Job opening: Instruction Librarian and Curator for Black Arts and Culture

Posted on: October 20, 2022

JMU Libraries seeks a creative and energetic librarian/archivist or scholar to fill a newly created, tenure-track faculty position in Special Collections. We seek a colleague with subject knowledge in Black arts and culture, teaching expertise with archival and distinctive collections, and enthusiasm for the power of primary sources. 

The Instruction Librarian and Curator for Black Arts and Culture will help build and curate distinctive holdings (archival materials across media types as well as rare books and printed materials) in an area of high priority for JMU Special Collections. Specifically, this position will help expand collection development efforts with colleagues in the Furious Flower Poetry Center (FFPC) to acquire relevant printed materials centered around Black poetry, fiction, and art, and with faculty from our African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies Center in support of JMU’s research and teaching strengths in these fields. The successful candidate will bring creative thinking and excitement to promotion and outreach surrounding our collections, and will engage with a highly collaborative team of librarians, archivists, poets, and scholars to further the acquisition, description, and use of distinctive collections related to Black arts, literature, and culture. Within this highly collaborative department, the successful candidate will align instructional priorities with organizational and departmental goals to support a reparative approach that recognizes silences and gaps in the documentary record, and shape the classroom use of Special Collections materials across various disciplines and fields. 

This is a tenure-track, full-time, twelve-month, instructional faculty position, reporting within JMU Libraries’ Digital Scholarship and Distinctive Collections department, with a starting salary range of $60,000 – $65,000. Learn more or apply.

Application review will begin on November 11, 2022.

Learn about this position in an online info session

We are hosting information sessions on Zoom for interested applicants in advance of the review date. Please consider joining to learn more about the position and the organization, meet the supervisor, ask questions confidentially, and get answers.

Session 1: Sign up for Thursday, October 27, 11am to 12pm EST

Session 2: Sign up for Tuesday, November 1, 4-5pm EST

Confidentiality will be ensured, as the attendee list for each Zoom “webinar” session will be hidden. Live captioning will be provided.

Questions about the info sessions? Please contact Brian Flota (flotabc@jmu.edu).

About JMU Libraries

This is an exciting time to join the JMU Libraries. We are entering a new phase in our transformative, Mellon Foundation-funded partnership with the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry. We are also actively planning the renovation and expansion of Carrier Library

Our team comprises about 150 staff and faculty and approximately 100 undergraduate and graduate student workers.  

View our Magazine or our About the Libraries pages to learn more about what we do at JMU Libraries—and apply today!

About JMU and Harrisonburg

Founded in 1908, James Madison University is a public university located in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. View the videos below or refer to About JMU or Visit Harrisonburg to learn more!

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