The Department of Archaeology at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the role of Assistant Professor. We welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the broad field of zooarchaeology from any part of the world and we are particularly eager to hear from applicants capable of directing research on the zooarchaeology of East and South East Asia and Africa.
This post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent research and teaching while allowing you unrivalled opportunities to progress and embed your career in an exciting and progressive institution. For more information, please visit our Department pages at https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/
Durham University
Durham University is one of the world’s top universities, boasting a welcoming and vibrant international community. Durham is an exceptional place in which to base your career. Our strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences see us listed as a top 5 UK and top 100 University (QS World University Rankings 2019) with our students and our world leading academics sitting at the heart of delivering our ground-breaking work. As part of our ambitious strategy we are growing and we look forward to welcoming your application.
Applications are particularly welcome from women and black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in the University. We are committed to equality: if for any reason you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on your career path, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application. The selection committee will recognise that this may have reduced the quantity of your research accordingly.
Assistant Professors at Durham
The University is committed to developing all of our colleagues to achieve their full potential. We promote and maintain an inclusive and supportive environment to ensure that all colleagues can
thrive. Academic colleagues are supported to publish world-class research in their area of interest with a focus on quality in high impact journals, rather than quantity. We will fully support your research needs including practical, help such as resources to attend conferences and to fund research activity, as well as a generous research leave policy and a designated mentor. Sitting alongside world class research; teaching quality and innovation is critical to ensure a first class learning environment and curricula for all of our students. You will be supported to develop your teaching expertise and to engage in teaching innovation to embed our student experience.
All of our Assistant Professors are encouraged to focus on research and teaching but also to engage in wider citizenship to enhance their own development, to support their department and wider discipline, and to contribute to the wider student experience.
We are confident that our recruitment process allows us to attract and select the best international talent to Durham. We therefore offer a reduced probation period of 1 year for our Assistant Professors and thereafter, subject to satisfactory performance, you will be confirmed in post.
Assistant Professor in Zooarchaeology
Applicants must demonstrate research excellence in the field of Zooarchaeology, with the ability to teach our students to an exceptional standard and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University. The University provides a working and teaching environment which is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate these key principles as part of the assessment process.
Key responsibilities:
• Pursue research that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour, commensurate with the Department’s continuing emphasis on international excellence;
• To be developing clear plans for the pursuit of suitable national and international funding opportunities to support research and end-user engagement;
• Play a role in relevant teaching and research supervision, and contribute to ongoing curriculum development;
• Contribute to enhancing the quality of the research environment in the Department, the wider University and beyond through collaborative research activity;
• Demonstrate a willingness to contribute to the administrative work, citizenship and values of the Department;
• Offer lectures, laboratory-based pacticals, seminars and tutorials at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels in both zooarchaeology and wider archaeology, with the opportunity to teach more widely within the Department, as well as engaging in related activity such as assessment;
• Curate, develop, use and enhance accessibility to our internationally-renowned zooarchaeological reference collection;
• To fully engage in and enhance the values of the Department;
• To explore and develop collaborative teaching and research with other Science and Social Science Departments within the University;
• To contribute to attracting and supervising research students, and to enhance the Department’s commitment to its vibrant and international postgraduate culture;
• Carry out such other duties as specified by the Head of Department.
Person Specification
Candidates applying for a grade 7 post will have recently completed or be concluding their PhD and, while they may have limited direct experience of the requirements for the post, they must
outline their experience, skills and achievements to date which demonstrate that they meet or that they have the potential to achieve the essential criteria.
Candidates applying for a grade 8 post must meet all of the essential criteria.
Research
Candidates must have capacity for and be progressing towards the independent development of internationally excellent research that produces high quality outcomes, including some work that is recognised as world class.
Essential Research Criteria – Grade 7
1. Qualifications - a good first degree and a PhD in Archaeological Science or a related subject (which for grade 7 candidates may be completed or under examination).
2. Outputs - experience, skills and/or achievements which demonstrate experience of or the potential to produce high quality outputs, some of which is recognised as world-class. Candidates are asked to submit three research papers with their application (as outlined in the How to Apply section below). Candidates may additionally choose to submit evidence such as external peer review of their outputs.
3. Personal Research Plan - evidence of a personal research plan that supports and enhances the Department of Archaeology’s research strategy.
Essential Research Criteria – Grade 8
1. Qualifications - a good first degree and a PhD in Archaeological Science or a related subject.
2. Outputs - evidence of high quality outputs, some of which is recognised as world-class. Candidates are asked to submit three research papers with their application (as outlined in the How to Apply section below). Candidates may additionally choose to submit evidence such as external peer review of their outputs.
3. Personal Research Plan - evidence of a personal research plan that supports and enhances the Department of Archaeology’s research strategy.
Teaching
Candidates must demonstrate the development and delivery of high quality teaching that contributes to providing a world class learning environment and curricula which enables students to achieve their potential.
Essential Teaching Criteria – Grade 7
1. Qualification - candidates must be or have the ability to attain the rank of Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/individuals/fellowship/fellow), which is the national body that champions teaching excellence.
2. Proven teaching experience in zooarchaeology and wider environmental archaeology.
3. Quality - experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to deliver high quality teaching.
4. Innovation – experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to innovate in the design and delivery of high quality teaching or assessment of learning including lectures, laboratory-based practicals, small group learning and/or using technology or other techniques to enhance learning and/or assessment.
5. Strategic - experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to engage in the design of excellent teaching programmes which are research informed and led.
Essential Teaching Criteria – Grade 8
1. Qualification - candidates must be or have the ability to attain the rank of Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/individuals/fellowship/fellow), which is the national body that champions teaching excellence.
2. Proven teaching experience in zooarchaeology and wider environmental archaeology.
3. Quality - evidence of the development and delivery of high quality teaching.
4. Innovation – evidence of innovation in the design and delivery of high quality teaching or assessment of learning including lectures, laboratory-based practicals, small group learning and/or using technology or other techniques to enhance learning and/or assessment.
5. Strategic - evidence of strategic teaching development - engagement in the design of excellent teaching programmes which are research informed and led.
Services, Citizenship and Values
Candidates must actively engage in the administrative requirements of the Department and positively contribute to fostering a collegial environment; as well as demonstrating their commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
Essential Services, Citizenship and Values criteria – Grade 7
1. Collegial contribution – experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to participate in the collegial/administrative activities or an academic Department, Faculty or University. (Candidates may choose to evidence departmental or University roles, mentoring activity, engagement with widening participation, involvement in equality and diversity initiatives and membership or engagement with external bodies).
2. Leadership - experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to engage in activities that contribute to the administrative functioning of an academic Department, Faculty, University and/or discipline including leadership or responsibilities in an academic context. (Candidates may choose to detail any leadership roles which they have undertaken, preferably in an academic context).
3. Communication - candidates must have excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to engage with a range of students and colleagues across a variety of forums.
Essential Services, Citizenship and Values criteria – Grade 8
1. Collegial contribution – evidence of participation in the collegial/administrative activities of an academic Department, Faculty or University. (Candidates may choose to evidence departmental or University roles, mentoring activity, engagement with widening participation, involvement in equality and diversity initiatives and membership or engagement with external bodies).
2. Leadership - engagement in activities that contribute to the administrative functioning of an academic Department, Faculty, University and/or discipline including leadership or responsibilities in an academic context. (Candidates may choose to detail any leadership roles which they have undertaken, preferably in an academic context).
3. Communication - candidates must have excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to engage with a range of students and colleagues across a variety of forums.
Desirable Criteria – Grade 7
The desirable criteria for this post (for which candidates should provide evidence of some if not all criteria) are:
A. Research Leadership - experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to contribute to the leadership of research groups and the mentoring of early career researchers. (Candidates may choose to include information about research group leadership, mentoring of research colleagues, invitations to external events, engagement with international networks or projects).
B. PhD Supervision – experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to provide excellent supervision for PhD students.
C. Research Impact - experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to evidence research impact beyond their institution.
D. Active management of a field/laboratory zooarchaeological project to answer wider archaeological research questions.
E. Income Generation - experience, skills and/or achievements that demonstrate experience of or the potential to develop successful research project proposals.
Desirable Criteria – Grade 8
The desirable criteria for this post (for which candidates should provide evidence of some if not all criteria) are:
A. Research Leadership - contribution to the leadership of research groups and the mentoring of early career researchers. (Candidates may choose to include information about research group leadership, mentoring of research colleagues, invitations to external events, engagement with international networks or projects).
B. PhD Supervision – involvement in the provision of excellent supervision for PhD students.
C. Research Impact - demonstrable evidence of the impact of the Candidate’s research beyond their institution.
D. Active management of a field/laboratory zooarchaeological project to answer wider archaeological research questions.
E. Income Generation - evidence of engagement in the development of successful research project proposals.
Contact Information
Department contact for academic-related enquiries
Professor Mike Church
m.j.church@durham.ac.uk
Contact information for technical difficulties when submitting your application
If you encounter technical difficulties when using the online application form, we prefer you send enquiries by email. Please send your name along with a brief description of the problem you’re experiencing to academic.recruitment@durham.ac.uk
Alternatively, you may call 0191 260 4420 from the UK, or +44 191 260 4420 from outside the UK. This number operates during the hours of 09.00 and 17.30 Monday to Thursday and 09.00 and 17.00 Friday, UK time. We will normally respond within one working day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays). This service is being provided by our partner, greenbean by NRG who will respond to your technical enquiry.
University contact for general queries about the recruitment process
Natalie McNeil, HR Administrator (Recruitment)
Faculty of Social Science and Health
natalie.r.mcneil@durham.ac.uk
+44 (0) 191 334 6415
How to Apply
We prefer to receive applications online. For this role we are working with our partner organisation greenbean by NRG and your application will initially be submitted to greenbean by NRG via our website.
Please note that in submitting your application, both Durham University and greenbean by NRG (working on behalf of the University) will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.dur.ac.uk/ig/dp/privacy/pnjobapplicants/ and the greenbean by NRG Privacy Statement https://www.nrgplc.com/privacy-and-cookies/ which provide information on the collation, storing and use of data.
What to Submit
All applicants are asked to submit:
1. A CV
2. A covering letter which details your experience, strengths and potential in the requirements set out above;
3. A personal research plan.
4. Three of your most significant pieces of written work, all of which published or submitted since 2014.
Your work should be uploaded as PDFs as part of your application in our recruitment system. Please ensure that your PDFs are not larger than 2mb. Please note that your work may be read by colleagues from across the Department and evaluated against the current REF criteria;
OR
Where possible we request that you provide web links to these which the hiring Department will access to read your work. The application form contains fields in which to enter each of the web links.
In the event you are unable to provide accessible links to online hosting of your work, your work should be uploaded as PDFs as part of your application in our recruitment system. Please ensure that your PDFs are not larger than 2mb. Please note that your work may be read by colleagues from across the Department and evaluated against the current REF criteria;
Please save all application documents with your name and document type as PDF files.
We will notify you on the status of your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to ensure you receive all emails.
Referees
You should provide details of 3 academic referees and the details of your current line manager so that we may seek an employment reference (if they are not listed as an academic referee). Please note:
We shall via greenbean by NRG seek the academic references during the application process. Academic referees should not (if possible) include your PhD supervisor(s) and a majority should be from a University other than your own (save for early career applicants applying for their first post). We would ask that you alert your academic referees to this application as soon as possible, and provide them with a copy of the CV you
submit with your application, so that we can quickly obtain references should you be progressed to the long list stage. As part of your application you will be asked whether you give your consent to your academic references being sought at the longlisting stage.
Academic references sought for long-listed candidates may be made available to the panel during the shortlisting process.
We will seek a reference from your current line-manager if we make you an offer of employment (albeit you may have also nominated your line manager as an academic referee). Please clearly indicate which referee is your current line-manager and please let us know if we should only approach them once an offer has been made.
Next Steps
All applications will be considered; our usual practice is for colleagues across the Department to read the submitted work of long-listed candidates.
Short-listed candidates will be invited to the University and will have the opportunity to meet key members of the Department. The assessment for the post will normally include a presentation to staff and students in the Department followed by an interview and we anticipate that the assessments and interviews will take place over two days in or around the mid to late April 2020
In the event that you are unable to attend in person on the date offered, it may not be possible to offer you an interview on an alternative date.
About the Department
Durham University’s Department of Archaeology is one of the UK’s best Departments of Archaeology with an outstanding reputation for excellence in teaching, research and employability of our students. We are regularly ranked one of the top two Archaeology departments in the UK (e.g. Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014, The Guardian University Guide 2019, Complete University Guide 2019) and one of the top six globally (World University QS rankings 2019).
Our vision is to build upon our strengths as a world-class research department and we are firmly committed to the principles of equality and diversity for all our staff and students. We offer broad thematic, chronological and geographical coverage, with world-class fieldwork projects, scientific expertise and a laboratory and commercial infrastructure to match. We are an outward-looking community – collaborating strategically with a worldwide network of scholars, institutions and heritage agencies, and our archaeological and interdisciplinary research creates demonstrable societal and economic impacts, both in the UK and around the world.
We expect the new Assistant Professor in Zooarchaeology to compliment and expand our existing research: geographically, chronologically, thematically and methodologically. Our expertise covers the Palaeolithic period to the present-day, and from South Asia to the Mediterranean, Europe and the British Isles, and we run fieldwork projects across the world. Our archaeological and interdisciplinary research is helping tackle some of the ‘Global Challenges’ facing the world, such as environmental change and natural disasters, ethnic tensions, migration of people and animals, challenges to health and well-being, social inequalities, misunderstandings of world religions, and damage to the integrity of the world’s heritage in conflict zones.
Archaeological Science represents an existing key strength and Durham’s Bioarchaeology Research Group is world-renowned in terms of both research and teaching. The post-holder will capitalise on our outstanding and world-leading facilities and expertise in environmental
archaeology and related specialisms (e.g. biomolecular analyses: isotopes and aDNA). Working with other colleagues from the Department and externally, the post-holder will deliver high quality and excellent publications, establish a portfolio of grant-funded projects, nurture new PhD students, and collaborate on strengthening the Department of Archaeology’s impact in the fields of zooarchaeology and environmental archaeology.
We seek to appoint an individual with the ambition and vision to build an expansive grant-funded project portfolio and deliver high quality and world-leading research publications afforded by our extensive animal bone reference collection of global reach and reputation. One of the key roles of the post-holder will be to curate, develop, use and enhance accessibility this collection and the new post-holder will pick up and develop our zooarchaeological teaching across our UG and PGT programmes using this collection. They will also take the lead on our BSc Archaeology programme and work with colleagues in the Department and wider University to complement and improve its content and visibility to potential applicants. A key element of their portfolio will be to contribute to the MSc in Bioarchaeology and to design and deliver a new MSc strand/pathway in Zooarchaeology.
We welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the broad field of zooarchaeology from any part of the world and we are particularly eager to hear from applicants capable of directing research on the zooarchaeology of East and South East Asia and Africa. We are also looking to expand and complement our research-led and small group teaching and continue to improve our impressive NSS scores. For further information on our current projects, research and teaching see www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/
About Durham University
As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career while enjoying a high quality work/life balance. We are home to some of the most talented scholars and researchers from around the world who are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.
The University sits in a beautiful historic city where it shares ownership of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Durham Cathedral. A collegiate University, Durham recruits outstanding students from across the world and offers an unmatched wider student experience.
Less than 3 hours north of London, and an hour and a half south of Edinburgh, County Durham is a region steeped in history and natural beauty. The Durham Dales, including the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, are home to breathtaking scenery and attractions. Durham offers an excellent choice of city, suburban and rural residential locations. The University provides a range of benefits including pension and childcare provision and the University’s Relocation Manager can assist with potential schooling requirements.
If you’d like to find out more about the University or relocating you and your family to Durham, please visit https://www.dur.ac.uk/jobs/recruitment/