The UF College of the Arts is moving toward a new age with 19 new faculty members next year.
On Thursday, the college announced it would hire new faculty members for the 2019-20 academic year. Four of the positions will be replacements and the other 15 are new faculty positions, said Brandon McKinley, the college’s public relations and partnership specialist.
Some of the new positions include assistant professors in music business, performance somatics and digital arts and science with a specialization in science and engineering, McKinley said. The UF College of the Arts currently has 120 faculty and 30 staff members.
“As an alumnus of the college, it’s really exciting to see the entire faculty and staff develop something that’s going to propel us into the future and allow students to tackle tomorrow’s problems,” McKinley said.
The 19 positions are part of the UF Faculty 500 Initiative, a goal the university has to hire 500 new faculty to continue to move up on the list of top 10 public universities by improving the student-to-faculty ratio, McKinley said. Funds for the new positions come from the Office of the Provost.
There isn’t an estimated cost of how much these positions will be paid.
Each of the 19 positions will be assigned to various search committees. Three to five faculty members from the College of the Arts and one provocateur — someone who ensures the applicants are qualified and able to assist students in discovering how the arts can influence society — will sit on each committee, McKinley said.
The committee and provocateur will adhere to a “meta-narrative,” an overarching theme to seek faculty who identify as change-makers to help students position themselves to become artists and researchers and make effective changes in the world, McKinley said.
“We’re looking for who can educate students in a way that can approach the ever-changing context of our society using technical art skills and scholarly art analysis,” McKinley said.
The curriculum for the positions will be developed and established next year, said Tiza Garland, the associate director of the UF School of Theatre and Dance and a search committee member.
It is essential to recognize that shifts in the arts can lead to shifts in technology, the environment, politics and the media, Garland said. The nature of the subject is embedded in culture and is what unites people.
“Art is a means of building bridges between various aspects of our community and bringing diverse groups together,” Garland said.
Contact Dana Cassidy at dcassidy@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @danacassidy_
Program Director and Professor of the Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship
School of Theater and Dance Director and Professor
Lecturer in Arts in Medicine - Service Learning, Teaching and Research
Lecturer in Contemporary Art Making
Lecturer in Digital Arts and Sciences
Lecturer in Studio Art
Assistant Professor in Digital Arts & Science with an interdisciplinary specialization in Science/Engineering
Assistant/Associate Professor in Museum Studies
Assistant Professor in Graphic Design
Assistant Professor in African Art History
Assistant Professor in Low Brass
Assistant Professor in Music Business
Assistant Professor in Music Education
Assistant Professor in Ethnomusicology
Assistant Professor in Music Composition
Assistant Professor in Theater
Assistant Professor in Theater Studies
Assistant Professor in Performance Somatics
Assistant Professor in Dance Studies
