Call for Applications or Nominations: Duke Human Rights Center @ FHI Faculty Director(s)

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Founded in 2008 and housed at the FHI since its inception, the DHRC@FHI’s mission is to bring scholars, staff, and students together across disciplines to promote new understandings of and action on human rights. The Center engages with issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, income inequality, the environment, the philosophy and history of human rights, the literature of human rights, linguistic rights, and artistic responses in our research, teaching, programming and outreach. Its goal is to foster strategies and collaborative, cross-disciplinary and critical thinking about the complex concept of human rights in both local and global contexts. The DHRC@FHI is committed to social justice. In partnership with the FHI, it takes the humanities as an essential frame and launch point for inquiry. The Center develops undergraduate courses and global experiences, sponsors campus-wide events that encourage awareness and activism on human rights, and engages in long-term partnerships with community-based organizations. For more information about the DHRC@FHI’s current programs, please visit https://humanrights.fhi.duke.edu/.

Thanks to the strategic leadership and extraordinary service of outgoing Directors Robin Kirk (Cultural Anthropology) and Erika Weinthal (Nicholas School of the Environment), the Center has built strong programmatic foundations in historical memory and historical accountability, civil rights and human rights, voting rights and democracy, and environmental justice. It also has a robust, active, and highly interdisciplinary Faculty Advisory Board and a larger network that extends across Arts and Sciences and the professional schools. We are now seeking new leadership to define DHRC@FHI’s direction for the next stage of its development, at a moment when the ideals of the post-WWII world order are in profound crisis, and when the philosophical basis of Human Rights has been challenged.

About the Position

Reporting to the FHI Director, the DHRC@FHI director(s) will have oversight of the Center’s activities, programs, budget, and internal and external relations. More specifically, the director(s) will be responsible for:

• Developing and implementing the next stage of the DHRC, refining a sense of its contribution to FHI and the university broadly
• Overseeing the Director of the Human Rights Certificate (about 15 undergraduates per year) and being actively engaged with the certificate program. This will likely involve teaching the capstone at least once during the 3-year term.
• Maintaining relationships with student groups, notably Amnesty International and the Student Advisory Board
• Organizing programming: speaker series, film series, etc.
• Brainstorming new initiatives and community partners
• Supervising one full-time staff Program Coordinator

The new director(s) will be able to rely on a robust, collaborative board structure. The DHRC@FHI bylaws designate an Executive Committee consisting of the director(s) and 2-3 members of the Faculty Advisory Board. The Committee is expected to advise the director(s) and to participate actively in Center programs and initiatives. The director(s) will also consult regularly with the Advisory Board at large.

We are eager to find a director who can continue this strong program that has attracted students and faculty from around the university with a vision for the center that builds the relationship between Human Rights and the Humanities, Arts and Interpretive Social Sciences.

Application/Nomination Process

Interested Duke faculty may apply as a sole director, or in a pair as co-directors. For those invested in the development of the DHRC but who do not plan to apply, there is an option to nominate suitable colleagues, again, singly or in a pair. Regular-rank faculty with demonstrated record of scholarship and teaching in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences (tenured or tenure-track; research track; practice or PoP track) are eligible to serve as director(s). Compensation to be determined in conversation with the finalist.

To apply or to submit a nomination, please email the requested documents in a single PDF to this Box folder address - DHRC_FH.ftunh40ue60d43ij@u.box.com - by December 20, 2024.  Please include name of applicant/nominee in the file name. Applications should include:

• Your CV(s)
• A brief (2-3 page) statement of interest that addresses
  • The reasons for your interest in the position and your ideas for the future of the Center;
  • How you would situate human rights in relation to the humanities;
  • If applicable: any prior involvement with the DHRC;
  • If applying jointly as Co-Directors: your past experience working together, or your interest in doing so in this context. 

For nominations, please include the following in a single-page document:

• Your name and affiliation
• The name(s) and affiliation(s) of the nominee(s)
• A brief rationale for the suitability of the nominee(s) for DHRC leadership

The Search Committee (James Chappel, History, Chair; Juliette Duara, Kenan Institute for Ethics; Priscilla Wald, English) will review applications and nominations and decide on formal invitations to apply. Questions can be addressed confidentially to Committee Chair James Chappel (james.chappel@duke.edu). At the conclusion of the review process, the Committee will make recommendations to the FHI Director. The FHI Director will make the appointment in consultation with the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies and the Dean of Humanities.