Applications are invited to fill the position of Co-Director – Academic of the Centre for Climate Justice, in the Faculty of Arts at UBC-Vancouver, for a two-year term, with anticipated start date of July 1, 2024. The new Co- Director will work alongside returning Co-Director – Public Engagement Naomi Klein (Associate Professor, Department of Geography) to advance the goals of the Centre for Climate Justice (CCJ) as outlined below. Read more about the Centre’s Mission and Mandate here.
Role of the CCJ Co-Directors
The Co-Directors of the Centre for Climate Justice define and lead the Centre’s research program, community and industry outreach, and knowledge mobilization efforts with support from staff, an executive committee, and core and affiliate faculty. They provide leadership on CCJ strategic planning and implementation, organization building, and development. They ensure institutional longevity and sustainability, including supervising & retaining staff and attracting and stewarding funding.
Co-Directors contribute (where expertise is relevant) to the Centre’s primary aims:
- Addressing disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis on Indigenous, racialized, working class, displaced, and other communities and peoples;
- Connecting climate-related research and policy with frontline communities’ actual experience and knowledge of the climate crisis;
- Connecting, training, and supporting UBC faculty members and students for research in service of community needs;
- Building bridges among qualitative and quantitative approaches to climate research across the humanities, social, health and natural sciences, and engineering;
- Diversifying the expertise and perspectives represented in climate justice theory, policy, and research;
- Connecting often-siloed issue areas (e.g., between climate and housing, or climate and care work), and the researchers and communities organized around them;
- Supporting community-led climate action by facilitating actionable and accountable community-partnered research that addresses pressing issues of climate justice;
- Translating and amplifying the research, needs, and challenges of community partners and climate justice movements into wider policy, political, and economic transformation;
- Enhancing the ability of UBC faculty, staff, and students to collectively support climate justice, through research, collaborations, and advocacy.
Co-Directors work in alignment with the following guiding principles:
- Climate change is the result of colonial and extractive ideologies with racial, gender, and class hierarchies at their core. Climate change is also experienced highly unevenly, with the most severe impacts often falling on those who have least contributed to the crisis. For these reasons, efforts to address climate change have the potential to alleviate or exacerbate existing inequities and injustices, and a climate justice perspective is relevant to climate responses at all scales.
- Perspectives on climate justice vary, and may not always be in agreement. We commit to engaging respectfully and transparently with our research partners to identify shared goals and values, and to forge collaborations based on principles of solidarity and accountability.
- Climate justice requires diverse forms of knowledge and expertise, including many not traditionally represented in the academy.
- Climate justice scholarship must be non-extractive. This requires that community-engaged research be guided by and accountable to community partners, with care taken to cultivate ethical relationships and culturally- appropriate processes of accountability and transparency. Theory and concepts from knowledge traditions that are under-represented in academic scholarship must also be engaged in respectful, culturally- appropriate, and non-extractive ways.
- The Centre for Climate Justice is committed to cultivating right relations with the Indigenous peoples on whose ancestral and unceded lands our work is situated, including the xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and the nsyilxcən speaking Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples. We are committed to the ongoing accountabilities involved in building our respectful, reciprocal relationships with these Nations, and to ensuring that our actions and principles align with Nations’ laws, priorities, and self-determination.
The CCJ Co-Director – Academic, focusing on Research and Operations, has the following specific roles and responsibilities:
Strategic Academic Direction
- Supported by the Executive Committee and guided by the 2024-2029 Strategic Plan, provides strategic academic direction for the Centre
- Advances CCJ’s identified priorities in the areas of research, knowledge sharing, and collaborative learning
- Works with Senior Research Manager to advise and lead implementation of CCJ vision, thematic foci, and research priorities
- Leads engagement with UBC Development offices and higher-level UBC admin regarding organizational development
- Works with Program and Engagement Manager, Senior Research Manager, and Development office to develop fundraising strategy; oversees strategy implementation
- Works with the support of the Senior Research Manager to oversee the submission of large-scale tri-council or other team grants;
- Lead medium- and long-term fundraising and financial planning, supported by CCJ and Dean of Arts’ office staff;
- Provides vision and direction on Centre reporting and communications materials
Governance and Relationships
- Chairs monthly Executive Committee meetings with support of Senior Research Manager and Administrative and Program Assistant; approves meeting agendas outlined by staff
- Communicates regularly with executive committee, core faculty, and affiliate members regarding opportunities and progress within their portfolios
- Leads campus engagement with CCJ affiliates, faculty and students to create buy-in and participation in events, vision, and research projects directly related to priority areas
- Co-leads engagement with Host Nations
- With staff support manages partnerships with other climate justice research units and organizations locally, nationally, and internationally
Operations
- Oversees recruitment and management of staff including development of hiring policies and conducting performance reviews
- Acts as direct supervisor to two full-time staff members – Senior Research Manager and Program & Engagement Manager
- Attends weekly CCJ staff and Co-Director meetings as well as Executive Committee meetings.
- Provides financial oversight for CCJ research and operating funds.
- Receive and review quarterly financial reports from CCJ staff.
- May appoint, subject to Executive Committee approval, thematic research area officers from the Executive Committee and/or CCJ affiliates
- Reports to the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Qualifications for CCJ Co-Director – Academic
The successful candidate for the role of Co-Director – Academic will hold an appointment at the rank of Professor or Associate Professor at UBC Vancouver. Preference will be given to those with appointments in the Faculty of Arts. Qualified candidates will have a strong track record of climate justice research, with priority given to candidates who are active CCJ affiliates; and a track record of university and/or community leadership.
How to apply:
Submit applications by Tuesday, May 14, 2024 via AIR form. Queries may be sent to arts.centreadmin@ubc.ca. Applicants are expected to consult with their unit head(s) to request approval in principle, should they be the successful candidate. An Advisory Committee will consider applications and make a recommendation to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts.
Applications must include:
- A current Curriculum Vitae
- A two- to three-page statement that:
- Provides an overview of your goals and vision for the Centre for Climate Justice and alignment with CCJ’s research, knowledge mobilization, and community engagement goals;
- Describes your leadership experience, including in relation to staff supervision, budget oversight and reporting, and fundraising
- Describes your research program and its relation to one or more of the Centre for Climate Justice’s research streams;
- Outlines your commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as any leadership experience in these areas; in particular, you are asked to provide a statement addressing: (i) past and potential contributions to creating/advancing a culture of equity and inclusion and (ii) past or potential contributions to Indigenous engagement, through teaching, professional activity, and/or service.
UBC is located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ -speaking Musqueam people and is committed to meaningful engagement with Indigenous peoples. UBC embraces equity and diversity as integral to our academic mission. Equity and diversity are essential to academic and creative excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We especially encourage applications from members of groups that have historically been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.
Acknowledgment of Service
The successful candidate may receive the equivalent of one 3-credit course buyout per academic year of their Co-Director term (contingent upon approval of the head of their academic home unit) or an honorarium in lieu of course release, should they already have course releases through other arrangements.
