The endowment supporting the Salish Weave Chair in Salish Art Practices is funded by Christiane and George Smyth who are activist collectors of Salish art, see here: HTTPS://SALISHWEAVE.COM/. This position was created in cooperation between the Smyths and the Faculty of Education with the aim of supporting the resurgence, and ongoing thriving, of Salish art through the enactment of Indigenous art as knowledge practices through an Indigenous knowledge transmission process that is intergenerational and inherently an aspect of enacting Indigenous pedagogies and practices.

We envision this work as grounded in the integrity, revitalization, and resurgence of Indigenous cultures, languages, and knowledge traditions that are resonant with the teachings of the land and cultivate “good hands, strong minds, and strong hearts.” This Chair is expected to uphold and honour the artistic practices and traditions of the Salish peoples as a central tenet of their research and scholarship, and further programming and activities that build upon the Salish Weave collection that is held at SFU.

THE POSITION

In the context of its core value of Indigeneity, the Faculty of Education wishes to cultivate scholarship that honours and embodies the values inherent in Salish Art Practices with a focus on Indigenous knowledges and processes of education through art-making ecologies. For the inaugural Salish Weave Chair in Salish Art Practices we strongly encourage Indigenous scholars with a history and practice of immersion in and engagement with Indigenous art, cultures, and communities to apply. The successful candidate will have a deep understanding of Indigenous inquiry and of the potential of transformation through the enactment of Salish art practices in supporting the resurgence, and continued thriving, of Salish knowledge practices.

The initial term of the Chair will be for a minimum period of 5 years and may be renewed once. The successful candidate will also be appointed as a tenure-track faculty at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education.

To this end, the work envisioned to occur within the tenure of the Chair includes (but is not limited to):

Relationship building and connections

• Building and sustaining reciprocal relationships with local Indigenous communities (e.g., artists, Elders, youth) to support the visioning and enactment of educational and research partnerships that support knowledge mobilization and transmission related to Salish Art practices. Such partnerships would further support those communities’ goals with respect to self-determination, knowledge transmission, and sovereignty.
• Helping the Faculty cultivate and deepen reciprocal recognition and respectful relationships with Indigenous communities and contributing to the strengthening of responsible and relevant relationships and understandings across the Faculty.
• Involving academic colleagues from a diversity of disciplines, along with Indigenous community partners, in developing and sustaining mutually beneficial research collaborations focusing around Salish Art practices, including the Salish Weave collection.
• Communicating academic and community knowledge in ways that contribute to provincial, national, and global dialogues on Indigenous resurgence through Indigenous art practices and pedagogies.
• Participating in the Salish Weave Board.

Research and Scholarly activity

• Deepening the understanding of Indigeneity and Indigenous knowledges, and their implications for educational processes, in ways that contribute to transformative reconciliation and Indigenous resurgence related to Indigenous art practices and pedagogies. 
• Securing a range of external research funding in support of these forms of scholarship.
• Creating places and spaces for dialogue and knowledge sharing across communities, university, and other settings.

Teaching

• Enacting, embodying and exploring Salish art practices grounded in Indigenous knowledges and Indigeneity. 
• Mentoring colleagues, graduate and undergraduate students, and teacher education candidates in Indigenous art practices in respectful, responsible, relevant, and reciprocal partnership with Indigenous knowledge holders, scholars, and communities. Please note, the expectation of graduate supervision occurs post-tenure. 
• Cultivating the capacities in undergraduate and graduate students to make significant contributions to Indigenous art practices, scholarship, programming and activities that enact and empower ongoing Indigenous resurgence. 
• Enacting Indigenous art practices in courses and programs (e.g., undergraduate, graduate, and teacher professional development) across the Faculty of Education.

CANDIDATE REQUIREMENTS

The successful candidate will have demonstrated strength and practice in Indigenous art and knowledges, Indigeneity and Indigenous community engagement as well as a scholarly track record of research excellence. As well, this person will have demonstrated their potential for creating strong community collaborations with Salish artists and communities within the term of their chair to further an innovative and high-quality research program, including the translation, activation and animation of knowledge in dialogue with Indigenous communities and knowledge holders.

Experience

The search committee acknowledges that no single individual is likely to meet all of the following criteria in equal measure; nevertheless, the successful candidate will be expected to demonstrate:

• Strong, respectful, reciprocal relationships and engagement with Indigenous communities.
• An extensive network of colleagues and organizations engaged in collaborative efforts related to Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous art practices. 
• The capacity to build sustainable partnerships and secure external research grant funding.
• Success in working collaboratively with colleagues, students and staff in academic, research, artistic, and community contexts.
• Participation in research collaborations across diverse disciplines and forms of knowledge creation related to Indigenous art practices.
• Contributions to knowledge exchange, integration and mobilization with Indigenous communities, specifically Indigenous art practices.

Interpersonal Skills

• The ability to foster respectful and reciprocal relationships across disciplinary, cultural and community differences, both within academia and with external partners.
• The ability to cultivate a sense of respect, trust, and leadership among research collaborators, community partners, faculty, staff, students, and trainees.
• The ability to communicate Indigenous and academic approaches to reflecting on complex and sensitive issues in ways that promote dialogue, understanding, and the building of consensus within the academy, with Indigenous communities and among wider audiences.

Personal Characteristics

• The highest standards of ethics and integrity according to both academic and Indigenous traditions of right action and ethical relationality. 
• A respectful and open approach informed by Indigenous values and traditions and a commitment to the building and sharing of advanced knowledge in academic and public institutions honouring relational accountability.
• A willingness to think creatively and ability to innovate, including ongoing engagement with a diversity of approaches to knowledge creation.
• Demonstrated vision, resilience and perseverance.

Education

• A PhD in a relevant field. Candidates who are currently close to completing their doctorates are encouraged to apply if their area of scholarship and art practices align with the position.

HOW TO APPLY

Applicants are asked to email separate files (Word or PDF) to educ_appointments@sfu.ca:

a) A signed application letter* that includes a description of the applicant’s scholarly interests and achievements to date, teaching experience, and potential contributions to the faculty in light of the principles of the Salish Weave Chair in Salish Art Practices set out above;

b) A proposed program of research (2-6 pages single spaced), including the following:

• an explanation of how the proposed research is grounded in a particular understanding of Indigenous knowledges and Indigeneity;
• an explanation of how the proposed research responds to the ethical framework outlined in Chapter 9 of the Government of Canada Tri-Council Policy Statement on Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (2014);
• an explanation of how the proposed research aligns with and advances SFU’s 2023-2028 Strategic Research Plan;
• a discussion of how this Chair would strengthen graduate training in the Faculty of Education;

c) A current curriculum vitae;

d) The names of four referees (with contact information); and

e) Four examples of refereed published scholarly work, or other forms of scholarship that reflect originality and high quality.

The Faculty of Education recognizes and values scholarship in the fine and performing arts and its multiple forms of inquiry, research creation and making, including (but not limited to) performances, installations, exhibits and a variety of writing genres such as poetry, novel, creative nonfiction, memoir, and/or other forms that further and promote our understanding of arts scholarship.

If unable to send an application letter with a scanned signature, a signed original should be mailed to:

Chair
Appointments Committee
Faculty of Education
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5A 1S6.

Deadline for applications is November 1, 2023.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Please do not ask referees to send letters of reference; they will be contacted directly as needed.

Faculty salaries at SFU are based on the salary scales bargained between the University and the SFU Faculty Association. A reasonable estimate of the salary range for a tenure-track  faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor is $89,652.00 to $114,866.00. Candidates with experience commensurate with higher ranks may also be considered for appointment at  the associate professor rank. A reasonable estimate of the salary range for a faculty position at the rank of Associate Professor is $112,065.00 to $134,478.00.

Simon Fraser University is an institution whose strength is based on our shared commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity is an underlying principle of our Strategic Vision, which pledges SFU to “foster a culture of inclusion and mutual respect, celebrating the diversity reflected among its students, faculty, staff and our community.” SFU is committed to ensuring no individual is denied access to employment opportunities for reasons unrelated to ability or qualifications. Consistent with this principle, SFU will advance the interests of underrepresented members of the work force, including Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, racialized persons and women; embrace gender and sexual diversity; ensure that equal opportunity is afforded to all who seek employment at the University; and treat all employees equity.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. Under the authority of the University Act, personal information that is required by the University for academic appointment competitions will be collected. For further details see the Collection Notice.

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Located on unceded and traditional Coast Salish territories, including those of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), q̓ic̓əy (Katzie), Kwantlen, qəqəyt (Qayqayt), SEMYOME (Semiahmoo) and sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) Nations, Simon Fraser University has a long history of engaging with Indigenous communities and Indigenous issues. In recent years, prompted in part by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) and later by the Final Report and Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015), this has led to the creation of the Office of Aboriginal Peoples, the Aboriginal Strategic Plan, a university-wide Steering Committee, and the Aboriginal Reconciliation Council. The latter’s report, Walk This Path with Us (2017), identifies a broad range of responsibilities that the University is committed to fulfilling through the ongoing building and deepening of partnership with Indigenous peoples and communities, provincially, nationally and globally.

Implicit in this process is the need for a much more profound and systemic engagement with the implications for Canadian society of Indigenous knowledges, practices, governance and justice models, and approaches to health and well-being. Like other universities across the country, SFU is re-examining its structures, knowledge systems and ways of working in order to create more welcoming and supportive spaces for Indigenous students, faculty and staff, to honour and embody Indigenous knowledges and their implications for governance, and to strengthen and empower Indigenous peoples and communities. These commitments are explicitly stated in SFU’s Strategic Vision.

Simon Fraser University (SFU) is acknowledged as one of Canada’s foremost comprehensive research universities and with a mission to be Canada's most community-engaged research university through innovative education, cutting-edge research and community partnerships. The SFU community includes 35,000 students, 2,700 faculty and staff, and 130,000 alumni; its activities take place across three vibrant campuses in British Columbia's largest municipalities – Vancouver, Burnaby, and Surrey – as well as in many smaller communities throughout British Columbia and in a variety of locations across Canada and around the world.

For further information about SFU, please visit www.sfu.ca.

THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION

The Faculty of Education is an internationally noted centre of research and scholarly inquiry, with a long and extensive history of innovative programming grounded in commitments to improving the practice of teaching and responding to community needs and aspirations. The Faculty is non-departmentalized and has a distinctive presence and array of activities at all three SFU campuses (Burnaby, Surrey, Vancouver), united in a shared commitment to the core values of Equity, Indigeneity and a Culture of Inquiry.

In the Faculty’s current 5-Year Academic Plan, Indigeneity is described as “a set of philosophies and values… central to knowing and understanding the diversities of Indigenous worldviews. These core values are best understood as interconnected relationships and the 4Rs of respecting Indigenous ways of knowing and being: responsible relationships, relevance, invitation to the work, and reciprocity.” It commits the Faculty to working to “understand the complexity and nuances of Aboriginal ways of knowing and being that are directly informed by the lands, histories, cultures, languages, and experiences of being Indigenous,” and to having this developing understanding inform “the work across the Faculty (e.g., learning, teaching, research, service, community engagement, policy and program development, admissions, and other administrative activities).”

The Faculty has a long tradition of working in partnership with communities across British Columbia and elsewhere, including many Indigenous communities. This work takes the form of innovative programs in undergraduate education, initial teacher education and graduate education, co-designed and co-led with community educators and knowledge holders. Indigenous graduates have made substantial contributions to communities and schools, and have played key roles in developing the field of Indigenous educational scholarship in British Columbia and Canada. The Faculty is also currently home to a number of active and well-regarded Indigenous scholars who are involved in a wide range of community partnerships and interdisciplinary and Indigenous research projects.

For further information about the Faculty of Education, please visit www.sfu.ca/education.

For details of the Faculty 5-Year Academic Plan, please visit: http://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/vpacademic/files/vp_academic_docs/pdfs/Education2019-2024.pdf