to share their work and expertise with the university and local communities.
Applicants will be asked to specify lab, studio, or other resources needed to conduct their scholarly and/or creative endeavors. The program cannot necessarily accommodate all needs, but an effort will be made to work with departments to provide details on available resources to Scholars at the time of an offer.
Scholars are provided with the following resources:
Tenure-track faculty who either have submitted or will soon submit materials for tenure review and creatives (i.e. visual artists, filmmakers, creative writers, dramatists, musicians) who are looking to start a new project are welcome to apply.
Once you submit your candidate application in the UB Jobs system, it will generate emails to the individuals identified as references using the email address that was included. It is suggested that you inform your references to monitor their email for incoming messages with a link to upload their letter.
Because candidates may apply on or shortly before the application deadline, there will be a short period of time for letters to be submitted after the deadline. All candidate files will be evaluated based on the letters that are in the UB Jobs system at the time of evaluation. It is strongly suggested that at least one mentee letter is submitted by the deadline. Applicants without at least one mentoring letter beyond the submission window will not be considered. Applicants should not have their references email their letters to the Program Director because they will not be part of the application package and, therefore, risk not being attached to the candidate file during the evaluation process.
Notifying your intended references well in advance of completing your application submission will ensure that your letters can be uploaded as soon as you submit your application in the UB Jobs system. Application files in the UB Jobs system are monitored for additional letters to be considered for later stages of the evaluation process.