Assistant Professor (History)

Job Description:

The History Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston seeks applicants for a tenure-track assistant professor in the history of race in Colonial and Revolutionary America, beginning September 1, 2025. Applicants should have an active research agenda, evidence of excellence in teaching, and a Ph.D. in hand in History or a closely related field by August 31, 2025. The History Department has thematic strengths clustered in public history; cultural and social history (including race, class, gender, and sexuality); food and health; imperialism and colonialism; science and medicine; poverty and public policy; and histories of labor, immigration, education, and popular culture. We seek to enhance those strengths with a candidate whose expertise in American racial formations during the 16th-18th centuries will expand and diversify not only our curriculum, but also the research and service of our departmental community.

We are especially interested in applicants trained in the methods and practice of public history, who share our commitment to student success through community-engaged teaching and research in our city and region, and whose interests connect with histories of communities of color, including Indigenous histories, in the Northeast. The position will include teaching undergraduate surveys in early U.S. history (including first contact between Indigenous nations and Europeans, settler colonialism, slavery, and the American Revolution), and upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in the candidate's areas of specialization. We would also hope for the candidate to join the teaching rotation for our graduate and undergraduate courses in public history, show interest in advising public history MA students, and contribute to the development of our undergraduate public history program. Tenure-track professors at UMass Boston teach an effective 2-2 load. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity for a post-tenure editorial affiliation with the New England Quarterly.

Application instructions:

Review of applications will begin October 14, 2024 and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants should submit: (1) a cover letter, (2) curriculum vitae, (3) relevant transcripts, (4) a teaching statement, and (5) three letters of recommendation.

UMass Boston is an urban public research university with a teaching soul, whose impact is both local and global. We are the third most diverse university in the country - more than 60% of our undergraduate students come from minoritized communities and groups and more than half of our students are the first in their families to attend a college or university. Thus, our students come to us from richly diverse life experiences and backgrounds; they bring to our classrooms and research settings the robust range of perspectives growing out of the socio-cultural, economic, and historical contexts in which they have lived, along with the challenges they encounter, engage, and strive to overcome. We invite applications from candidates who engage the diverse life experiences of our student body, who appreciate that students bring their holistic selves into the academic setting, and who recognize and articulate how their own life experiences and backgrounds have shaped their journeys, practices, and commitments as researchers, scholars, and educators.

UMass Boston is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact HRDirect@umb.edu or 617-287-5150.