Special Features of the Job |
Our aim is to hire a creative, energetic colleague who will help us re-imagine the scope and nature of university support for student writing. We want a Director who will provide vision and leadership in developing strategies that enable Miami to engage with all the writing students do, not just their course-based writing.
We have crafted this unique position to provide the Director with maximum support for innovation and experimentation.
1. As part of the leadership team for Miami’s Howe Center for Writing Excellence, the Director will coordinate with the university’s robust WAC-style programs for faculty and departments.
2. All aspects of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence enjoy exceptionally strong support from our President and Provost. The Center benefits from a $10.5 million gift to the University.
3. The Director will be able to spend most of his or her time developing and implementing new initiatives.
• Although the Director will provide vision and leadership for our student writing center, an experienced staff member handles all of the administrative work, including program planning and the mentoring of writing consultants.
• The teaching requirement is very light: only the course that prepares our student writing consultants for their duties.
4. The Director will benefit from advice given by the Howe Center for Writing Excellence’s National Advisory Board, which meets on campus annually. Members are Chris Anson, Andrea Lunsford, Marty Townsend, Kathi Yancey, and Art Young.
5. The Director will have tenure and an intellectual home in the English Department, which includes Miami’s stellar composition and rhetoric program.
6. If the Director wishes, he or she may teach undergraduate or graduate courses and serve on committees for master’s and doctoral students in the English Department. However, there is no requirement that the Director do so.
7. At the end of the renewable five-year term, the Director may apply for reappointment or elect to devote all of his or her talents to teaching and research in Miami’s composition and rhetoric program. We are looking for someone with a passion for creating an innovative approach to student writing. We realize that such a person may or may not desire to administer the programs once it has been established, so we are leaving both options open.
LET’S TALK
If you are the least bit curious about this opportunity, let’s talk. I’d be pleased to tell you more about the position by email, Skype, ConnectNow, Ichat, or phone. If you will be near Oxford in the next few months, stop on by. We will begin reviewing applications on October 1.