Professor and Director, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

Northeastern University’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs seeks as its next director a dynamic, collaborative, and visionary leader to help us deepen the impact of our innovative, engaged and interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship and practice in public policy and urban affairs.  We seek nominations and applications from candidates who recognize the role of policy in perpetuating and disrupting inequities and disparities.  Candidates should be prepared to help develop collaborative research agendas, expanding relationships among various communities within Northeastern University’s global networks and beyond.   Ideal candidates will leverage and support the growing opportunities our University offers to engage in innovative research and teaching, including in the areas of environmental and socioeconomic resilience, racial justice, data science, artificial intelligence, and computational social science. Candidates should also be committed to the School’s efforts to center social, racial and environmental justice in every aspect of our teaching, research, campus relationships, and community engagement.  Ideal candidates will demonstrate a track record of addressing issues of race and social justice through their research, and their roles in faculty and student recruitment, curriculum development, community engagement, and experiential learning.

Northeastern University’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs is committed to addressing the central challenges of our times, including climate change, social and racial justice and equality, urban resilience, and technological change.  We do so through excellence and innovation in research and education in the areas of public policy, public administration, urban planning, international affairs, resilience studies, environmental policy, and urban informatics.  We seek to inform change from the neighborhood to the global scale, developing sustained relationships with public, non-profit, and neighborhood organizations in the Boston metropolitan region, throughout Northeastern’s campus network, and in communities around the globe, while also continually expanding our national and international connections to networks of scholars and policy practitioners. The school houses the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy and the Boston Area Research Initiative, and works closely with other research centers on campus, including the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, the Global Resilience Institute, the Burnes Center for Social Change and Innovation, the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks, and the Institute on Race and Justice. Collaborations across Northeastern University are central to the school’s work.

Candidates should be internationally recognized scholars and excellent teachers in public policy and/or urban affairs who can envision their work contributing to existing strengths within the School and across the university.  We invite scholars from a broad and diverse set of backgrounds, including those who employ qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods approaches to research, whose work is primarily domestic or international, and who are trained in a variety of policy-relevant fields.

Responsibilities

The Director will build on and expand existing university-wide interdisciplinary research initiatives, facilitate faculty recruitment, retention and advancement, and otherwise ensure research productivity and teaching excellence at the School and the University.

They will also work to facilitate the continued growth of degree programs in the School, which include master’s programs in Public Administration, Public Policy, Environmental Science and Policy, Urban Planning and Policy, Urban Informatics, Security and Resilience Studies, and International Affairs, undergraduate programs in Human Services, Law and Public Policy, Urban Affairs, and Food Systems, and a PhD program in Public Policy.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in a policy-related field, e.g. public policy, public administration, law, urban planning, engineering, economics, political science, sociology or other related field
• Administrative experience that involves collaboration and partnership with other administrators, faculty, staff, and students
• Commitment to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion and bringing creative strategies to address the challenges of recruiting and retaining students, staff, and scholars from historically underrepresented groups;
• A record in teaching, funded research, scholarship, and service, sufficient to merit tenure upon hire at the rank of full Professor
• Commitment to faculty development and mentoring
• Commitment to engaged and impactful research and innovation
• Commitment to the continued development of Northeastern University’s signature experiential learning model

Additional information and how to apply

Applicants should submit a cover letter detailing interests in research, teaching, and academic leadership, a curriculum vitae, a statement of contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and names and contact information for three references.  Referees will not be contacted without the candidate’s prior consent.  Review of applications will begin on January 15, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled.

To apply, please go to http://www.northeastern.edu/cssh/faculty-positions and click on the link for full-time positions or full-time interdisciplinary positions or if viewing this description on the Northeastern University website, click “Apply to this job.” Please address nominations and questions to Gavin Shatkin, Chair, Search Committee at g.shatkin@northeastern.edu.

About Northeastern

Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning. Our world-renowned experiential approach empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create impact far beyond the confines of discipline, degree, and campus.

Our locations—in Boston; Charlotte, North Carolina; London; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; Seattle; Silicon Valley; Toronto; Vancouver; and the Massachusetts communities of Burlington and Nahant—are nodes in our growing global university system. Through this network, we expand opportunities for flexible, student-centered learning and collaborative, solutions-focused research.

Northeastern’s comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate programs— in a variety of on-campus and online formats—lead to degrees through the doctorate in nine colleges and schools. Among these, we offer more than 195 multi-discipline majors and degrees designed to prepare students for purposeful lives and careers.

Northeastern University is an equal opportunity employer, seeking to recruit and support a broadly diverse community of faculty and staff.  Northeastern values and celebrates diversity in all its forms and strives to foster an inclusive culture built on respect that affirms inter-group relations and builds cohesion.

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other  characteristic protected by applicable law.

To learn more about Northeastern University’s commitment and support of diversity and inclusion, please see www.northeastern.edu/diversity.