"Assistant Professor - Dance - Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies"

Position overview

Position title: Assistant Professor - Mary Tu Chancellor's Chair in Dance

Salary range: The current salary range for this position is $80,800-$128,700. (9-month academic year salary). However, off-scale salary and other components of pay, which would yield compensation than is higher than this range, are offered to meet competitive conditions.

Anticipated start: July 1, 2026

Application Window

Open date: June 24, 2025

Next review date: Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date.

Position description

The Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley seeks applications for a full-time tenure-track faculty position in the area of Dance practice, performance, choreography, and scholarship.

The Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) teaches performance as a mode of critical inquiry, innovation, creativity, knowledge production, and public engagement. Within our active experiential learning spaces, our students develop strong analytical and technical capacities. Our graduates are uniquely equipped to bring a just, creative, interconnected, and relational approach to the pressing challenges of our time. We believe that the making and sharing of public performance plays an essential role in a healthy and just society.

We embrace our mission and foreground social justice by striving to: foster a climate of trust and belonging in all of our spaces and activities; embrace collaboration and experimentation as core methodologies for our work; investigate and honor a diversity of historical and cultural perspectives; develop generative, ethical, and reciprocal relationships with surrounding communities by sharing resources, knowledge, and creative opportunities; offer productions that are relevant, meaningful, and accessible to members of the UC Berkeley community and beyond, and engage the arts to build more just and equitable futures.

Duties:

• Responsibilities will include pursuing a professional creative/research agenda;
• teaching courses at the undergraduate, and occasionally the graduate, level in the department's dance technique, choreography, practice, performance, and dance and performance studies curricula;
• directing undergraduate concerts;
• mentoring and advising undergraduate and graduate students; and
• participating in departmental activities and administrative service at college and campus levels.

The department is committed to addressing the family needs of faculty, including dual career couples and single parents. We are also interested in candidates who have had non-traditional career paths or who have taken time off for family reasons, or who have achieved excellence in careers outside academia. For information about potential relocation to Berkeley, or career needs of accompanying partners and spouses, please visit: http://ofew.berkeley.edu/new-faculty

Department: https://tdps.berkeley.edu/

Division: https://artshumanities.berkeley.edu/

Qualifications

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)

BA or BFA (or equivalent international degree).

Additional qualifications (required at time of start)

A minimum of 1 year of college teaching experience, and at least 4 years of professional experience.

Preferred qualifications

Preference will be given to candidates:

• With an MFA or MA (or equivalent international degree); extensive professional experience;
• Who possess a strong track record as a choreographer and movement researcher/practitioner;
• With college teaching experience and an ability to engage in a diverse community with varying disciplines that constitute a rich theoretical and practice curriculum;
• With demonstrated administrative, artistic mentoring, and producing experience;
• Who are working, in part or in full, beyond Euro-American concert dance traditions (namely modern dance or ballet), in areas such as: African/African American, Caribbean, Latine and Latin American, Indigenous, Middle Eastern (MENA/SWANA), South/South East/East Asian, street dance, popular dance, social dance, folk forms, and diasporic practices;
• Who maintain an active creative/research agenda, and who can demonstrate an ability to help build the national and international profile of the department.

Application Requirements

Document requirements

• Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.
• Cover Letter
• Statement of Teaching - Please discuss your prior teaching experience, teaching approach, and future teaching interests. This can include, for example, specific efforts and accomplishments, and future plans to support the success of all students through inclusive curriculum, classroom environment, and pedagogy. Please also discuss your mentoring experiences and approach. This can include, for example, past efforts and future plans to support the success of all students, and to foster an inclusive research environment that removes barriers and promotes equitable access and advancement of the research program.
• Statement on Service - Please assess your capability to collaborate with departmental stakeholders, including other dance faculty, design faculty, and production staff, and your familiarity with design/technical theater processes. Please also assess your ability to engage in a diverse community with varying disciplines that constitute a rich theoretical and practice curriculum
• Sample of Creative Work - I - The applicant must also submit work samples from three different projects. Submission should include two excerpts of 7-10 minutes each in length (unedited - no jump cuts or highlight reels), and one full-length work of any length.
• Sample of Creative Work - II - Candidates should submit a separate document containing stable online links to their work. Candidates are encouraged to use Vimeo or YouTube and include performance credits with 50-75 word descriptions of each.
• Sample syllabi - A sample syllabus for 2 separate proposed courses. (Optional)
• Authorization to Release Information Form - A reference check will be completed only if you are selected as the candidate to whom the hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer. Download, complete, sign, and upload the Authorization to Release Information form

Reference requirements

• 2-3 required (contact information only)
• Letters of recommendation will be required of candidates that advance to serious consideration, and will only be solicited with the approval of the candidate.

Apply link: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04966

Help contact: tdps-search@berkeley.edu

Job location

Berkeley, CA

To apply, visit https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04966